How important is to personalize your workspace?

How does your workspace look like? Does your cubicle really represent who you are?

Letting employees decorate their workspaces plays an important role in building relationships within the company. Without them there aren't any icebreakers.

Sam Gosling, associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, explains the important psychological comfort we gain by personalizing the space around us:

"People tend to be happier, healthier, and more productive when they can bring other people's view into line with their own. ... They want to be known. […] and the interactions go more easily when everyone has a good understanding of who is who."

It’s no secret that businesses usually prefer clean, sterile workspaces as evidence of cleanliness and order. But that approach ignores the personal connections that can lead towards building those types of relationships with clients.

Extensive research into workspace personalization was done by the Identity Realization research group at the University of Exeter, in association with Indoor Garden Design. The study compared people’s effective output across different types of business space. 90 experiments took place across the week and involved a total of 350 participants.

The results showed that allowing staff to make design decisions in a workspace enhanced with office plants can increase well-being by 47%, creativity by 45% and productivity by 38%.

The results also indicate that plants, in a well-designed and personalized office environment, can boost business effectiveness through improved staff productivity and creativity.

Another study conducted by Steelcase Inc. in 2006 targeted nearly 700 office workers. The study analyzes the trend of workspace personalization, what workers use to personalize and how corporate culture impacts personal changes to the office environment.

The results of both studies are summarized in the Infographic below:

Written by

Yulia Karabash

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170202-whats-so-wrong-with-dressing-up-your-desk

http://www.exeter.ac.uk

http://www.steelcase.com

http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/the-importance-of-personalized-workspaces

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