Benefits of an Office Breakout Area
With great office lounge furniture and a smart design, the breakout area can be a creative hub and a place for employees to recharge their batteries. However, tired, uninspiring spaces can be unpleasant, mostly unused, and your employees feel they have nowhere to take a break. Here’s why office lounge design is so important to creating a great working environment.
What is an office breakout area?
An office breakout area may also be known as the lunchroom or the office lounge. Depending on the size of your office, this space can be quite small or significantly larger. Due to the varying sizes, office lounge area design is crucial in creating a usable, comfortable space where employees can relax. For example, a small office lounge design will look vastly different to a more spacious office lounge area.
Breakout areas are used for a variety of things, including:
- Eating lunch
- Making coffee
- Catching up with colleagues
- Small staff celebrations
- General collaboration
Naturally, the size and layout of your breakout area may determine how the space is most commonly used. While it’s generally a ‘staff only’ domain, it makes sense for businesses to equip these spaces well with comfortable and stylish employee lounge furniture. It’s great for staff to get the most out of the space, but there may also be occasions where external stakeholders are invited in, so you want the area to make a good impression.
What furniture is typically found in a breakout space?
You can find a whole range of office lounge furniture in a breakout space, and again, it depends heavily on the amount of space you have available. Usually, as a minimum, you’ll have a nice table, and of course, there is usually bench space, a sink and other accessories like a coffee machine, water cooler and hopefully plenty of cupboard space.
For seating, small spaces may just have some soft, comfortable chairs around the table. But larger, modern office lounges will go much further. Interia offers a great range of soft seating which is perfect in employee lounge design. From modular couches to ottomans and comfortable single chairs, you can really turn your breakout space into a relaxing place your employees love to be. We’ve got a range of creative designs suited to the modern corporate office lounge.
If you’re looking for office lounge furniture ideas, we’d be happy to discuss your needs further.
The benefits of an office breakout area
The modern office lounge is much more than just a space to sit and eat lunch. It’s a central part of the office where employees from all parts of the business can come together. Whether it’s for a quick coffee and a chat, or to sit down and brainstorm a few ideas in a more comfortable setting, it’s an area that’s really worth putting some effort into.
In fact, 79% of employees say that a company can’t encourage innovation unless the workplace environment itself is innovative. This says a lot about aiming for a creative office lounge. So, what are the benefits of a great office lounge area? Let’s look at some of the reasons you should invest time and money into your office lounge area design.
Improves informal collaboration
Collaboration is important in any business. In recent times, we’ve leaned more heavily on technology to help us collaborate, with people working from home or at other remote locations. However, as employees start returning to the workplace and we adjust to the new normal, it’s important to provide your workers with physical space to collaborate.
If you have a lot of separate offices, people generally hold meetings and brainstorming sessions in there, but sometimes it’s nice to go somewhere a bit less formal. Sitting on some comfortable couches in the breakout space with a coffee is a nice change and can kickstart a bit of creativeness.
For open-plan offices, sometimes it’s just too noisy and busy out on the floor, so the breakout space is a great way to get a little more privacy to work on projects with a handful of other people.
Increases productivity
Recent surveys have shown that 77% of staff believe flexible working encourages increased productivity. When people think about flexible working, they often mention working from home or working flexible hours. But it’s also about the environment you create for employees while they’re at work.
By putting some effort into your employee lounge design, you can turn it into a creative hub of productivity where people can go to relax, but also discuss ideas. If the space is inspiring, then you’ll no doubt get some inspired ideas coming out of the breakout area.
In addition, people need to take a break. If your staff are glued to their screens all day, it may create a façade of productivity, but the reality is very different. If people don’t get up for a break at regular intervals, they become slower, concentration and focus diminish, and you end up with decreased productivity. A refreshing breakout space gives employees the chance for a quick break before returning to work.
Allows employees to recharge
As mentioned, breaks are important, but not everybody likes to go out for lunch or take a walk. Sometimes the weather doesn’t encourage that either. So, relaxing in the lunchroom for a break is a great alternative. However, if your office lounge furniture is tired, bland or in poor condition, people generally don’t feel drawn to the space.
Employees need to recharge throughout the day, and even if they don’t spend long periods of time in the breakout space, just wandering in to make a coffee or grab a snack is sometimes all they need to refresh their minds and maintain good working habits.
Encourages a return to the office after working from home
We’ve all been through a strange and unprecedented time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. People have been working from home, offices have been closed, and in general, the way we work has changed dramatically. For a while, both employees and businesses alike were spruiking the benefits of working from home, but over time, the practice has become a drain for many people.
Many employees are now being given the option to return to the office or remain at home. However, if you ask most managers and business owners, they would probably love to see their employees coming back to the office. The togetherness of a team can’t always be replicated, no matter how many Zoom meetings you have.
Creating a vibrant, modern office space is one way to encourage people to come back to work. If the environment is inspiring and fun to work in, people are more likely to look forward to the social interaction and sense of teamwork they get from attending the office.
Great for employee well-being
Stressed workers are very rarely productive workers. They also start looking for other jobs pretty quickly, which can cost you a lot of time and money in recruitment and training. Companies that focus on the health and well-being of their staff are more likely to retain their top talent, and even attract other talented workers to come and join them. This is a huge bonus in a competitive marketplace.
The fact is, people want more out of work than just a paycheck. Many of the priorities for employees now revolve around work-life balance, a great culture and an inspiring work environment. Designing a great breakout space encourages all of these things. Staff should always be encouraged to take breaks, grab a coffee, even sit down and watch some TV in the employee lounge if that’s what helps to lower stress levels.
The more comfortable your breakout space, the more likely your staff will want to take the breaks they know they should be taking. This leads to happier, healthier staff, decreasing instances of unplanned absence and helps to grow a strong culture and healthy workforce.
Perfect for celebrations
There are plenty of occasions you may want to celebrate something in the office, but it perhaps doesn’t call for a big, formal event. Staff birthdays, awards presentations and other important employee milestones can be celebrated internally if you have a great office breakout space. As long as the room is big enough, you can put on a morning team, a casual lunch, or even just a morning coffee session.
Celebrating milestones is important, and actually improves employee engagement, retention and creates a sense of belonging. In fact, research has shown that 79% of people are more likely to feel they belong if they have one life event celebrated at work. In the quest for an inclusive and healthy workplace, having a stylish breakout space with comfortable furniture where staff can gather and celebrate becomes extremely important.
Your ultimate office lounge furniture provider
Interia specialises in high-quality, purpose-built office furniture. We don’t just sell furniture products. We consult, plan, design, manufacture and install office furniture that turns your workplace into a modern space that encourages productivity, success and inspiration.
From pre-designed products to customised items, we handle all aspects of office lounge area design. We’re experts in our field and have been designing and performing office fit-outs for over 30 years. So, for all of your office furniture and joinery needs, there’s only one name you need to remember: Interia. Contact our friendly team today, and we’ll be happy to discuss your office furniture and design needs.
