Welcome to the World of Office Furniture Business

The office furniture industry is ever-evolving. As the nature of work evolves, so does the demand for functional, modern, and ergonomic office furniture. Businesses are more interested than ever in creating comfortable, productive workspaces that reflect their brand’s values and foster a positive company culture.

With this in mind, Interior Avenue offers an attractive business proposition for ambitious individuals like you. By starting your own office furniture business, you’ll not only be stepping into a thriving industry but will also be helping other businesses to enhance their workplaces and increase productivity.

Interior Avenue: Your Trusted Partner

Interior Avenue, an established industry player, presents an incredible opportunity to launch your office furniture business in Central California. They’ve made a name for themselves by offering expertly-curated office furniture and design solutions. Their dedication to providing personalized, customer-centric services sets them apart from other industry players.

They have a well-defined system that can guide you on your path to starting your own business. This system comes with a comprehensive training program, ongoing support, a set business model, marketing guidance, and access to their high-quality product range. Interior Avenue, with their extensive industry knowledge and robust support structure, could be your launchpad to a successful entrepreneurial journey.

Capitalizing on the Central California Market

Why Central California? This region offers an untapped opportunity for those who aspire to start their office furniture business. It’s characterized by diverse industries, ranging from agriculture and manufacturing to technology and entertainment. Each of these industries requires functional, well-designed workspaces to keep their operations running smoothly, thus creating a steady demand for office furniture.
With its expanding industries and increasing workforce, Central California represents an ideal location for launching your office furniture business. Partnering with Interior Avenue can help you tap into this market effectively and efficiently.

The Advantage of a Proven Business Model

Interior Avenue’s business model is designed to guide partners in setting up and running their office furniture businesses. By relying on a proven model, you can navigate the industry’s challenges more easily and ensure a smooth start to your entrepreneurial journey.
The model covers a range of aspects from sourcing, marketing, sales, delivery, and installation to after-sales services. It is designed to guarantee not only your success but also that of the businesses you serve.

Comprehensive Training and Ongoing Support

Learning the ropes of a new industry can be daunting, but Interior Avenue offers a comprehensive training program. This program will equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to operate your office furniture business successfully.
The training covers various aspects, including product knowledge, customer service, sales techniques, marketing strategies, and operations management. This holistic training approach ensures you’re well-prepared to handle every aspect of your business.
Interior Avenue doesn’t stop at training. They also offer ongoing support in terms of mentoring, marketing, product updates, and customer service. This continuous assistance will enable you to adapt to market changes and sustain your business in the long run.

A Wide Range of High-Quality Products

Another advantage of partnering with Interior Avenue is the access to their wide range of high-quality office furniture products. Their catalog includes everything from ergonomic chairs and desks to office decor and space-saving solutions.
By providing your customers with such a diverse product range, you can cater to various office setup needs and preferences. This not only improves your customer service but also strengthens your competitive edge in the market.

Start Your Journey with Interior Avenue Today

The road to entrepreneurship can be challenging, but with the right partner, it becomes a fulfilling journey. Interior Avenue provides aspiring entrepreneurs with an opportunity to enter the thriving office furniture industry and make a difference in Central California’s business landscape.

Starting an office furniture business with Interior Avenue isn’t just about carving out a profitable career path for yourself. It’s also about making a tangible impact on the workplaces in your community and helping businesses thrive.

Don’t wait! Seize this career opportunity with Interior Avenue. It could be your first step toward a prosperous and rewarding career in Central California’s office furniture industry.

Central California Career Opportunity: Launching an Office Furniture Business with Interior Avenue

About Interior Avenue

Interior Avenue has carved its niche in the commercial furniture industry with its innovative approach and commitment to excellence. They believe in creating spaces that inspire creativity and productivity, reflecting the unique character of each business they serve. With a comprehensive range of modern, stylish, and functional furniture, they have built a reputable brand, recognized for its quality and innovation.

Why Choose Interior Avenue?

Comprehensive Support

Embarking on an entrepreneurial journey can be overwhelming, especially if you are a first-time business owner. With Interior Avenue’s program, you will receive full training, marketing support, and the benefit of an established business model. Their comprehensive support is designed to ensure a smooth transition into your new venture, reducing potential barriers and increasing your chance of success.

Brand Recognition

As an established name in the commercial furniture industry, becoming a partner with Interior Avenue allows you to leverage its brand image and credibility. This not only helps you attract an extensive client base that values quality and innovation but also lends credibility to your business from day one.

Innovative Products

Being part of the Interior Avenue family means access to their wide range of innovative products. This includes commercial furniture that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also functional, promoting productivity and well-being in the workplace.

The Lucrative San Diego Market

San Diego, known for its thriving business landscape, is the ideal location to establish your Interior Avenue business. With a diverse and booming local economy, San Diego offers a ripe market for commercial furniture, ensuring sustainability and growth for your business.

The Path to Independence

Starting a business with Interior Avenue doesn’t just provide a means to financial success; it also opens up a path to independence. You’ll have the chance to make key decisions, lead a team, and shape the direction of your venture. It’s an opportunity to put your skills to the test and create something truly yours, all the while knowing you have the backing of an established brand.

What Sets Interior Avenue Apart?

Quality

At Interior Avenue, quality is not just a buzzword, it’s the cornerstone of their operations. The company sources its furniture from reputable manufacturers, ensuring that every product meets high-quality standards.

Creativity

Creativity is at the heart of Interior Avenue. They strive to offer creative furniture solutions that cater to the unique needs of businesses, transforming commercial spaces into environments that foster innovation and productivity.

Customer Service

Excellent customer service is a core value at Interior Avenue. Their professional team is committed to providing personalized service, working closely with clients to understand their needs and deliver tailor-made furniture solutions.
Low Investment
Starting a business can be expensive but not when you partner with Interior Avenue. There is no need for a big cash infusion or having to store and stock inventory.

Conclusion

In an age where business opportunities are plentiful, it’s essential to choose one that not only promises returns but also aligns with your interests and passions. With Interior Avenue, you don’t just open a furniture store; you become a part of a mission to transform workspaces and impact productivity and wellness positively.

Interior Avenue presents an unparalleled opportunity to leverage a reputable brand in the thriving San Diego market. If you dream of independence and financial freedom, look no further. Visit their website today for more information and take your first step towards a successful entrepreneurial future. Embrace this lucrative business venture in the heart of California and shape your future with confidence. With Interior Avenue, your business dream is not just a possibility, it’s a probability.

Want to Start a Business? A Lucrative Business Opportunity in San Diego, CA

The Evolving Office Furniture Industry

In the digital era, the way we work is continually evolving. Businesses are shifting towards more flexible, comfortable, and ergonomically sound work environments. As a result, the demand for well-designed office furniture is experiencing exponential growth.
However, starting a business in this industry might seem daunting due to the perceived high costs and operational challenges. But what if you could kick-start your office furniture business at a low initial cost? Interior Avenue makes this possible.

Interior Avenue: Your Pathway to Entrepreneurship

Interior Avenue stands out in the office furniture industry with its distinct customer-centric approach and extensive range of high-quality products. They specialize in providing modern, ergonomic, and stylish office furniture solutions that cater to various business needs.
But their offerings extend beyond product sales. Interior Avenue presents a unique entrepreneurship opportunity where they help you launch your own low-cost office furniture business. Their model comes with a robust system that provides comprehensive training, ongoing support, and access to a wide array of top-quality office furniture products. This unparalleled support makes them an ideal partner for your entrepreneurial journey.

Low-Cost Start-Up: Breaking Down Barriers to Entry

High start-up costs are often a significant barrier to entrepreneurship. Interior Avenue aims to break down this barrier by offering a low-cost start-up opportunity in the thriving office furniture industry.

This low-cost start-up model eliminates the need for heavy upfront investment, making entrepreneurship accessible for aspiring business owners. With a lower financial risk and the potential for high returns, it provides an ideal platform to start your entrepreneurial journey.

Capitalizing on a Proven Business Model

As a new entrepreneur, navigating the dynamics of a new industry can be challenging. But with Interior Avenue’s proven business model, you get a roadmap to success. This model covers all critical aspects, from product sourcing, marketing, sales, delivery, and installation to after-sales services. This holistic approach ensures that you’re well-equipped to manage and grow your business effectively.

Comprehensive Training and Unwavering Support

While the low initial cost is appealing, the real value lies in the training and support offered by Interior Avenue. They provide comprehensive training to help you understand the industry, product range, sales techniques, and marketing strategies. This knowledge empowers you to run your business with confidence and competence.

In addition, Interior Avenue’s commitment doesn’t end with training. They offer ongoing support to help you navigate any challenges you encounter, adapt to market changes, and keep your business thriving.

Access to a Wide Range of Quality Products

As part of the Interior Avenue network, you gain access to an extensive range of high-quality office furniture products. This access ensures that you can cater to a diverse set of customer needs and preferences, enhancing your competitive advantage in the market.

From ergonomic chairs and desks to office decor and innovative space-saving solutions, the diverse product range enables you to provide comprehensive office setup solutions to your clients.

The Impact of Your Low-Cost Start-Up

Starting an office furniture business with Interior Avenue doesn’t just set you on a potentially lucrative career path; it also allows you to make a tangible impact in your community. By providing businesses with quality furniture solutions, you contribute to creating comfortable, productive work environments that promote well-being and efficiency.

Embrace the Interior Avenue Opportunity

Embarking on the entrepreneurship journey can be a complex task. However, with Interior Avenue’s low-cost start-up opportunity, it becomes an exciting and fulfilling venture.

By aligning yourself with Interior Avenue, you not only gain a strong foothold in the office furniture industry but also become a part of a network that values success, innovation, and customer satisfaction.

Are you ready to redefine entrepreneurship and create a meaningful impact in the office furniture landscape? Leverage the opportunity presented by Interior Avenue and start your entrepreneurial journey today.

Career Opportunity: Own Your Own Low-Cost Office Furniture Business Start-Up

Millennials and Gen Z employees form a large part of the workforce today, and these employees look beyond just the salary when they make their decision about whether or not to accept a job offer. Candidates are becoming increasingly savvy to the design elements and their benefits, or drawbacks, with the physical workspace and the wellness of the work environment. New research points out that office design doesn’t just affect recruitment, it can even cause candidates to reject an offer if the space is particularly uninspiring.

Office Furniture

Tempe, AZ

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The research and the groundwork

According to one study, 81% of job hunters say that the office design and workplace environment are important factors that help them decide whether they would work in that company. Of the candidates that have been offered jobs at companies with uninspiring office designs, 43 percent rejected the offer because of the office environment. This is a tricky situation as employers are looking for every possible edge to help them attract and keep the best people. Every time you make offers to talented individuals, only 60 percent of them will accept. This is not a fruitful scenario. A study found that additional physical amenities is the top influencer in their decision. These are the amenities that benefit primarily employees, such as in-house gyms, car parking, or childcare services.

To figure out which physical amenities your employees and candidates most prefer, direct communication is the best bet.  You can ask them directly, or you can create and distribute a short survey about workspace preferences. Once you’ve enough data, review the results and identify common preferences. This will help you determine which new amenities will help you attract and retain the employees you want most.

It turns out that a well-designed workspace is an important tool to attract and keep the employees your business needs.

Project Roadmap

Office Furniture

Tempe, AZ

Workplace design elements and strategies to look for

To help your organization recruit and retain top talent, we’re looking at office design elements and workplace strategies that can help you master that first impression, and create a positive working environment to maintain the satisfaction of the employees.

Use of natural and spatial assets

If you have the facility of having a prime location with natural beauty or stunning views, take advantage of it to create an attractive environment. Use glass walls on this side of the office, and glass-walled partitions in the interiors as well, so as to create minimum visual interruptions through space. Transparent glass also lets in natural sunlight deep within the office, rather than just at the peripheral areas. The layout within the office can be designed to ensure that a maximum number of people can enjoy the stunning view at once. As well as creating a positive first impression, natural light also provides long-term health benefits for employees, which can help with employee retention.

Balancing private and open spaces

It’s important to create a variety of different workspaces, catering to different working styles and needs of the workers. For example, if your office is an open-plan area to encourage collaboration and communication, it’s also important to add closed, private workspaces such as pods or booths for individual working, as well as closed meeting rooms, so teams can run extended meetings without disturbing the rest of their colleagues.

Tempe, AZ

Office Furniture

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Designing for everyone

Individuals from each of the four generations that comprise today’s workforce – baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, and the Gen Z. Workspace needs and expectations change across generations and the office should be able to suffice them all. Senior-level executives may work best in a semi-private space that allows for immersive focus and minimal distractions, while others may feel more inclined to work in an open workspace. Younger workers, especially, want unconventional and flexible spaces, rather than being stuck in cubicles for the whole day.

Brand and Culture

Great spaces speak for themselves. Nothing communicates your company culture more clearly than your office space. Branded spaces indicate success, which improves employee recruitment and retention efforts (not to mention client perceptions). When you present a well-designed workplace to the world, it sends a message. It communicates in a sort of visual identity and reveals your company’s processes, priorities, and personality. Having the right space can become a powerful attractor for quality candidates.

Resimercial design elements

The new idea is making the office inviting and familial and making it more like home.  Resimercial design includes everything from couches and lounge chairs to indoor plants and Oriental rugs — anything to help your employees feel cozy and comfortable. In addition to making workers feel more at home, one of the major benefits of these resimercial spaces is the increased opportunity to socialize with one another.

Office Furniture

Tempe, AZ

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Employees as brand ambassadors

Companies redesign to improve overall productivity, efficiency, and employee engagement. Employees who feel connected to their workplaces are more engaged and happy.  Happy employees sharing pictures and videos of your office and culture spark interest and attract attention. Genuine happy employees will indirectly promote your brand and will be interested to refer to more talented people. It’s all part of the chain reactions that you trigger once you design a smart workplace.

The Takeaway

Companies are adapting to the changing nature of work by refocusing on a workplace that offers balance, variety, and a sense of purpose. Placing existing and prospective employees at the center of the workplace design lifecycle improves productivity, creativity, and wellness. If you’ve already invested in great workplace design, make sure you’re maximizing the benefits of this powerful recruitment tool. If you planning for a redesign, then create a space that the employees want to be in. When your office is a nice place to be, your employees feel happy about returning to work the next day.

Companies can respond to these demands by transforming their workplaces. A well-designed office that considers both utility and aesthetics may significantly improve employee satisfaction. Enhancing a positive workplace environment and encouraging creativity means higher productivity. The office space and work culture of every company say volumes about its brand value.

Office Furniture

Gilbert, AZ

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Here are 5 ideas to improve the workplace experience and the impact it has on people and business.

High trust culture

The brand and goals of a business are brought together through an all-inclusive multicultural and dynamic work culture. An office is no longer only a location for employees to work and complete duties; it’s also a social atmosphere that pulls people together to work on amazing projects. Workplace experience and corporate culture are mutually dependent. Employees are more likely to not only stay with a ‘caring’ organization but also to grow with it. The amalgamation of experience with office settings and culture is the key to employee satisfaction.

The touch and feel of the space

There is nothing more experiential than a thoughtfully designed human-centric workplace. In an open plan layout, the right design and furnishings may encourage employee interactions, collaborations, and a sense of community. Ergonomic furniture, lighting, décor, biophilia, temperature, and air quality all contribute to employee wellbeing and satisfaction. An office design with functionality and aesthetics in mind can go a long way in elevating employee experience. Office as a physical space should never be rigid or constant… it should always be ready to be optimized, adjusted, and updated as things move forward.

Office Furniture

Gilbert, AZ

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Creativity at work

Progress through preparation, incubation, illumination, and execution are the four stages of creativity. Allowing employees to engage in concentrated play makes the stages of incubation and illumination go more efficiently. Dedicating flexible spaces for brainstorming and ideation, and encouraging employees to take risks can lead to creativity and innovation. Apple, for example, permits employees to tinker with their products to stimulate creativity. Apple’s employees conduct workplace experiments with new hardware and software in order to enhance the product’s design and functionality before releasing it to the public.

Employee engagement

According to research, over 75% of businesses are coping with disengaged workers. Modern firms are anxious to retain talent and promote employee engagement in this era of the “Great Resignation.” Employers must push the envelope in terms of well-being, engagement, inclusivity, and communication strategies. Employees are more engaged when they feel well-cared for. Employees having high wellness practices and organizational support report higher intent to stay.

Office Furniture

Gilbert, AZ

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Rewarding positivity  

In an office, rewards create favorable attitudes. Rewarding and recognizing employees may go a long way toward fostering a positive and joyful work environment. Some employees are motivated by monetary incentives and bonuses, while others want meaningful work, a culture of feedback, challenging work, and a trustworthy work environment. Extra vacation time, mental health days, and employee allowances, among other things, can also improve the work experience.

Do you want to elevate your workplace experience?

Reach out today for a Proejct Roadmap

When we discuss office design, the most common topics include engagement, productivity, and collaboration. More and more workplaces are gravitating towards flexible and creative designs. The rising popularity of smart workplaces has brought the importance and benefits of engaging and culture and empowerment of employees.

But, one question remains. Is your office designed for inclusivity? Does the office work for everyone and take account of the differing needs of your workforce and create a space that’s accessible for everyone?

Inclusion in the workforce is a hot topic right now that goes beyond hiring a diverse team. Diversity and inclusion are often more closely associated with HR practices and company policies. But now, there is a growing awareness of the impact office design can have on fostering an inclusive workplace.

Office Furniture

Scottsdale, AZ

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What is inclusive office design?

An inclusive workspace should provide equal access and opportunities regardless of variables such as age, gender, race, physical ability, and mental health. The one that values individual differences in the workforce, and makes them feel welcome and accepted.

The concept is known as “universal design”. It was originally coined by Ronald L. Mace, an architect, product designer, and educator, and further developed into seven principles of universal design formulated in 1997 by an N.C. State committee, led by Mace.

• Equitable use
• Flexibility in use
• Simple and intuitive use
• Perceptible information
• Tolerance for error
• Low physical effort
• Size and space for approach and use

Since then, the idea has evolved. Designing an inclusive environment is not about focusing on physical differences alone; rather there has to be an equal emphasis on different styles of working as well as on mental health.

It also should be noted that it is impossible to design something that is a perfect fit for the entire population, but inclusive design researches the target market and provides an appropriate response to address the diversity in this target population.

Acoustics

Scottsdale, AZ

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Features of inclusive office design

In this blog, we will discuss ideas and steps to help you in creating an engaging and inclusive office design that’s tailored to suit employees’ personalities and needs.

Open plan
Open-plan offices help to boost collaboration, build relationships and save on costs. A lack of doors and more open spaces mean that moving through the office is far easier for wheelchair users and those with limited mobility. There should be enough space around desks and in meeting rooms so wheelchair users have enough space to move freely.

Closed fist rule
Storage units and other equipment with U-shaped handles, push latches, side-hinged doors, and other elements that can be operated with a closed fist. Provide lever handles instead of doorknobs, or install doors that can be opened with an elbow that make entering and exiting easy for people.

Versatile and flexible layout
Open-plan offices may not work for everyone, therefore it’s important to cater to individual needs, and provide a flexible layout with different types of workstations to meet employees’ unique working styles… A layout that encompasses private rooms and collaborative areas alongside breakout spaces. Think large walkways and ramp access to ensure that everyone can move around the office freely whenever they may need to.

Moss Walls

Scottsdale, AZ

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Person-centric
People should be the heart of any inclusive design plan. Let the employees have their say in the design. Whether it is the renovation of the entire office or a specific space inside the office, talk to the employees to understand what works best for them.

To get the best from your team, create a safe and open environment where everyone feels comfortable to have their say. As unique individuals, we all have styles and needs that inclusive design should ideally support.

Create communal areas
Offices are not just places of work but also, for interaction, engagement, and bonding. This is definitely a good reason to incorporate a welcoming communal area where employees can relax and be with each other. These spaces create good social morale between workers – leaving them feeling valued and included in the office environment.

Ergonomic agile workspaces
The aim is to create workspaces that are easily adaptable. Height adjustable desks are a great option, as they can be easily changed to accommodate all needs. Ergonomic chairs will be comfortable for everybody and will make moving in and out easier. Invest in nearby storage for all employees, and ergonomic keyboard and computer support.

Office Furniture

Scottsdale, AZ

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A few more tips and ideas for an Inclusive Office Design

• Include plenty of natural light and biophilic elements to reduce stress levels
• Implement acoustic solutions where noise distraction could be an issue
• Consider implementing gender-neutral toilets
• Include ramps instead of — or in addition to — stairs.
• Smart technologies and apps that can help staff adjust lighting and heating as per their own personal preferences
• Textural and different colored walls and surfaces for the visually impaired

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Truth About Open Offices and the Drawbacks

It’s never been easier for workers to collaborate—or so it seems. Open, flexible, activity-based spaces are displacing cubicles, making people more visible. Messaging is displacing phone calls, making people more accessible. Enterprise social media such as Slack and Microsoft Teams are displacing watercooler conversations, making people more connected. Virtual-meeting software such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Webex is displacing in-person meetings, making people ever-present. The architecture of collaboration has not changed so quickly since technological advances in lighting and ventilation made tall office buildings feasible, and one could argue that it has never before been so efficient. Designing workplaces for interaction between two or more individuals—or collaboration, from the Latin collaborare, meaning to work together—has never seemed so easy.

But as the physical and technological structures for omnichannel collaboration have spread, evidence suggests they are producing behaviors at odds with designers’ expectations and business managers’ desires. In a number of workplaces we have observed for research projects or consulting assignments, those structures have produced less interaction—or less meaningful interaction—not more.

In this article, we discuss those unintended consequences and provide guidance on conducting experiments to uncover how your employees really interact. That will help you equip them with the spaces and technologies that best support their needs.

The Architecture and the Anatomy of Collaboration
Workers are surrounded by a physical architecture: individual offices, cubicles, or open seating; a single floor, multiple floors, or multiple buildings; a dedicated space for the organization, a space shared with other companies, or a home office. That physical architecture is paired with a digital architecture: email, enterprise social media, mobile messaging, and so forth.

But although knowledge workers are influenced by this architecture, they decide, individually and collectively, when to interact. Even in open spaces with colleagues in close proximity, people who want to eschew interactions have an amazing capacity to do so. They avoid eye contact, discover an immediate need to use the bathroom or take a walk, or become so engrossed in their tasks that they are selectively deaf (perhaps with the help of headphones). Ironically, the proliferation of ways to interact makes it easier not to respond: For example, workers can simply ignore a digital message.

When employees do want to interact, they choose the channel: face-to-face, video conference, phone, social media, email, messaging, and so on. Someone initiating an exchange decides how long it should last and whether it should be synchronous (a meeting or a huddle) or asynchronous (a message or a post). The recipient of, say, an email, a Slack message, or a text decides whether to respond immediately, down the road, or never. These individual behaviors together make up an anatomy of collaboration similar to an anthill or a beehive. It is generated organically as people work and is shaped by the beliefs, assumptions, values, and ways of thinking that define the organization’s culture.

Architecture is easy to observe—you just look at blueprints, models, technology, or the space around you. Until recently the anatomy of collaboration was hard to observe. But technology has made it possible to detect and analyze the flows of communication.

Sensors are all the rage. Sensors in chairs measure how long workers are at their desks. Sensors in the floor measure when and how they move. Sensors in RFID badges and smartphones track where they go. Sensors (in the form of video cameras) track whom they are with. Panasonic has added WiFi sensors to lighting systems, which can monitor face-to-face interactions across entire buildings and workplaces.

When the firms switched to open offices, face-to-face interactions fell by 70%.

Another way to detect interactions is by collecting the digital “breadcrumbs” people leave when they book a meeting, send an email, open a browser window, post on Slack or Teams, or make a call, thanks to systems designed to save communication metadata. Increasingly, employers can use advanced analytics tools to study that data to understand employees’ collective behaviors. Algorithms that assess workers’ movements and interactions can learn to distinguish collaboration from mere copresence. Ones that analyze workers’ past behaviors can learn to predict their next moves, individually and collectively, and estimate the probability of a valuable collision between people.

These advances have allowed us to confirm something many people have suspected: Collaboration’s architecture and anatomy are not lining up. Using advanced wearables and capturing data on all electronic interactions, we—along with Stephen Turban, one of Ethan’s former students, who is currently at Fulbright University Vietnam—tracked face-to-face and digital interactions at the headquarters of two Fortune 500 firms before and after the companies transitioned from cubicles to open offices. We chose the most representative workplaces we could find; we waited until people had settled into their new spaces to track their postmove interactions; and, for accuracy, we varied the length of time over which we tracked them. With the first company, we collected data for three weeks before the redesign, starting one month prior, and for three weeks roughly two months after it. With the second, we collected data for eight weeks before the redesign, starting three months prior, and for eight weeks roughly two months after it. We aligned our data-collection periods with seasonal business cycles for apples-to-apples comparisons—for example, we collected data during the same weeks of the quarter. We found that face-to-face interactions dropped by roughly 70% after the firms transitioned to open offices, while electronic interactions increased to compensate.

Why did that happen? The work of the 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot suggests an answer. He wrote that performers should “imagine a huge wall across the front of the stage, separating you from the audience, and behave exactly as if the curtain had never risen.” He called this the fourth wall. It prevents actors from being distracted by the audience and allows them to divorce themselves from what they cannot control (the audience) and focus only on what they can (the scene), much as a basketball player shoots the ball without really seeing the cheering (or booing) fans behind the hoop. It creates the intimacy of what some call public solitude. The larger the audience, the more important the fourth wall.

People in open offices create the fourth wall, and their colleagues come to respect it. If someone is working intently, people don’t interrupt her. If someone starts a conversation and a colleague shoots him a look of annoyance, he won’t do it again. Especially in open spaces, fourth-wall norms spread quickly.

Proximity Matters
A separate finding of our and others’ research is that team members’ location has a big impact on both their physical and their digital interactions. In general, the farther apart people are, the less they communicate. Research that one of us (Ben) was involved in at the MIT Media Lab shows that the probability that any two people on a corporate campus will interact physically or digitally is directly proportional to the distance between their desks. More broadly, one of the most robust findings in sociology—proposed long before we had the technology to prove it through data—is that propinquity, or proximity, predicts social interaction.

Consider a study conducted at the headquarters of a major consumer products company by Humanyze, an organizational analytics software firm headed by one of us (Ben) that helps companies understand how their teams interact. It found that people on the same team were six times as likely to interact if they were on the same floor, and people on different teams were nine times as likely to interact if they were on the same floor. A study we conducted at the main campus of a Fortune 500 retailer with more than a dozen buildings showed that just 10% of all communications occurred between employees whose desks were more than 500 meters apart. These findings suggest that locating people in proximate buildings won’t improve collaboration; to increase interactions, workers should be in the same building, ideally on the same floor.

And remote work, while undeniably cost-effective, tends to significantly inhibit collaboration even over digital channels. While studying a major technology company from 2008 to 2012, we found that remote workers communicated nearly 80% less about their assignments than colocated team members did; in 17% of projects they didn’t communicate at all. The obvious implication: If team members need to interact to achieve project milestones on time, you don’t want them working remotely.

Nourish an Anatomy of Collaboration
Since publishing academic articles on the offices we’ve studied, we have been asked for more details about those spaces. Some people seem to believe that a better blueprint could solve the collaboration conundrum. Architects, property managers, and manufacturers of office systems reinforce that view by using data from employee surveys and prior space utilization to identify individual needs and building “flexible,” “agile,” “activity based” spaces to allow workers to craft their own spaces to suit them. But collaboration is a team sport. Offices that are overly focused on supporting individual preferences are unlikely to do an optimal job of supporting the overall team or the collection of teams that need to work together. So hybrid open-office designs are not a panacea. If you are going to let people choose the spaces that best meet their individual needs, your workers might as well be remote.

Leaders need to make the call about what collective behaviors should be encouraged or discouraged and how. Their means should include not just the design of workspace configurations and technologies but the design of tasks, roles, and culture as well.

If keeping real estate costs in check is the priority, leaders should be honest about that with themselves and their employees. Most office redesigns aren’t undertaken to promote collaboration. They start with objectives like the one described by the head of real estate at a Fortune 50 company: “The leadership team has just given me a mandate to restack our headquarters to fit another 1,000 employees in here.” Tremendous progress has been made designing offices that can accommodate more people in a given space. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: Companies often reinvest the resulting savings in important ways.

A Return to Tight Quarters
During much of the 1990s, organizations hired employees faster than they expanded their offices. With layoffs in the early 2000s recession, and again in 2008, surviving workers regained some space, largely because companies held long-term leases and were loath to invest in office reconfigurations. But as hiring rebounded, leases came due, and redesign budgets recovered, organizations again began fitting their people into smaller and smaller spaces.

If the aim really is to boost collaboration, you need to increase the right kinds of interactions and decrease ineffective ones. You’ll have to carefully choose your trade-offs. That means you need to understand current patterns of interaction and consider how you want to change them. Using sensors and digital data to track interactions at a large German bank, MIT researchers found that in cases where intrateam cohesion was more predictive of productivity and worker satisfaction than cross-team collisions were, increasing interactions between teams undermined performance. So they moved teams into separate rooms. And after using Humanyze technology to track interactions, a major energy company decided to increase communication between departments that had strong process dependencies and reduce communication between other departments by colocating some in a new building and moving others offsite.

If people need uninterrupted time to focus, distractions are costly. When that’s the case, creating more opportunities for collaboration can amplify the cost without providing a corresponding benefit.

Conduct Real Experiments
The best way to find the optimal workplace design for particular groups is to run rigorous experiments. That means collecting and analyzing data on interactions, developing a hypothesis about how to improve them, and testing your hypothesis against a control group. Mori Building, one of the largest property management companies in Japan, did this in early 2016 when it sought to create more-productive collaboration among the teams in its corporate headquarters. The office architecture was open, but by using wearable sensors (some of which were supplied by Humanyze) to track face-to-face interactions, Mori discovered that employees largely communicated only with those on their own team. People generally stayed in their team’s reserved seating area and rarely ventured into the open seating areas—which accounted for some 20% of the space.

So Mori’s building-environment-development division staged an experiment to see whether it could influence anatomy with architecture. It chose a corporate floor on which seating was arranged by team (interior design, real estate consulting, sales, and so on). Part of the space remained the same (the control group), and part was turned into “free address” space—open seating, with no desk assignments. When Mori measured face-to-face interactions in that configuration, the results were clear: Although interactions between teams increased, those within teams fell drastically, with people spending 1.26 times as much of their day working in isolation.

Mori was initially pleased with the results. The rise in cross-team interactions meant that people were going directly to others to resolve issues and get things done—bypassing managers, whom the data had revealed to be “communication bottlenecks.” And although this was an unintended consequence, the reason people spent more time on solo work was that meetings lasting 30 minutes or longer diminished (people just found one another when they needed to talk). But there was a dark side: It turned out that managers were not only communication bottlenecks but also gatekeepers of quality. In bypassing them, workers caused problems downstream; within six months, productivity had dropped and client complaints had risen. And although the reduction in meeting time seemed beneficial, in retrospect it seemed that those who gained more solo work time would have produced better work, more efficiently, if they had attended more meetings to receive guidance, while employees who had relied on meetings to ensure an orderly way of dealing with issues now felt burdened by people coming to them on a whim (until they began hiding out in the coffee shop downstairs). In the end, Mori went back to fixed seating by team and reduced the amount of open space.

By conducting similar experiments, a major software company discovered that 90% of face-to-face interactions took place at people’s desks. Just 3% occurred in common areas (the rest took place in meeting rooms). The company had been planning to move to free-address seating to increase interactions among teams, but it realized that would be highly disruptive to collaboration and abandoned the plan.

Such experiments require time and money, but many organizations find the costs trivial in view of the benefits generated by what they learn. Obviously, it pays to experiment with designs if a company is intending an overhaul to its space like the one GlaxoSmithKline (a Humanyze client) is planning at its corporate headquarters in London. Executives were considering a new office format and decided to build one small portion of it as a pilot, which they call their workplace performance hub. The firm invited academic partners in architecture and behavioral science to help design experiments in the space. It will soon have rotated two teams through the pilot space—one did so during the first nine months of 2019, and a second is being planned as we write this—tracking (relative to a control group) measurements that include steps, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, lung function, posture, well-being, collaboration, and performance (using everything from wearable devices and Kinect sensors to surveys and traditional performance-management systems). GSK is drawing on this data to tweak all aspects of the space—lighting, temperature, aroma, air quality, acoustic masking, ergonomics, and design—to help its people do (and interact) more by making the space respond to employees’ needs, whether professional or physiological.

A major U.S. financial institution tested dozens of floor designs at various regional offices. It chose the one that created the collaboration and focused-work patterns that best matched its goals and rolled it out across the organization. The cost was not trivial; it amounted to millions of dollars. But the firm was far better off than if it had picked a design without running experiments and subsequently discovered that it had wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on an ineffective configuration.

Just as high-frequency A/B testing is common in marketing and sales, rapid experimentation is key to workplace design. Before it adopted that approach, a major energy company spent seven years and approximately $10 million in design and consulting fees to plan a new office building. Today it can roll out a new plan in six months for about $500,000—quantifying the behaviors it wants to encourage, building out one floor of an existing office as a test, and confirming or disproving its hypothesis that the design will prompt those behaviors. That sounds impressive, but keep in mind that you need to experiment long enough to understand all the dynamics in play. As Mori discovered, initial results can be misleading.

When conducting such experiments, you need to consider the privacy implications of collecting the necessary data. Email and especially sensor metadata is sensitive. In addition to questions about the legality of amassing such information, which depends on local laws and regulations, there are ethical concerns. Companies should be transparent about what data they are collecting and sensitive to employees’ feelings about who owns it—the employee, who provides the raw inputs through his or her interactions, or the organization, which gathers, organizes, processes, and stores those inputs. Companies that ignore or downplay those concerns risk alienating workers and incurring significant reputational damage (see “The Happy Tracked Employee” on HBR.org). Those that transparently demonstrate that their use of the data is limited and is intended to benefit workers may find room for open collaboration with employees to create even better workplace designs.

Less Can Be More
Optimizing collaboration doesn’t have to entail a radical overhaul of office space; tweaks can make a difference, and it pays to test their potential impact. Mori is now collecting data about what size the tables in its corporate headquarters should be. Its initial conclusion: Large tables, prescribed by many new office designs in place of individual desks, are about as good at fostering intimate conversations as expansive dining-room tables are—in other words, not good at all. A manufacturing company found that small changes to furniture can have a big impact. Its headquarters had two types of meeting spaces in the main work areas: ones that were totally open and ones with movable whiteboard barriers on two sides. Over 50% more interactions occurred in the whiteboard areas. Adding more whiteboards was a trivial expense.

Sometimes the best answer doesn’t involve changes to the physical structure. Experiments showed Mori that events deliberately designed to achieve particular interactions between specific individuals and teams had a more precise and valuable impact on interaction patterns than did changes to the office space. Those events can be internal workshops, hackathons, or even barbecues, as long as interactions are measured, using sensors, to show whether the desired patterns emerged. To help integrate new hires during their first week on the job, a midsize technology company puts jars of cookies on their desks and posts a map in the lobby showing the jars’ locations, to encourage people to stop by. Humanyze discovered that the location of its coffee machines significantly influences interactions. If a team needs to focus internally, the company puts a coffee machine in the center of its area. If two teams need to collaborate, it puts the machine between them.

These “software” approaches to architecture can do a lot at a very low price. All that’s needed is a little more collaboration among real estate professionals, HR, and the users of the space. Organizations that get this right typically have a single executive—say, the chief human resources officer or the chief administrative officer—overseeing both HR and real estate.

CONCLUSION
A single best physical or digital workspace architecture will never be found. That’s because more interaction is not necessarily better, nor is less. The goal should be to get the right people interacting with the right richness at the right times.

Many common assumptions about office architecture and collaboration are outdated or wrong. Although the open-office design is intended to encourage us to interact face-to-face, it gives us permission not to. The “accidental collisions” facilitated by open offices and free spaces can be counterproductive. In many instances, “copresence” via an open office or a digital channel does not result in productive collaboration.

Technological advances allow us to test assumptions and understand how groups of workers really interact. The hard data required to prove or disprove theories can be obtained and analyzed. For that to occur on a large scale, the HR, real estate, and finance functions need to embrace the experimentation that has infused marketing and operations. When that happens, physical and virtual workplace design can become a continuous process—one that gives the architecture and the anatomy of collaboration a happy place to meet.

A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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Attitudes to the workplace are changing. In the post-COVID era, when remote working will still be a norm, the old spaces will not attract staff back to them. The design of the workplace needs to look and feel a lot more like home or a destination hotel. This will create a more desirable place for the employees. The hospitality sector has a lot to teach us about creating spaces that people want to spend time in.

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What is a Hospitality workplace?

It is the concept in which the aesthetics of hospitality meet the function of commercial spaces. That means private offices and desk spaces are getting smaller, while common areas designed to foster collaboration are getting larger and more inspiring. A workplace can still be inspiring, a place that “enlivens the senses.” There is a cross-over of hospitality and commercial design happening, and it is changing the face of today’s workplaces.

Influence of Hospitality Workplaces in Office Design

Just as hospitality spaces have started designing for their guests, workspaces have shifted their focus from the employer to the employee. Today, everyone is focusing on design for the people that visit their space. Here are some major shifts in commercial office spaces that come directly from the hospitality industry.

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Biophilia
Workplace design has followed the hospitality industry, adopting biophilia to reduce stress and help promote renewal at work. Bringing the outdoors in has become a huge principle in office design.

Personalized
Companies want to create environments that can connect to their community. Today they focus on creating authentic environments inspired by the local culture which is more relatable and personalized.

Social hubs
Flexible, multipurpose rooms with diverse furniture options, offer people a comfortable space encouraging people to connect and create more collaboration and social connections.

Resimercial design
As more residential-style furniture and fewer commercial finishes are introduced in the workspace; the more enthusiastic people are about coming to work. A warm and comfortable environment leads to more employees wanting to spend time in these spaces.

Quality of spaces
Vibrant colors, textures, wallpapers, feature flooring, and experimental fabrics which move away from dull corporate standards of the past. Workspaces are now more boutique-like, fun, casual, quiet, and comfortable.

More welcoming
Reception space design is becoming more boutique rather than clinical and corporate. More concierge-type services to compete for talent and create employee brand loyalty. More emphasis on cafes and kitchens as a third-place and viable work setting.

Work anywhere concept
This is the social environment of the office, where there is more quality, shared workspace, and less closed spaces.

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Hospitality Workplace Design is more than just look and feel

Although aesthetics are an important part of office design, the benefits of hospitality workplace design in offices go way beyond the surface-level look and feel of the space. The introduction of things like social spaces, cafés, health and fitness facilities, relaxation zones, and a more hospitality-style aesthetic will positively influence your employees.

Here are a few benefits of hospitality design trends in offices:

• Better wellbeing and work productivity
• Improved communication lines and collaborative approach
• Giving employees more options & control required to use the space as per their need
• Creating a sense of community and belonging
• Attract and retain talent
• Allows for innovation and employee satisfaction that builds corporate culture. This ultimately will reflect on the corporate brand.

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We may not agree with it completely, but appearances do matter. They say we should not judge a book by its cover. But, if your office is the first thing the clients or the prospective employees physically get to see and feel, the first impressions will surely matter. Even, the satisfaction of current employees depends on how comfortable the office is, which in turn affects your office’s productivity and culture.

Office furniture plays the biggest role in creating an attractive space and communicate the values you imbibe. Stylish office furniture might also be a reflection of your brand’s look and feel. Your office is part of the public image of your brand and company. That’s why it’s critical that your office furniture and decor represent your business, and your goals, well. In today’s time, the most productive offices typically balance the comforts of home with a professional business image.

To understand the impact of office furniture on your business, let’s look at everything your office furniture says about your business.

Conveying Brand Value

What first impressions will old and boring furniture will have on your brand? Not a good one for sure. It is important to have furniture which is attractive and modern, which ensures a better customer experience. It will speak volumes to the prospective customers about your background and your commitment to your work and can be a great tool for building trust.

Color Psychology

Bright colors indicate a place of collaboration and creativity. Green and calming blue – two of the most common colors in Nature’s palette — improve efficiency and focus. High wavelength colors like red show passion and intensity. Mellow yellow, often viewed by color psychologists as the shade of optimism, is energetic and fresh. You can also choose furniture in light, neutral colors, like white, beige, or sage. These colors create a warm, down-to-earth feeling, without being too bright or flashy.

The premium factor

Certain offices need to have premium furniture to have a posh look and feel. If you are a law firm or a consulting company catering to high-profile clients, you may need to create exclusive spaces for your clients. You can choose furniture that exudes class and offer a luxurious ambiance.

Makes you feel welcome

Comfortable armchairs and couches will make those who enter your office feel like you want them there. Creating seating areas where chairs and sofas are close to each other to foster intimacy and communication. Modern office furniture can create multiple spaces that team members can use as suits their style. You might have an open floor plan for some of the team to work together and then offer a separate space where they can make phone calls or have discussions. Everyone has a choice which suits their work.

Culture of collaboration and creativity

Ditch the cubicles and create a collaborative open plan office with benching systems and no high partitions. Big discussion tables and breakout areas for teams will facilitate more interactions and collaboration. Informal spaces with lounge furniture will help people relax and will cast a good picture of your team culture on the minds of your customers.

Shows you care

Low-quality products show that you made very little effort in sourcing comfortable, ergonomically sound furniture. Having ergonomic chairs and furniture will be a boon for the employees. It will ensure a healthy lifestyle and enhance employee experience in the office. It will instrumental in increasing productivity and help you retain talented employees.

High-quality Office furniture defines your Brand positively

No matter what type of business you are in, there’s a modern office furniture layout that will perfectly express who you are. Office furniture is a vital component that affects the productivity of the workforce and also plays an important part when it comes to creating a good impression and building trust with your clients. Choose sturdy office furniture that is built to last. Anybody who enters your office should instantly know that you care about quality, integrity, and most importantly, comfort. High-quality office furniture can help you achieve that.

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