Millennials Will Fail Without These Workspace Setups

Millennials grew up with collaboration and expects that in their workplace. It’s time to think of redesigning your workplace to encourage brainstorming, team work, and creative thinking. And yes, that means saying “rest in peace” to cubicles.

Down With The Walls

Millennials in the workplace don’t want to retreat into a private space and become a human silo. This group craves collaboration. And the first step to indulging them is tearing down those cubes. A study by Knoll found these advantages of moving from cubicles to an open floor plan:

• Performance increased by an average of 440%
  
  
• There was a 5.5% reduction in business process time and cost

Walls are an obstacle for communication, so don’t keep them up. Instead, try grouping desks together or creating rows where employees can face each other. Whatever your decision, make sure your workers can talk to their colleagues without having to shout or move too far.

Give Them The Space

Getting rid of walls was step one. The second step is to create spaces for collaboration. While meeting rooms are ideal, they’re not always readily available. Here are some ideas for informal and formal meeting spaces:

• Meeting tables: Scatter tables around the office where employees can quickly come together. Put up a whiteboard on the wall, and you’ve got a faux meeting room. Having these tables promotes and encourages spontaneous ideation.
  
  
• Break rooms: Draw employees from their desks by giving them a space where they can interact spontaneously. Idle chit chat around the watercooler mainly revolves around work-related subjects, and you never know when a brilliant idea might pop up.
  
  
• Formal meeting rooms: Don’t forget to still have rooms that can be scheduled. Having enclosed rooms is great for sensitive topics or when you need to gather a large party.

According to an IdeaPaint survey, millenials reported that only 30.8% of their ideation meetings are planned. So make sure your workplace has designated spaces where employees can quickly gather.

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