Why Staff Amenities Are Considered A Vital Business Investment

If you were to be asked exactly what business premises investment is the most important, you may round off a few essential fixtures you know to be crucial. This might include establishing competent security, refining your loading bay logistics, or improving the parking condition of your exterior.

All of this is crucial to get right, of course, and all of these systems and provisions feed into one another. But perhaps the most essential element to get right is that of providing staff with the amenities for comfortable day-to-day working conditions.

Without this, it’s not uncommon for staff to become frustrated, and in many cases, this can run counter to the lawful custodian responsibilities we have in order to provide them with a safe and hygienic working environment.

However, while it may seem as though brand new design renovations or cool desk layouts are enough to keep our staff happy, often, it’s the most common investments and fundamental provisions that make the biggest difference and keep staff happier for longer. In this post, we’re going to take things back to basics, as it’s often the smallest and least glamorous elements of our management that define our management chops on a macro scale:

Improved Footfall Traffic

When staff amenities, such as the toilet area, kitchens, meeting spaces, and storage areas are properly, logically organized and laid out, you improve how quickly staff can move from place to place with confidence and ease. This means that the footfall traffic of your business is improved.

No longer do staff have to queue up in order to place their belongings in their storage lockers each morning, nor do they all have to wait for the use of a microwave in the middle of the day. Furthermore, you’ll also find that with a place to sit and eat at lunchtime, the smells and litter associated with this time need not permeate your office space, which should be an area where focusing on work solely remains the norm.

Hygiene & Utility

Hygiene and utility are worth considering when designing staff amenities. A dirty kitchen or toilet area can be a real problem in terms of the general satisfaction of your staff, and it takes more than just a competent cleaning service to get this right.

For instance, making sure that staff toilets are properly designed so that easy replacement of soaps and toilet rolls can be provided is key. Ensuring that sinks are properly shaped so that splashes from washing hands are minimized is also helpful. Motion-sensitive lights can ensure that electricity doesn’t have to be wasted when this space is unoccupied. Often, hand-placement hand driers can also ensure that a contact doesn’t have to be made with the drier unit itself, drying clean hands more quickly and thoroughly on both sides. When outfitting your staff restrooms with the latest amenities, consider companies like onepointpartitions.com for durable and easy-to-maintain bathroom partitions. Their wide selection of materials, finishes, and colors allows you to customize your restroom design to fit your brand aesthetic and budget.

From the installation of galvanised pipe fittings carrying water to making sure that mirrors allow staff to check their appearance more readily before returning to the wider settings, amenities will show or expose your investment in them, and staff understand exactly how much these provisions help or hinder their day to day wellbeing.

This is also a pronounced necessity to keep in mind when designing the staff kitchen. Making sure that the tables are wiped down, that easy-to-pull wipes are available, and that a rota is in place for the fair and just regular cleaning of the kitchen internals (such as the microwave and coffee filter) can ensure everyone shares their fair load. Democratizing care for the space will ultimately help your staff take more pride in them.

Exterior Structures

It’s essential to consider the investment in exterior structures that seem minor but can mean so much for how people interact with your premises. For instance, a bike shed and shelter can encourage your staff to cycle to work each day. A healthier workforce is a happier workforce, a more focused workforce, and a workforce that requires less time off due to illness or injury. 
As you can see, what may seem like an expense to rejuvenate your business premises automatically becomes a direct investment in your workforce and their well-being over time. Anyone who has cycled into work on a summer’s day will be aware of the positive mood that accompanies it, at least compared to dealing with traffic while driving in a heatwave. 

Exterior structures can also help separate staff in a healthy manner, such as a designated smoking zone, far from the front door, where staff members can have their legally-allowed breaks more easily, without influencing non-smokers or causing a bad impression as investors walk through. A lack of cigarettes lining the pavement also aids your maintenance staff and contributes to the presentation of your exterior.

Seating Areas

Sometimes, the most worthwhile activity a staff member can partake in is sitting down and talking. A nice seating area can also provide a worthwhile waiting space for your guests. This way, reviewing applicants during their interviews, inviting investors to come and speak while you prepare your office for them, or welcoming open days for prospective graduates is easier to organize.

A seating area can also serve as an extension to your welcoming space, a nice invitation to help those who need to wait for the right time to be seen. This also provides a stopgap security measure, where those that haven’t been given a lanyard or checked into the premises yet can do so, or wait for others before them. Such an investment also helps your reception staff conduct their affairs without being overwhelmed each morning.

Secure Storage

Staff deserve to have spaces where they can store their belongings and ensure that theft is a highly unlikely possibility. You never know what staff may wish to bring into your premises as part of their daily planning, be that a gym bag for after-work exercise, a gift they wish to give someone at home or at the office, or other belongings that they deserve the right to hold in privacy, like medications.

Investing in storage lockers with their own keys or combinations can ensure that your trusted staff are able to enjoy a little confidential space, just as they deserve. Otherwise, they may need to bring bulky bags with them. Placed in the aisles between work terminals, this can be a real problem.

Evacuation

It’s unfortunate to say, but it’s possible that one of the most important provisions your business premises may ever hold is the funnel to evacuate it quickly and safely. Integrating appropriate fire exits that can be accessed in a reasonable time, ensuring fire alarm panels are placed in every room, ensuring smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are available everywhere, and guaranteeing that fire doors are properly installed are all key.

In order to provide the most essential fire and disaster safety measures, it’s important to go realistically above and beyond what is expected from you compliance-wise. You can speak to the local fire department in order to have a necessary inspection carried out, and that in itself can make a tremendous difference. 

Privacy & Dignity

In some cases, privacy and dignity emphasised in segmented spaces can be essential. For instance, more businesses are considering how important lactation rooms can be, in order for new mothers to more readily ease back into their working conditions.

Moreover, it’s important to consider how certain departments need to make use of this privacy requirement in the first place. A meeting room for confidential HR matters can be essential, or at least utilizing a private room where HR can discuss sensitive matters with staff, be that a harassment claim, discussing the illness of a staff member, or anything else that should only be taken through the right channels.

Collaboration Where Appropriate

More and more businesses are starting to consider how they can improve collaboration, especially where remote work is becoming more and more of a necessity in order to retain and appeal to staff.

The answer many firms have come to? When we expand the space, create more communal seating environments, and ensure that desks are placed in large table environments rather than in a row, we can encourage communication.

Of course, many businesses are also taking a keen interest in their ‘digital workspace,’ - integrating apps like Slack or video conferencing apps so that quick messages and meetings become the norm. Without this vital addition, it’s not hard to see how firms are unprepared for the future. Not all business premises are physical, for instance, one of the biggest retailers in the world is known for its web presence more than anything else.

To conclude, it’s important to note that there are many amenities a business can invest in with the intent to improve staff productivity, happiness, collaboration, and turnover. Your premises is not just a shell where work takes place, but a thorough and physical embodiment of your priorities as a brand. Your staff knows when they’ve been prioritised or not, even if that just means stocks of paper and toner are never wanted for.

With this advice, we believe you’ll have designed your premises in the most promising manner.