Corporate Office Furniture: Collaborative Workspace Ideas for a Thriving Office

In the never-ending quest for greater productivity, employers have become quite creative and corporate office furniture can make a difference. Just as the standard office space morphed into an open-concept, the walls are coming down from that endlessly partitioned maze of cubicles.

With businesses championing collaboration, they removed the barriers that were blocking the sharing of ideas and brainstorming and are inserting corporate office furniture that makes more sense. This, of course, led to other ideas about greater efficiency and productivity. In hindsight, it seemed obvious that corporate office furniture could change how people work. Create an “open field” and allow free range employees to nurture their natural creativity.

Collaborative Workspace Environment Studies

Here came the open-concept office space and, a little later, the backlash. Forward-thinking tech companies and startups were all about disruption. Not just in the market but the worksite as well. But something happened on the path to a productive utopia; workers began to protest the lack of privacy. An entirely open-concept appeared to be the pendulum swinging too far in one direction. The open-concept has learned to play nice with its traditional private office counterpart and allow quieter, more private spaces to workers whose particular task, or work style demands it.

If your company values collaboration and is looking for ways to elevate your office space, here are a variety of “work pods” you can mix up with a piece of corporate office furniture that offers private spaces for focus and problem-solving.

Collaborative Workspace Ideas

The Newsroom

Features: Flexible seating, desk clusters, and open space

This is best for fast-paced work requiring massive collaboration. It’s excellent for any task where communication is vital and there is a constant need for spontaneous meetings. Teams who don’t have time to reserve a conference room or scan schedules when they need to meet can benefit from this environment.

How to corporate office furniture implement on a budget:

• Push individual office desks together to make small and large clusters of tables.
• Remove room dividers and cubicle walls.
• Provide comfortable, flexible seating options by using what you already have and maybe adding some bean-bag seats and plush armchairs.

The Library

Features: Privacy screens, sheltered cubes and lots of individual size nooks and crannies

Best for work that needs uninterrupted focus. Some work suffers around a constant buzz of activity. If you have employees who work better in quiet, embrace their needs instead of forcing them to try and adapt to an open-concept.

How to implement corporate office furniture on a budget:

• Have standing whiteboards on rollers in the central work hub. Workers can move them in front of their cube doors when they need to make phone calls or focus on a task.
• Split up group cubes into individual private workstations.
• Have designated “quiet hours” in conference rooms where workers can go to work quietly together and take a break from their desks.

The Multi-Environment Office

Features: A variety of workspaces for a variety of working preferences

A case study conducted by Work Design Magazine shows that allowing employees to choose their own work environment on any given day promotes a sense of belonging.

How to implement corporate office furniture on a budget:

• Use simple materials to convert open spaces into smaller, customized workspaces. (Think decorated wooden frames.)
• Mark out specific work areas with attractive floor panels or carpets.
• Choose a simple and inexpensive element to produce a distinct “look” for a workspace without shutting it off entirely from the rest of the office.

The Pride-Filled Office

Features: Brand colors and elements sprinkled throughout the office

For companies that have recently rebranded or want to reinforce brand principles. It doesn’t require purchasing furniture, so it can be a budget-friendly idea. (Unless you have money to spend having custom-branded slipcovers created for the lounge room sofa.

How to implement corporate office furniture on a budget:

• It can be as simple as painting your brand’s colors on an accent wall.
• Hang framed printouts of your company values or mission statement.
• Make a logo wall. Print and frame current and past designs of your brand logo to make a gallery wall.

The Problem-Solving Office

Features: A variety of small and flexible meeting rooms

A great office layout for businesses whose clients and customers demand out-of-the-box thinking.

How to implement corporate office furniture on a budget:

• WiderFunnel Vancouver uses core values as inspiring themes for an assortment of “huddle” rooms. One example is their maverick room which features graphic renderings of famous mavericks, like Steve Jobs.
• Hang homemade problem-and-solution prints throughout the office to remind employees of the power of persistence. Don’t worry about making them fancy just make them inspirational!

The Social Office

Features: Comfy common areas and desks arranged to promote face-to-face interactions

For when you want to increase employee happiness and retention. A Gallup poll recently showed that Employees desire workplace friendships and that forming these friendships increases performance.

How to implement corporate office furniture on a budget:

• Raise desks and chairs so that whether sitting or standing, everyone is at the same eye level. This article in Quartz explains that one reason socializing is so fun at bars is because everyone, whether sitting or standing, is at the same eye level.
• Rearrange desks so that coworkers face each other. While it may seem a bit awkward at first, eventually, everyone will feel more comfortable with each other.
• Push together some old tables then add some lifts to create a long bar table where coworkers can stand around and chat. Beer is optional. (Of course, you can also buy bar tables and stools if you have a budget to spend.)

The Startup Office

Features: Standing cafe tables, sofas, and easy-to-move laptop desks

If you want to foster flexible work habits and free-thinking, this is perfect. Any company can take advantage of the flexible setups of a typical startup. Lots of standing workspace is essential, and it’s a good idea to incorporate flexible surfaces for laptops and iPads.

How to implement corporate office furniture on a budget:

• Brainstorm for some items you could use to add height to existing tables and turn them into standing desks.
• Move a few sofas from the break room into the central work area and encourage employees to work wherever they want. (You can replace the sofas in the break room with traditional desks that you’ve converted into lunch tables.)
• Provide inexpensive standing laptop desks around the new workspace.

Written by:

John Ofield

President/CEO at Collaborative Office Interiors

Collaborative Office Interiors is a complete office furniture and systems provider in the Houston, Austin and San Antonio area. COI specializes in providing high quality/low-cost solutions to companies that are moving, upgrading or expanding.

John opened ROSI Office Systems in 1993 and the company today is on Inc. Magazines’ Top 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in 2018. John specializes in new office furniture, space planning, new workstations, Work Fit products, remanufactured Haworth cubicles, asset management, furniture liquidation, and office furniture rentals.