Tag: OfficeDesign

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2024 Blogs

Bi-Folding Room Dividers

Printed 3 panel portable room divider

Bi-folding room dividers offer a versatile solution for dividing and sectioning a room with ease. Also known as concertina screens, these dividers can fold in various ways, allowing for different placements and uses within the chosen area. Equipped with sturdy hinges and castor wheels, these screens can be easily moved around, even if the panels are light or heavy weight. The addition of castor wheels is particularly beneficial when the dividers will be moved by a single person or if they are regularly relocated.

The design of a folding room divider allows for multiple configurations, which can be achieved by angling and positioning the panels correctly. Whether you need a straight form or a U shape, the bi-folding panels are flexible enough to provide the desired coverage. To ensure the right coverage for your space, the number of panels and their height are crucial factors. These dividers can cover small to large open spaces, with heights reaching up to 2m for maximum impact.

At Rap Industries, we understand that personalizing your space is important. That’s why we offer a wide selection of finishes to suit any environment. As part of our bi-folding or concertina room divider range, you have access to printed, loop nylon, laminate, and fabric finishes.

The most expressive choice is the printed panel finish, which allows you to add bespoke artwork designed by you. With double-sided printing, you can incorporate bold and eye-catching images and fonts to create a unique feature in your workplace.

Loop nylon is another fabric option that enhances the versatility of portable room dividers. Commonly used on display boards, loop nylon has a Velcro-friendly finish, allowing you to create a small display or notice area in addition to providing privacy.

If you need a whiteboard surface, our high-pressure laminate (HPL) finish with a white gloss is the perfect choice. This finish accepts dry wipe pens, making the divider suitable for use in meetings, training sessions, and brainstorming sessions. You can utilize the divider as both a separator and a whiteboard, maximizing its functionality.

The woven finish is utilized by adding a layer of fabric over the solid panels, aiming to introduce vibrant colors into the chosen area.

Choose Rap Industries for your bi-folding room divider needs and enjoy the flexibility, versatility, and customization options we offer.

Categories
2016 Blogs

Behind the Design: Practical Solutions for Modern Offices

Office Design

Harnessing Office Design to Boost Productivity in the New Year

The office. The environment that millions of Britons (and many more worldwide) get to endure and enjoy for at least eight hours a day, five days of the week. The office, witness to drama, despair and elation and the setting which a few of us love but the clear majority of us outright hate. The office design which featured in the satirical television series of the same name is a stereotypical yet in most cases, genuine representation of how our own four-walled offices appear. Whitewashed walls, cubicle-styled desks and tapping, endless and monotonous tapping on keyboards. Work can become stressful and frustrating, but this ebbs and flows. But the office seemingly never changes, the same frustrations emerge and grow every day, slowly chipping away at the productivity, creativity and probably sanity of everyone who works within one.

Fortunately, modern start-ups and design companies in particular are taking the lead in creating offices which are tailored to actually help and encourage people to work. These designs take inspiration from when we design our own homes; everything from the colour of the walls right down to the fine details are selected by us and carefully tuned to make the space as comfortable as possible. Traditionally, the idea was that we should be setting up our desks with little treats from home to help ‘re-create’ that feeling, but ultimately it just made us hate the office more as we realise what we are missing out on. But modern office design is evolving that theory. Modern offices are increasingly adapting to the needs of their employees, setting up spaces and surroundings which create comfort and eliminate distractions which help people to focus.

The Cubicle is Dead, Long Live the Cubicle

Simply searching for office design will reveal some pretty crazy designs, but there is logic behind the madness. Admittedly, many smaller businesses cannot accommodate the lucrative costs of some of the professional designers used, but the practical elements behind some of the design decisions can be employed in any environment. One of the most striking features of modern office design is that the cubicle design is gone (sort of). Desks are no longer tightly knit together is small clusters on this basis of collaboration. Instead, we are now being taught to make the most of the space which we have available. With the advent of computers, there is no need for filling rooms and hulking filing cabinets anymore, so additional space is opening to allow people to spread out and create the areas they need.

The actual size of your office will play a part in this and while adapting is often the case, a small and compact office size could become a permanent hindrance on productivity. Reason being that small areas amplify small niggles. Noisy colleagues can be easily blocked out if you are sat 15 yards away. However, if they are a foot away, their pet peeves can be inescapable, further escalating stress levels and reducing your effectiveness. Furthermore, small offices suffer from acoustic issues, especially when multiple people are cramped inside. The rattle of keyboards in use, telephone calls escalating in volume as everyone tries to talk over each other and general chit chat are all emphasised, leading to distractions and the loss of valuable minutes and hours in the day.

Clever Use of Colour and the Hidden Benefits

The layout of the office makes the most significant visual impact on anyone who walks into the space. However, when you are sat in such an environment for multiple hours every day, you start to pick up on all of the fine details at hand. In traditional designs, you begin to pick up on how dull and dreary the colour scheme is as well quickly discovering how rigid and depressing the whole environment can be. The aim of the modern office design should be to change this perception. Colours when used in moderation can boost an office both visually but also psychologically for the employees. Bright colours promote happiness and calmness, while intense shades such as reds are designed to motivate and get people fired up about what they are doing.

One of the tactics employed at Google is the idea that the office should constantly change. Every week, seating areas would be re-arranged, promoting the concept that the nature of the work they do is constantly changing and therefore their staff should be constantly prepared for this. Now, admittedly this is probably unattainable with a static office space, but the idea that things need to be constantly changing is something that we can all learn from. The best way of doing this, is through nature. Flowers, plants and more tap into the pastoral part of our mind, they develop and grow alongside the employees which mirrors the development which you will be hoping for within your business.

Office Design Should Be Tailored to Your Company as Well As The People Within It

Finding a practical solution for your office can actually be very simple. On a one-to-one basis, find out from your employees what makes them tick, how they like to work and what really gets on their nerves about the office design. If your design team is struggling to concentrate with noisy neighbours, then it is time to consider giving them the privacy as well as the resources to be as creative as possible. Drab, noisy and distracting environments stifle productivity, decrease the wellbeing of your employees and ultimately harm your business.

Gauge what colours they would like to see, the kind of layout they wish to work in and the finer details which they believe can improve their working environment. An office design should be dynamic and in turn, provide space for your business to grow, but it is important to remember that over stuffing the space can and will cause considerable issues in the future.

Rap Industries have been designing and manufacturing office furniture for over 40 years. We take great pride in applying the feedback of our clients in all of our new furniture designs. With office screens, room dividers and acoustic pods available, we have a wide range on offer to enhance your office. For more information, please call 01733 394941 or send an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.

Office Design

Categories
2016 Blogs

Anti-Bacterial Office Design: A Clean Approach

Anti-Bacterial

Integrating Anti-Bacterial into Your Office Design Has Benefits for Your Business and Employees

Aside from the elections and referendums dominating the news this year, there has been another story rumbling under the surface which we should be taking notice of. In recent years, emerging reports have begun to cover the issue of resistant bacteria which is not affected by the anti-bacterial hand wash that everyone started to get obsessed with a few years back. Now the issue is becoming more prevalent and more resistant bacteria means a faster spread of illness and the inevitable increase in sick days

This especially applies to classrooms and offices which have a reputation as hotbeds for spreading illness and disease. While cleanliness obviously plays a factor in this, it also includes the amount of time that large groups of people spend together in this environment. On the other hand, hospitals can mitigate this by adding anti-bacterial surfaces throughout while providing anti-bacterial gels and soaps throughout the site. However, the same cannot be said for other public places. If we are going to be more vulnerable to illness, then both businesses and educational facilities should be more aware about healthiness in the design process to keep the number of sick days down and thus, boost productivity and the wellbeing of those who occupy these environments.

Offices Have a Chequered History with Employee Health

Any environment which is inhabited with a large group of people over an extended period is going to be vulnerable to the spread of illness and infection. As our office designs strive to encourage communication and teamwork, the open and collaborative nature of the modern office can subsequently become a major factor in the quick and efficient spread of nasty bacteria. The problem, as is always the case with bacteria, is that we cannot see the effect without the use of a microscope, so cleanliness and general wellbeing often fall down the list when new office designs are being drawn up.

The most recent government statistics (http://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/labourproductivity/articles/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket/2014-02-25) from 2014 revealed that people in the UK, took 131 million days off sick with common illnesses often cited as being the reason for the absence. As we have explored in the past, one major contributor to this is the growth of environmental stressors such as audible and visual distractions which lead to heightened stress levels and weakened immune systems. In total, the study estimates that sick days reported by businesses across the UK resulted in a deficit of approximately £16bn per year.

Attacking the Issue at the Source

The minute nature of bacteria means that the issue needs to be addressed at the source. Here at Rap Industries, one of the ways we are tackling this is to begin introducing silver ions into our office products which helps to quell the spread of bacteria. When we think of silver, we can be quick to conclude that silver is a bit of a luxury material, often used to make currency. However, silver has a unique quality that simply cannot be found in any other material on earth. On a particle level, silver ions can interrupt and completely prevent bacteria from growing and spreading. In fact, silver nanoparticles can now be found in cosmetics, socks, food containers, detergents and many more to combat the spread of illness and infection. Technology firms are even introducing it into the touchscreen of your phone, so are modern interior designers taking bacteria into consideration when designing the spaces which we spend the majority of our lives in?

Implementing a Healthy Office Boosts Productivity

Introducing anti-bacterial throughout your office does not have to constitute a complete overhaul of the design. With plenty of healthy bacteria out there which helps our bodies to thrive, it would be overzealous to begin coating every wall, phone and pencil with silver ions simply because we are trying to prevent the common cold. However, one solution which has been developed at Rap Industries, a leading manufacturer of partition screens for over 40 years, is to integrate the anti-bacterial technology into office screens. These incorporate the flexible design of partition screens, which are traditionally used to combat those audible and visual distractions which we touched upon above.

An anti-bacterial fabric is then applied and silver ions are integrated with the framework to help prevent bacteria from spreading. What makes this solution ideal is that the screens can be used to apply a partial divide in the open plan environment, allowing collaboration to continue while providing privacy to those who thrive in it. Then, by making the partitions anti-bacterial, this helps to protect colleagues and co-workers when a bout of the sniffles begins to break out in the office.

On their own, anti-bacterial screens are not being utilised to their full potential and achieving this requires consideration towards other elements of the design. In the study cited earlier, alongside illness, a major contributor to the sick day is back and neck strains which are commonly caused by poor posture and a lack of information regarding staying healthy while working at a desk. Anti-bacterial may be great at stopping you from catching the flu, but it is going to have no impact on whether you strain your back by slouching all day.

The Clean Approach to Managing Office Design

Workplace safety is something which we commonly associate with primary jobs such as agriculture and construction. Only in recent times have we started to realise the impact that office environments can have on our health and fortunately an increasing number are exploring the impact of issues which we simply cannot see. For example, acoustics and bacteria can both have a significant effect both short term and long term and as such, it is important to factor these in when creating a fresh design. Healthy workplace designs significantly boost the productivity of employees and help to make the business more efficient on the whole.

Rap Industries have been developing and manufacturing office furniture and partition screens for over 40 years and our designs are moulded by the feedback of our clients. One of the results of this is the Safeguard Screen which integrates anti-bacterial fabric into a partition screen, helping open plan environments to address issues concerning privacy as well as health.

Anti-Bacterial

Categories
2016 Blogs

Re-Vamping the Office Design: 4 Ways to Rejuvenate

Office Design

Breathing New Life into Office Design for the New Year

With the new year approaching, it’s around this time that we begin to consider changes we hope to make whilst blocking out the incessant ring of Christmas songs. As we all start looking towards the fresh start which the new year brings, the dull and drab surroundings of the office often begin to rear its head. Okay, it hardly falls within the usual category of a new year’s resolution, however rejuvenating the office design can have significant and long-lasting effects for your business. A few splashes of colour or replacing the squeaky chairs alone can go a long way to boosting productivity and re-invigorating your employees in the new year.

Office design is often more complex than it first appears and many modern layouts are often sculpted by professional designers, however with careful planning and consideration, it is still possible to achieve a similar result on a much more agreeable budget. The layout of your office does not have to be fancy and elaborate, instead, removing some pet peeves and making the overall environment more practical can help to breathe new life into the business.

Integrating Practicality into a New Design

Upon entering a room, the first thing which we are struck by is the visual appearance of what we are looking at such as colours, lighting, furniture and so on. However, the foundations of any great design are built upon the practical side of things; natural light, sound and visibility. Without professional help, these aspects are often the ones which get overlooked and therefore ultimately hinders your new design throughout the year. It is important to remember the people who will be working within the environment and tailoring the space to adapt to them. While opening the space up to freedom and collaboration may appear like a wonderful idea, this may not be the case for many of your employees.

While the aim of a rejuvenating office re-design will revolve around how it appears, factors such as the acoustics of the space and how much privacy employees are afforded will have a more substantial impact on employee productivity. Frequent distractions, whether caused by persistent noise or visual interruptions can mount significantly over time, leading to frustration, stress and even potential health issues in the future if left unaddressed. A comfortable design on the other hand creates favourable working conditions, which enables staff to focus and complete tasks in an effective manner.

Finding the Right Blend of Colours

Crafting a new office design provides a great deal of creative freedom to style the surroundings to your own tastes, but it also means they can be tailored to your business. Colours have a subtle yet important impact on mood and the right blend can help to encourage creativity, calmness and even passion when integrated correctly. Traditional offices favoured whites and cream shades which appeared clean and pristine, yet created an atmosphere which resembled more of a prison cell than a working environment. Instead, take the opportunity to look around at other modern offices for inspiration and to see how they make the most of colour to create welcoming and comfortable spaces for staff.

So, if your industry is tasked with creating and designing, then shades of yellow and orange are ideal for encouraging creativity as they trick the mind into the feeling of cosy summer days. Alternatively, if you are looking to push a certain department, for example a sales department, shades of red are excellent for evoking passion as crimson shades inspire emotions which we may commonly associate with anger. Finally, if you aim to simply calm everyone down and keep stress levels under control, then shades of blue evoke the calmness and serenity of water and blue skies.

Peace and Quiet Matters More Than You Think

The most successful office designs are those which can integrate the ideas and opinions of those who will be working within them; the employees. Over the past few decades, all theory has pointed towards the development of ‘collaborative’ work environments which naturally encourage individuals to work together. Therefore, many conventional examples which you can see have these hubs of desks, holding separate departments together in close proximity and quite literally forcing them to work together.

Excellent in theory, a potential disaster in practice. It is true that some people will thrive in such conditions, provided with the social stimulation which leads to a melting pot of ideas while still being able to concentrate despite all the activity revolving around them. Yet for many others, the situation is the exact opposite. Distractions, especially audible and visual, constantly interrupt the workflow, severely hampering productivity and ultimately increasing agitation and frustration.

Consider Beyond What You Can See

As an alternative to conventional designs, an option worth considering are anti-bacterial furniture such as Safeguard screens. Adopting the conventional design of partition screens or portable screens, these serve a dual purpose within modern office designs. First and foremost, they are excellent for providing privacy and an area away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the office, ideal for those who require space to concentrate. As an added benefit, they also provide protection against the spread of nasty bacteria. Especially in larger environments, it can become incredibly simple to spread illness and infection, which ultimately results in expensive sick days and time taken off work.

With any luck, these tips should provide more context on some of the finer details of office design. If you have an idea in mind and are considering creating practical office environments, then as manufacturers of partition screens and more, there is a bit more which we can do to help. Either check out the Rap Industries website to explore some of the furniture we produce, or give us a call on 01733 394941 for more bespoke advice.

Office Design

Categories
2016 Blogs

How to Solve the Biggest Problems with Office Design

Identifying the Issue

The office is somewhere that we spend at least eight hours a day, five days a week for over 300 days a year. For most of us, we end up spending more of our lives in an office than relaxing at home. What a wonderful thought. This fact is made altogether worse when the office is cramped, too hot, noisy and whatever else grinds your gears. When the first offices started to spring up, they looked to adapt the model of industrial revolution factories. Rows upon rows of workers, furiously working for hours while being overseen by the head of the company. Some modern-day companies may even still run this way, but for the majority, times have changed and office designers are showing a bit more concern for the people who must sit in them all day.

When you spend time in the same environment repeatedly, you will begin to notice the tiniest of details. Cracks in the walls, mysterious smells and creaks in the floorboards, your brain naturally begins to process everything around you. When you work in an office, the same process happens. When the job starts out, everything is fine as you try to absorb the new surroundings. But after a few days, weeks or months, you will unwittingly begin to identify all the sights, smells and noises all around you. The colleagues who you try so hard to get along with can quickly become associated with their mannerisms and these will grow ever worse day by day, unless they are resolved.

Addressing the Prominent Issues with Office Design

With no signs that the open office layout will be fading away any time soon, modern offices are increasingly looking to adapt to some of the major issues which arise from these ‘collaborative workspaces’. The whole idea behind them in the first place is that by placing employees next to each other in a block design will help them to collaborate more as they never have to leave their desk. It serves that purpose fine, but what happens when deadlines begin to loom and pressure starts to mount? How collaborative do you think people are when stress levels begin to reach an unbearable amount? If you have worked in an open office, then you will already know the answer to this.

While open style, collaborative spaces have their benefits, it is still necessary to create areas which allow people to have privacy and the conditions to concentrate. Fortunately, it is not necessary to create permanent, separate spaces. Instead, modern furniture and technology can help to transform existing spaces, making them more effective and ultimately more productive. These also need to take into consideration that individuals will often have different work styles. While some may thrive in busy spaces, others can begin to feel overwhelmed and it is important to have those quiet areas where they can retreat to.

Distractions, Distractions, Distractions

There are three main factors which drag the concept of the open plan office down; noise, privacy and comfort. One of the main reasons why the trend of working from home is on the rise is the fact that it directly addresses these three issues. Unfortunately, the nature of the work that many office workers do means that this arrangement is not always possible, which is why interior designers are increasingly working towards replicating the same conditions of a home into the office. In essence, this means cutting down on both audible and visual distractions.

One of the major flaws with a lot of solutions that you find online is that they call for modern office design to create separate areas which are adapted to either a collaborative space or a private space. This is fine for organisations with large offices, but as a result, this hardly leaves many options for small businesses. Fortunately, with products like desk dividers and partition screens available, it is possible to recreate the conditions without making a large investment.

Noise is perhaps going to be the trickier of the two distractions to combat, especially in small spaces. Considering that sound by nature is very unpredictable, creating an environment which combats it can take some testing to perfect. The solution to combating this is to introduce soft surfaces and if your budget can extend so far, ensure they incorporate acoustic foam. This innovative material is increasingly being used in desk dividers, wall panels, padded flooring… you get the picture. On a basic level, sound reverberates by bouncing off hard surfaces, so if you fill the area with soft surfaces equipped with acoustic foam, this will actively combat reverberation time, effectively reducing ambient background noise.

The Benefits of Perfecting Office Design

The perks of creating an effective workspace can often be hidden, however it will begin to reflect on your business long term. While it is perhaps unreasonable to expect all your employees to be giving 110% as soon as the new design installed, the biggest difference will start to appear once crunch time begins to hit. With a work space, which promotes collaboration while still providing privacy, this provides employees with more freedom to concentrate and get on with their work. If working with colleagues is required, then the proximity means that this is easy to achieve. Yet if they require peace and quiet to focus, they can retreat behind the desk dividers and block the most prominent distractions.

For over 40 years, Rap Industries have been designing and manufacturing office furniture which is tailored to meet the changing needs of clients. With partition screens, desk dividers and much more available, each is extensively tested to ensure they can improve any office environment. For more information on the services provided, please visit the site, give us a call on 01733 394941 or send an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.

Office Design

Categories
2016 Blogs

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Find the Perfect Office Partitions

Office Partitions

How to Get the Most Out of Office Partitions

Okay, we’ll admit, office partitions are not going to be the most exciting part of re-designing your office or open plan space. That said, they do serve a crucial practical aspect of office design which you cannot afford to ignore in the long run. Why? Because lacking due care and attention for the practicalities of the design can lead to major issues in the future concerning stress, health and wellbeing. Quite important considering these have occasionally been enamoured as a ‘glorified sheet of wood’. Most offices, classrooms and meeting rooms appear to the naked eye as a naturally forming collection of chairs and desks, so it might come as a surprise that some interior designers get paid thousands to design these things.

So why? Assuming you have ever worked in an office, then you are probably already quite aware of some of the perennial issues. Chatty neighbours who have yet to find the mute volume; colleagues attempting to block everyone else out in the room with headphones, yet inadvertently annoying everyone else with that tin-like crackle escaping from the pods and your boss who spends the majority of the day, furiously rattling out e-mails by punching the keys into their keyboard. Each environment is unique and everyone has their own pet peeves, but once we latch onto one of these, they are nigh-on impossible to escape.

What Is the Point?

If you were around in the 70s, 80s or even 90s then you might have had the pleasure of working in what is now affectionately known as the cubicle. This represented the first and what we now know as a misguided attempt to address noise and distractions which grew horribly out of control in plain open plan environments. Rather than going back to that open design, reform is required in order to find a balance between the idyllic, collaborative workspace and a private area which provides the conditions which humans need to concentrate and thrive.

Office partitions feature many tailored designs which are aimed towards addressing this exact issue. Their main purpose is to create privacy in areas where it is not normally found. While the screen itself is effective in addressing visual distractions which are commonplace in environments such as these, it is the options available with them which enables them to be incredibly effective in a variety of different spaces. Productivity is one of the main beneficiaries of successfully installed office partitions, however they can also be effective at boosting wellbeing and even happiness.

The Fine Details:

Thinking of stereotypical partition screens and often one of the first things which comes to mind is that murky looking fabric, available in miserable greens and depressing shades of red. Fortunately, some scientists also did some research into how our surroundings affect our brain, so now they can be customised in a number of ways which is going to ‘stimulate our minds and get the creative juices flowing’. The possibilities do not stop there either, instead, many suppliers can finish the screens with a variety of different materials, which allows them to adapt to different environments. Safeguard medical screens for example incorporate an anti-bacterial fabric, which actively combats the spread of illness and disease. Modern day office partitions offer substantially more to your business now; epitomising the term, multi-purpose.

One of the options which is incredibly useful, but you would never notice is the introduction of acoustic foam. If you have ever set foot into some fancy offices, then chances are, there is acoustic foam integrated all around you. Into wall panels, ceilings, screens and more, acoustic foam which is traditionally used in recording studios is increasingly being used in offices to help create more productive work environments. So why bother? We’ve already identified that audible distractions are one of the biggest nuances in the modern day office and acoustic foam is designed to directly address that. It is never going to be able to block out the sound of your noisy colleagues completely, but it is incredibly effective at soaking up soundwaves, which reduces the reverberation time and altogether ‘dampening’ the noise in busy offices.

How Can I Make the Most of Them?

Start by looking around at the options available as many manufacturers will create them in different styles with a myriad of options. Office partitions should be viewed as a long term investment, so be on the lookout for good quality screens which you know will actively be able to improve your office. If you wish to reduce the ambient background noise in your environment, then be sure to find acoustic screens which are legitimately tested, tried and proven to work. Then once they arrive, experiment with how they integrate in your environment. Soundwaves are incredibly unpredictable and completely invisible, so while a layout may look great, you may not be getting the best acoustic result.

Most of the office partitions which you will find are available in three different styles; free-standing, desk screens and desk dividers. Free-standing screens are ideal for completely separating a space, essentially creating the illusion of two separate rooms while allowing them to be merged back into one of it is ever required. Desk screens on the other hand do the bulk of the work when combatting noisy colleagues. These simply stand in between desks, allowing the design to retain that open office style whilst installing an acoustic-proof panel which in the long term will be able to help your employees to concentrate. Finally, there are desk dividers, these will simply clamp to the desk and offer a more convenient if slightly less-effective solution for creating office partitions.

If you are looking for a place to start when it comes to office partitions, then we manufacture a wide range high quality screens which will give you a good place to begin the search. With fabrics such as anti-bacterial and acoustic screens included, as manufacturers we can tailor office partitions to ensure they actively improve your office environment. For further guidance on the service we provide, you can either give us a call on 01733 394941 or send an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.

Office Partitions

Categories
2016 Blogs

How Room Dividers Can Be Used to Solve Your Privacy Crisis

Acoustic Pods
Partially Closed Acoustic Pods

Why Privacy Matters So Much to Us

Every business relies on its workforce to succeed which means that every business is always striving to find the means to squeeze every last bit of effort out of them. The past century has seen some innovative and creative ideas implemented while others borderline the ridiculous. However, often the factors that many designers and business owners overlook are the simple necessities in life. If your open plan environment is still rife with stress, discomfort and bears no resemblance to a productive workspace even after a re-design, then chances are you need to look between the lines to find a solution.

Rather than blaming workplace inefficiency on employees in a whim, take step back and look at the environment as a whole and if necessary, call in an objective voice to help. While many modern office designs can look stunning and more than enough to feature in your monthly newsletter, the real root of their success runs much deeper. If you were to hire a professional interior designer, chances are they would begin to explain the concept of human needs. While open plan environments can look remarkable, they are often built around the idea of keeping employees warm, well fed, well-watered and ultimately comfortable within their environment.

Prioritising Effective Work Spaces

When you are hearing about these wonderful new offices that Silicon Valley start-ups are creating; the idea that having food within 100 metres of every employee sounds like a ridiculous luxury. But it should not be. The fact is that this is a feature that we enjoy at home and it is that atmosphere which modern day design is attempting to re-create. Rather than moving our living rooms into the office, the aim is to create environments which are comfortable for people to work in. Once they are satisfied and devoid of distractions, this is when they can work efficiently and effectively.

There was once a stigma over working from home, that it provided the opportunity to slack off and rush whatever work had to be done in an hour. The reality has been very different. By working in a comfortable environment, the benefit for employees has been comfortable surroundings which allow them to operate at an effective level throughout the day. Rather than procrastinating in the office, waiting for the ambience of the surroundings to die down, instead they are able to work, distraction free for short and frequent intervals.

Common Invasions of Privacy While Working

Now, the issue is finding the right balance between the comfortable environment of home and integrating it with the often manic style of the modern day office. Other than creating individual, private offices, there is no way of removing distractions completely. Larger companies tend to work around this with completely separate workspaces tailored to different moods, but we understand that this kind of setup is incredibly unrealistic for smaller businesses. Therefore, the solution needs to be a compromise, creating a pseudo-private environment with all of the perks of a collaborative workspace.

This is what room dividers and acoustic screens are tailored towards. The nature of their design is focused towards cutting down on some of the more common distractions that you tend to run into in any office. The drone of conversations and seemingly perennial phone ringing are a couple of the worst culprits. Meanwhile, visual distractions are a regular disturbance, even if you rarely notice. I would wager that at some point whilst reading this post, you will have glanced up for some reason, whether to look out of the window, checked out what your colleague is harking and raving about and so on.

Using Room Dividers to Create Privacy in Any Environment

At which point, you are probably wondering why room dividers have any impact at all considering distractions are often an issue in close-knit environments. Well, firstly their obvious design focuses on diving open plan spaces, creating this idea that the space is separate, without the need for a brick & mortar wall. If you consider why homeowners use room dividers in their home, then chances are there is a more practical element behind the decision, rather than just a stylistic one. In terms of office design, room dividers come in many different shapes and sizes, some allow natural light to flow through, others are completely mobile and many can even be finished with a variety of different materials.

Where room dividers and office screens really come into their own is the introduction of acoustic foam. This is a material which you may commonly associate with fancy recording studios, equipped with that strange triangular material on the walls which supposedly block the noise and prevent it from escaping. Well, that last part is somewhat a myth, but acoustic foam is incredibly effective at absorbing soundwaves; not entirely, but enough to regain control of volume levels in open plan office environments. If you are constantly being harassed by a particularly boisterous colleague across the room, then acoustic room dividers can be extremely effective at soaking a lot of it up, before it becomes a constant niggle.

Resolving the Privacy Crisis

Creating environments which are comfortable for employees can take time and a little bit of investment. While large organisations may be able to afford to bring in an acoustic engineer, small businesses would be better off experimenting with soft furniture and soft surfaces which are naturally effective at absorbing ambient noise. The issues with each office will be unique, so there will need to be extensive self-examination to determine which solution will work best in your environment. On a basic level though, room dividers and office screens can go a long way to creating a degree of privacy for employees as they are able to address both audible and visual distractions.

If room dividers and office screens sound as though they could be effective in your office, then we do design and manufacture a variety of styles here at Rap Industries. We’ve been in the industry for over 40 years, which has allowed us to develop extensive expertise in the sector while working with clients to address the issues in their workplace.

Room Dividers

Categories
2016 Blogs

Why Acoustic Screens are the Future of Modern Office Design

Creating Workspaces Which Optimise and Energise Employees

Office design has been the subject of a great deal of study over the past few decades and for good reason. Considering millions of us spend up to and beyond eight hours a day sat behind a desk, it makes sense that we try to understand that environment as much as possible. Our careers and the job we do is often about much more than the work involved and employers as well as designers are constantly trying to find ways to make employees more productive and more effective. Some may take a traditional approach of bonuses and prizes, while others take a more practical approach and attempt to find the means to help employees enjoy their job.

While the design of the office may seem unsuspecting, it can actually have a major influence on employee satisfaction and productivity. The reality is, if we hate the place where we work for just one of a number of reasons, then this crushes motivation and begins to decrease efficiency. Ultimately, it can be a revolving cycle unless the route cause is addressed. Distractions are one of the major causes of disruption, especially within open plan offices and these can often spawn further complications with stress and anxiety further along the road.

The Key for Managing Distractions

In recent years, there has been a huge upswing in the number of people working from home and according to them, this has made them more efficient. The main reason for this is that there is more privacy in the home. You are not constantly interrupted by the constant hum of background chatter or regularly interrupted by a telephone crying out to be picked up. Instead, they are able to take work at their pace, without the constant distractions and this has actually led to improvement. The result has seen modern office designs try to adopt what makes this approach to working so successful; comfort.

Cutting out distractions altogether in open plan environments is pretty much impossible thanks to physics, which is why many of the modern offices that you read about today take a slightly different approach. Often this is to create separate areas; one for communal work, where employees can communicate and liaise while working on a project and then another which encourages silence, privacy and the space for employees to concentrate when they really need it. Sounds simple enough, but for the majority of small businesses, being able to integrate this is not feasible. There is no room for a huge office, instead employees are housed in enclosed spaces which can become a cacophony of noise.

What Makes Acoustic Screens So Effective?

This is where Acoustic Screens are becoming such an effective solution. The cubicle office design of the 1960s may have been an unmitigated mess, but it did strike upon a few key points which have a positive impact for employers. Modern day acoustic screens often come in three different forms; as standalone screens, desk dividers and as wall panels. On a base level, these help to create partial partitions in office environments, which when used correctly, can drastically reduce the number of visual distractions and creating an element of privacy for employees. In particular, this can reduce a common worry of people looking over your shoulder at what you are doing as well as becoming distracted by what others are doing across the office.

But what really sets them apart compared to other elements which are part of modern office design is their introduction of acoustic foam. Tackling acoustical design is often one of the hidden demons in any open environment. It is pretty easy to make it look glamorous when you use your eyes, but protecting against sound waves presents a completely different challenge. They cannot be seen by the naked eye, they are unpredictable and they can niggle away at you every day before they simply become too much.

At the core of solving this is introducing soft surfaces which absorb some of these sound waves, rather than letting them bound from surface to surface until they run out of energy. So if you were considering a stylish hardwood floor for your new office, perhaps reconsider unless you enjoy listening to recurring echoes for eight hours and more a day. Instead, acoustic screens ensure you don’t have to cover the walls with carpet as the acoustic foam integrated within the screen is clinically proven to help absorb soundwaves and reduce reverberation time. While it is impossible to block out ambient noise altogether, an acoustically controlled environment can make life easier for everyone when they don’t have to hear every word of every conversation throughout the day.

Integrating Acoustic Screens into a Modern Design

So acoustic screens can be remarkably effective in busy open plan environments, the next step is to fit them in with the design you have in mind in the first place. Options such as acoustic wall panels are clever ways of introducing the acoustic foam without having screens scattered through the space. While they may struggle to absorb noise coming straight towards you, they will help to absorb ambient background noise which is bouncing across the office. Alternatively, acoustic screens excel the most when used in between desks. Creating a collaborative workspace requires tender balance, and quality screens help to achieve this. They soak up soundwaves heading towards you from across the office, while they also provide relief from visual distractions when you are trying to concentrate.

If you approach a specialist manufacturer, there are a huge number of variations available which can be tailored with your office space in mind. This includes straight or curved panels; fabric or glazed panels and a wide range of customisations such as colour and size, meaning they are able to enhance the office environment. Especially in smaller spaces, acoustic screens are an increasingly effective way to create privacy and comfort for employees, providing them with a solid foundation from which to work and concentrate.

As a manufacturer of acoustic screens and room dividers, here at Rap Industries we have a number of ranges which are tailored towards making your office environment more practical. You can check them out online, or alternatively you can get in touch with our advisors who can provide additional information. They can be reached by calling 01733 394941 or by sending an e-mail to sales@rapdind.com.

Categories
2016 Blogs

8 Factors You Must Address When Re-designing Your Office

Open Plan Office Screens

What Makes the Design of the Office So Important?

Chances are, if you are looking into re-designing your office, then you have already begun to understand the impact that it can have on the efficiency of your business. From the colour of the walls to how big the windows are, there are a range of different factors which can influence how effectively employees can concentrate and the length of time in which you can expect them to remain focused. Some of the greatest office designs are simple in theory, but in the planning phase, the design must be tailored and adapted to the space in order to make it as effective as possible.

The key to creating an ideal office design, is being able to balance privacy with a collaborative work space. This means ensuring the means are available for staff to press on with work when required, while still having the means to communicate with others when their schedule permits. Such a setup is challenging to establish, but with the necessary due care and attention taken beforehand, an ideal design such as this is attainable and can provide significant benefits in areas which you may never have considered before.

Lighting

If employees are going to be sat at their desk for the majority of the day, then this first factor is important to consider. While it is necessary to have light of any type in the rooms to stop eyes from becoming strained, it is even more integral to allow natural light to flow through. Large windows, glazed screens or even skylights are all different tools which can be used to allow natural light in. Being exposed to this as opposed to synthetic light helps employees to sleep for longer, concentrate more, think more creatively, thereby helping to improve their mood and reduce stress. All in all, a lot of benefits to be had here.

Comfortable Furniture

If your office is still equipped with rickety old chairs, then they should definitely be the first thing which you throw out. Especially in situations where staff can be sat down for up to 8 hours a day, the prospect of doing so on a seat which is firm and squeaky is hardly going to get their mood up. Ergonomic desk chairs and comfortable seating in break spaces are hugely beneficial long term. Your employees are less likely to have issues with back or neck problems and it can also help to boost concentration as that perennial squeaking noise will finally be thrown out.

Keep The Space Clean and Tidy

It does not take an individual with OCD to become stressed out at the sight of a cluttered office space which makes it impossible to find things. With the advent of computers, there is no excuse for having paper lying around and for offices to be looking like a dump. Encouraging employees to keep their work space tidy can further benefit them as it helps to keep the mind tidy and focused on the task at hand.

Colour

As you are reading this, you probably have not been taking much notice of the colour of the environment around you. The walls, office partitions, and even your mug may appear minor, but colour can have a significant impact on the mood of your employees. Shades of red can help to bring out passion and aggression, while yellows are much better in creative spaces. It all boils down to what we associate colours with. So for example, when we think of green, one of our initial responses is grass and the countryside, which we immediately begin to associate with being calming and soothing. So while your company logo may be red, splattering that around the office whilst people are trying to be creative is less likely to result in the fantastic designs which you may have been hoping for.

Temperature

Temperature is quite obvious and there is no trickery of the mind involved. If the office space is poorly ventilated, then staff will begin to get too hot, stress levels will rise and before you know it you will regret having that fancy floral centrepiece over an air conditioning system. If the temperature is monitored and maintained throughout the day, then that is one thing less for employees to worry about.

Noise Levels

Noise levels are a factor which we feel very strongly about. There is nothing more frustrating than having to listen to the IT guy (or whoever else for that matter!) clicking a pen for 6 hours a day. This is particularly an issue in open office spaces where it is very easy for sound waves to bounce around and when there are over 10 people sat in an office, this just causes volume levels to rise and rise throughout the day. The unpredictable nature of sound waves also makes it one of the harder factors to address. While there are some more elaborate suggestions available, as a rule of thumb, introduce lots of soft surfaces like carpet and office screens for example, which can help to soak up the ambient office noise before it becomes too much of an issue.

Ensure The Space is Organised

If your business is growing, then this is great news for your company but bad news for your office design. More employees as a result leads to increasing noise levels, further distractions and it could potentially slow your growth levels down. So when re-designing, consider where desks are going to go, are one team going to be crammed into a corner when the space can be more effectively used by someone else? These are the types of issues which will only arise when the re-design is all said and done.

Brand The Space

Finally, you should treat your office like a showroom, even if you are only having visitors once a month. Having your branding visible creates the perception that you are established, trustworthy and that ultimately they are in the right place.

Office Screens

Categories
2016 Blogs

Why Privacy Should Be a Crucial Consideration in your Office Design

Office Design

When we think of modern office design, the first image that comes to mind is an expansive white space with light bouncing across the room. Picture perfect. The actual practicality of an environment like this is up for debate however. As we have moved away from cubicle style offices as well as series of individual offices, it is hard to escape the fact that the open plan office remains the most popular design available today. For one, it’s incredibly cost effective compared to other designs, all that is really required is a large open space which can be given a lick of paint. But while it seems an easy solution, there are a number of drawbacks which are hard to escape.

The whole idea behind having an open office is that they are supposed to ‘foster collaboration’ and make employees more productive. All your staff, working in close proximity, giving each other gentle encouragement with friendly pats on the back. Idyllic. So what happens when stress levels start to rise? Your account manager’s ‘unique’ laugh was a novelty when you first moved into the office, but now it is grinding you down every time you can hear it bounding across the office. You can’t escape the fact that colleagues flanked either side of you keep rearing their heads to see what you are doing. All of a sudden the idea of working as part of a team goes out of the window as you begin to suffocate from the restrictive nature which a poorly designed open plan office will deliver.

Why Do We Value Privacy So Much?

If you have ever worked in an open plan office… and if you are reading this I would wager that you have, you will probably be well versed in the pitfalls of the bullring style ‘collaborative work space’. If not and especially if you are re-designing your office, please listen in closer for the sake of your employees. Privacy is not something we are thankful for every day, but it is something we very much notice once it is taken away. In a wider context, imagine if your medical records were leaked, your issues at home spreading like wildfire at work or that *thing* you did when you were 18 years old and thought it would never the light of day again. How would that make you feel?

Having a colleague peering over your shoulder at work for 6 hours a day isn’t quite as drastic as these examples, but while it is manageable for a couple of days, the frustration of it all builds up. While you are trying to meet your deadline, all you can hear is the laughter booming from the other side of the office and phones ringing off the hook. When this happens, all you can hope to happen is to block out your surroundings in the hope of actually getting some work done. But simplistic open plan office designs do not facilitate this, they forget the intricacies of human relationships and they neglect the fact that everyone is different.

Office Design Needs Balance

By this point, you may be wondering how large companies such as Google which has set the benchmark in recent years for open office design, has been able to subvert some of these issues. Quite simply, they provide a variety of spaces for staff, some where they can sit with others and collaborate while they work. Then there are others which allow employees to sit in private, shut out the world around them and get on with the task at hand. Okay, so you don’t have a multi-acre estate to create a layout like this, but examples such as this highlights the importance of creating environments which allow staff privacy while still having the option to interact with others.

Headphone usage has been on the rise recently as bosses allow their usage so staff can focus, but this does not eliminate the issue of visual distractions. One solution for this can be to introduce Office Screens. These can add a splash of colour to the space especially if it has been whitewashed and more deluxe versions even integrate acoustic foam which can help to soak up some of that frustrating ambient noise which keeps bouncing over from the other side of the office.

What Should Be Considered…

Every work area is different, so this will require some thinking on your part. However, there is a fine line between giving someone privacy and simply just placing an employee in a box. Ask someone who worked in a cubicle what they thought of that. Open spaces are great when they are tempered with areas where staff can focus on one task at a time. Just because of all the space you have does not mean you need to fit in a desk wherever possible. Crowded offices become very noisy at peak times and can you seriously expect efficient work when teams are constantly trying to talk over each other?

Before you start, it would be beneficial to find out thoughts of those already working in the office, what is their pet peeve with the current design? To enable your employees to work at their optimum, it is important to integrate a design which allows them to get on with work at their pace. It is perhaps unrealistic to expect everyone to work 100% in every minute of the day, so the conditions need to be created so that when they are working, they are not constantly distracted by audible and visual distractions.

Office Design


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