Open Floor Plan vs. Private Offices
What Makes The Most Sense for Your Company?
The Great Recession had a massive impact on how we think about office space.
Businesses cut back on any and all unnecessary expenses – from lavish dinners to multiple locations.
They found themselves thinking:
“Walls take up too much space. If we open up the floor plan, we can now fit more employees into the same sized area.”
Thus, the open floor plan was born.
By cutting back on the square footage per employee, businesses also realized some unexpected benefits - namely collaboration and creativity.
But is it really as amazing as it’s made out to be?
Let’s dive into open floor plan vs. private offices.
Open Work Area at Center 615
What Employees Think of Open Floor Plans
Commercial Café surveyed employees from many industries on the ideal office space.
After all – it’s employees who are really impacted by the day to day work environment.
I found their responses to be rather intriguing:
43% preferred private offices
23% preferred to work from home
9% preferred open floor plans
4% preferred coworking space
So, it still appears that private offices are the overwhelming winner.
If it had been up to the employees, it’s likely that the majority of businesses that switched to large open floor plans would have remained in private office space or had a balanced mix.
And employees are fine taking smaller offices, too.
It didn’t seem to matter how big the offices were to the employees - as long as they had a space to call their own, they were content.
Now that we know how workers feel about open floor plans, let’s discuss the pros and cons of having them.
The Pros and Cons of Open Floor Plans
Pros:
Fosters creativity and collaboration
Open floor plans lend themselves to be unique in design with much of the “structure” of the office being dependent upon the layout of desks, furniture, artwork, etc. With more open areas and a unique environment, your team could become more creative and would certainly collaborate more often if they’re working next to each other in an unconfined environment.
More abundant natural light
A lack of walls means natural light, which has been proven to increase employee productivity and happiness, will flood the entire work area. No one wants to be working in a dungeon, and being able to provide your employees and potential recruits with window space should also help with retention.
Flexibility for an employee to change work environment
Change your space, change your mind. Sometimes, just changing your work environment can spark new creativity and promote problem solving. Instead of being chained to a desk all day, employees are free to work from the conference table, shift to a standing desk across the office, and finish the day on a couch in the lounge.
Encourages teamwork and camaraderie
Open floor plans mean no (or relatively few) offices for management. At The Cauble Group, we have one executive office with a large open room that has a kitchen, lounge area, and open desks. I tend to work with my team, instead of from my office, which has built up a sense of camaraderie among my team - I’m not just some boss spouting orders from a massive corner office.
Cons:
Lack of privacy
No walls means no, or minimal, private space for anyone in the company. Obviously, that can lead to a bit of stress as tensions could grow between employees. It could also hamper your ability to have important meetings within your own office.
Constant interruptions
In an open office, employees and clients will be coming and going at will. In some environments, or offices that are large enough, traffic may not be a big issue, but for smaller teams or businesses that need extended periods of concentration, open floor plans may not be a fit.
Noise level
If your employees are congregating and collaborating thanks to their open floor plan, these conversations could be loud and disturbing to other employees. We solved this problem in my office by installing white noise machines, which have significantly cut down the amount of noise throughout the office.
No sense of “territory”
People like to have a place to call their own when they go to work. After all, they’re spending a significant amount of their lives at work, so having a stake down gives workers a sense of territory. Without private offices or assigned work stations, employees could be left feeling a bit lost at work.
Wagon Wheel Title Office Layout
Can You Have a Balance between Open & Private Workspaces?
I wonder what the employees’ response would have been if they had been asked about a work space that had a balance between an open floor plan and private offices.
The most efficient floor plan I’ve seen did just that.
Smaller, efficiency offices line a larger, open room.
This layout affords the privacy to make phone calls while allowing employees to socialize and collaborate when feasible.
The conversation is no longer “open floor plan vs. private offices.”
It becomes “let’s find a balance between the two.”
What Nashville Entrepreneurs Think About Open Floor Plan vs. Private Offices
NxNE Office Layout East Nashville
“I like a hybrid, actually.
We have 3 people in our specific office and it allows that team to collaborate immediately and spontaneously.
While open concepts are all the rage, and have great benefits, they also force people to seek out private space when they might otherwise not have to.
Conversely, private offices create environments of exclusivity and cultures that are not aligned with modern working environments.
The hybrid of teams sharing an office seems to be future, in my opinion.”
Nathan Weinberg, Co-founder of NxNE, MW Real Estate Co., & Retrograde Coffee
Wagon Wheel Title's Office in East Nashville
“While leading companies like Google and Apple have helped spearhead an ‘open office’ design trend, a lot of research has found that workers have a hard time actually ‘working’ in totally open work spaces.
When we were designing our new space, we thought the open office model would be the way to go for sure. But when we asked our employees they said ‘We want doors!’
Our firm choose to pursue a middle ground that weighed an ‘open office’ feel with privacy/sound considerations, while also maximizing how many people can be comfortably placed in a given amount of space.
We think the trend to ‘zones’ will be a powerful one, and one that increasingly shapes how work space is designed with an eye to maximizing work flow and space efficiency.”
Brandon Miller & Steve Morris, Wagon Wheel Title
Office Space Is Constantly Evolving
What I’ve personally found best to work for my team is a balance between an open floor plan and private offices.
But one thing we know for sure about office space?
It’s always changing.
As new generations with different lifestyles enter the workforce, they will mold the built environment to suit their needs and desires.
Staying on top of these trends could keep employee retention high while maintaining operational efficiency at a maximum.