Apart from natural talent, our creativity is largely influenced by our surroundings. For artists, an environment can inspire their next museum-worthy piece. For your employees, an ideal creative work environment can foster strong ideas, groundbreaking innovations and closer team connections. With enhanced performance comes favorable results, plus higher rates of employee satisfaction and loyalty – a true win-win situation.
If it’s time to refresh your office space, follow these four tips to inspire a creative work environment:
1. Embrace Diversity
A homogenous workforce can often be the death of creativity. Instead of hiring carbon copies, build a diverse workforce of workers who can supply varying perspectives and levels of expertise. A healthy work environment is one where employees can learn from each other, working together to deliver better results.
2. Encourage Collaboration
While a diverse team is an important step toward a more creative work environment, there has to be opportunity for such a multitalented team of employees to collaborate. Communicate this value to employees, letting them know that the company moves forward as a dedicated and connected team. Additionally, make sure the office space is set up with several communal areas for employees to easily meet and work together.
3. Give Everyone a Chance
It’s important for employees to feel like their peers and superiors respect what they have to say. The Forbes Coaches Council offered advice for giving all members of the team – introverts and extroverts alike – a voice for contributing ideas: Take brainstorm sessions offline. Group together in a collaborative space. Have every employee take the time to generate a few creative ideas for a project, then come together to share and discuss everyone’s contributions. This gives each employee a chance to collect his or her thoughts, and avoids allowing only the loudest voice in the room from overpowering the quiet ones.
4. Offer Flexible Work Hours
Some employees work better in the early hours of the morning, and some of us are barely functioning until midmorning. When possible, offer your employees the option to build their own schedules. There are those who will flock to the traditional 9-to-5, and others who will be much happier working 11-to-7. If they can effectively complete their tasks remotely, consider allowing employees to also work from home occasionally. Mixing up the work environments can help get the creative juices flowing and eliminate the stress of commuting, both of which allow employees to focus their energies on what really matters.
Profiles Creative Recruitment
Staffing creative talent is key to fostering an ideal work environment. Great employees bring creative energy that elevates your team’s performance, both through their personal performance and enhanced collaborations with other team members. The creative recruitment specialists at Profiles can match you with this top talent and help you improve your office environment with the right employees.
