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Most business and office space owners don’t need to be told that the condition of their lobby is important. The lobby is your first impression, on customers, prospects, and potential future employees. It’s where you welcome everyone who visits your business. As you know of course, your first impression matters, and it immediately sets the tone for any visitor’s view of your company.

You may make steps to keep your lobby clean, decorated with pictures, and furnished with updated tables and chairs. But have you thought about how you can improve that all-important first impression your lobby makes?

A recent article from our friends at Haworth® (see the link below) offers multiple suggestions to help make your lobby a more inviting place. These steps can help create an aura of professionalism and success around your company and brand:

Ways To Improve Your Lobby + Its Impact

1) Use calming colors. A plain white wall may avoid creating any kind of mood, but you can improve on that. When you use more colors, it gives life to the room, and using natural colors like sea blue or sand beige can give your visitors a similar feeling of calm. If you already prominently feature a brighter, hot color like red, you can try adding hues for a more natural look.

2) Professional cleaning. If you make sure to dust, vacuum, polish and straighten out your lobby on a consistent basis, you give your visitors a look that says your company is on top of everything. Regular carpet shampooing, spot cleaning and of course, consistent garbage disposal also ensures that you’re looking after the health of your employees and customers.

3) New paint. Painting a room with a fresh coat of a calming color is inexpensive, and can make a world of difference in your lobby’s atmosphere. It’s an easy way to add a new look to your lobby space.

4) Sustainability. The world is moving towards more sustainability wherever possible, and you can show that you embrace that. Try adding eco-friendly furniture and other elements, made with recyclable materials.

5) Use the outdoors! While people have mostly returned to the workplace, they are openly embracing being outdoors as much as possible. Many companies are responding to this by creating outdoor spaces where employees can gather when weather permits. You can give your lobby a more outdoors type of feel, with plants and water features, and give off a healthy, relaxing vibe.

6) Give the lobby additional purpose. If your lobby is spacious enough, why not have it double as a break room or meeting area for employees? Adding a coffee bar and other amenities will not only make visitors feel more welcome. In addition, it can help you turn the lobby into a meeting area as well, and maximize your space.

Want To Find Out More?

As you can see, your lobby offers multiple opportunities to enhance your company’s brand, image and impression. Why not see how you can improve it?

If you’d like more ideas for your lobby, reach out to the professionals at Bellia Interiors Group! We can help create a whole new, more inviting and efficient space for your office. What’s more, our office improvement offers a true return on your investment.

Click here for a free work and space evaluation, and let us help you love the space you’re in!

Source: https://www.haworth.com/na/en/spark/articles/2021/q3/6-ways-to-enhance-any-lobby-area.html

It goes without saying that employees are less productive in a distracting environment. An office full of external conversations, visitors, and other concentration disruptions isn’t conducive to efficiency. Furthermore, distractions turning up in frequent situations increases stress. That stress contributes to employee burnout, slower production and decreased quality of output.

The desire to work in a quiet, relaxed environment is a factor in employees choosing to remain working remotely when possible. As a result, however, the increase in remote employees decreases the level of collaboration, which is sometimes necessary for production.

Bringing Quiet Spaces To The Office

Our partners at Haworth® are always on the cutting edge of office design solutions. Their new “HushHybrid” office pods offer a solution to the need for quiet spaces. Put simply, the HushHybrid is a separate, small enclosed space that employees can use for a quiet space to work.

The HushHybrid includes a built-in table, soft seating and LED lighting. It features a freestanding design, with integrated casters that make it easy to move to any office location. The enclosed pods are effectively ventilated, contain standard power outlets and ports, and include a thermally fused laminate work surface.

With the HushHybrid, an employee can retreat to a quieter space and focus on individual work without noise and other distractions. It’s easy to use the pod for a phone call or quick solo project. At the same time, your employees can still gather and take advantage of collaborative spaces in the workplace, including with larger pods for closed-door type meetings. Finally, the HushHybrid can offer a space where an employee can take a few minutes to simply de-stress in a quiet area.

A More Efficient + Less Distracting Workplace

With increasing options to encourage employees to return to the workplace, Bellia and Haworth® are helping you to maximize your employee productivity and wellness. Our solutions can turn your work spaces into effective and less stressful places for employees to be. The HushHybrid makes it possible for a remote employee who is simply looking for fewer distractions to return to the workplace.

You can find out more about the HushHybrid office pods here on the Haworth® website. If you’re interested in adding a modern touch to improve your workspace, reach out to the professionals at Bellia for a free work and space evaluation today! We turn your offices into more efficient and productive spaces that provide a real return on your investment. We’re looking forward to helping you love the space you’re in!

If someone mentions signage in the workplace to you, you might think of simple, directional signage…maybe instructing visitors where the cafeteria is, or the name of the company and maybe a slogan on the wall. But have you given thought to the impact that colorful, well-designed signage can truly have? When considering a new office design, try giving some thought to how signage can transform your space – and the difference it can make to your employees, customers, and prospects.

Make A Statement With Your Signage

Like the rest of your office space, your signage design speaks to your culture…it can grab a visitor’s attention, and it can convey a message you want to send. When your signage displays beautiful graphics, your company’s value proposition, or a testimonial or statistic, it gets the viewer’s attention…and makes them curious. Effective signage can go beyond representing your logo and brand; it can truly leave a lasting impact in your prospect’s mind.

Imagine replacing the small pictures and posters from that lengthy wall with a fully colored mural that describes all of the selling points of your company, or simply creates a beautiful atmosphere. Beautifully and smartly arranged pictures, graphics, statistics, slogans, or quotes…it can all drive your message home.

Companies such as Takeform are dedicated to creating signage that includes attention grabbing artwork in your offices and retail spaces. You can start from scratch with a design team, or express your vision and have it come to life. To see what we’re talking about, check out some beautiful examples of their completed projects here, and see how effectively signage design works to establish a company’s identity and brand.

As you can see, the possibilities are limitless, and suddenly something as simple as a wall or hallway presents endless branding opportunities. In addition, effective, targeted signage can truly reflect your company’s dedication, and it’s without doubt an edge over companies that don’t take advantage of the opportunity.

Use Your Space…Transform It With Beautiful Signage.

Take the pictures off of that plain wall and replace it a mural, artwork, photos, or patterns. Signage can ensure that your message is repeatedly spoken…to your employees, your customers, your visitors, and your students. It’s all part of an office design that makes a true difference for your bottom line.

Interested In A New Office Design?

If you operate a business in the greater Philadelphia area or South Jersey, try looking to the experts at Bellia to revitalize your office space! We can help you reshape your space for more creativity, efficiency, and return on your investment. Click here to request your free work and space evaluation, and let us help you love the space you’re in!

While it’s probably not the easiest thing to quantify with numbers, it’s doubtful that any employer would question that a workplace environment affects employees’ energy level. For example, a workplace with stained carpets or overflowing garbage will negatively affect employee morale.

Have you considered the arrangement of your offices and how you can improve it to increase your employees’ enthusiasm level? In an article from the Haworth® site (see link below), they cite a recent renovation conducted by one of their partners, and what everyone learned from the experience.

Specifically, they cited six ways to improve your employees’ energy level through office design.

First, get rid of those tall cubicle walls! When employees can see one another, it makes it easier to collaborate, ask questions, and share ideas. It also helps employees see that everyone in the group is focused on a unified goal. Removing the high walls also allows more light into the workspace, for a better feeling of overall well-being.

Second, create some spaces for employees to gather. You’ve likely heard the phrase “water cooler discussion”, where people gather at the water cooler to talk about current events or sports. Try making that water cooler area a space for employees to gather, foster relationships, and recharge.

But third, make sure employees can have privacy too. At some point, team members will need to think and find solutions, in a quiet environment. Ideally, there should be a location where workers can go to avoid distractions as much as possible.

Fourth, ensure that your office environment supports employee health. Maybe make water and healthy snacks available in some areas. Add adjustable desks so workers can stand if they need to. Can you make a walking space available? Being able to escape for a walk in a pleasant space can be a great boost for employee morale.

Fifth, emphasize your company’s brand! Let your employees know that their work matters. Use active patterns, warm colors, and reflect your culture throughout the workplace.

Finally, but most importantly, consult with your team. Ask them what they need…and listen to what they say. When people are in the trenches every day, they know what they need to be effective. They’ll point out problems, offer ideas, and help you design an office that supports the project life cycle. Most of all, your employees will feel like you’re committed to them…and people respond to that.

These are just a few ways that your company’s office design can make a difference in your workforce’s energy level. But it’s more of an individual taste for each company too, and it’s best to find out what can work for you.

If you’d like to find out more about what an innovative office design can do for your workplace, click here to request a free office evaluation from Bellia Office Design. We’ll be happy to meet with you, show you what is possible, and help you love the space you’re in!

Source: https://www.haworth.com/na/en/spark/articles/2019/6-design-tips-to-keep-employees-energized.html

There have been remarkable innovations in office design in recent years, especially as the pandemic created a need more hybrid-oriented positions. That said, there are still challenges to overcome. Most companies require a level of collaboration among employees, and they create specific spaces for doing so. In other cases, a certain amount of interaction is required, even if it’s through Zoom meetings or phone conversations. So, how does it all affect your employees’ ability to focus on everyday tasks at hand?

As more companies use available space for collaborative work, it can impact an employee’s ability to complete individual tasks.

No “One Size Fits All” Solution

A recent article on the Haworth® website (see link below) discussed the need for companies to respect the challenge of completing tasks efficiently. As the article states, different employees focus differently, and different work activities require a different level of focus. If an employee is familiar with a task, for example, that employee can much more easily complete that task even if there are outside distractions. Conversely, when an employee is learning a unfamiliar task, their level of focus is much more important, and should be free of interruption.

The article also points out that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Allowing employees to work remotely is a start, since an employee can choose to work at home or elsewhere and avoid background noise. But more importantly, what sort of things are pulling employees away from tasks? Are they frequently interrupted and asked to deal with different tasks? Do they frequently get inundated with non-related information while working? Are there simply constant interruptions?

There are multiple ways an office design and re-organization can help reduce distractions and improve employee focus. A company can create enclosed individual spaces where employees can settle in and complete tasks. An office redesign can also include improved noise reduction and acoustics. In addition, a company can add visual boundaries to control and reduce interruptions.

Ultimately, the best solution for a company looking to improve employee focus is to understand the company culture and identify points of distraction. From there, they can redesign their workstations and collaborative spaces accordingly.

Find Out More About How To Improve Employee Focus + Collaboration

Would you like to find out more about how to design spaces that improve employee focus and overall performance? Reach out to the professionals at Bellia today! We’ll be happy to show you how a new office design can create a more productive and positive environment for your employees. Click here for a free workspace evaluation, and let us help you love the space you’re in!

Source: https://www.haworth.com/na/en/spark/articles/2019/can-t-focus-at-work-.html

If you operate an office full of employees who are sitting most of the time, it’s probably crossed your mind why ergonomic office chairs are important. What you may not be aware of is that there is a real science to sitting over long periods of time and how it affects employee performance and morale. When someone’s body is supported properly for sustained periods of time, they feel physically healthier, and their job satisfaction improves.

Our partners at Haworth® have published a more detailed ergonomics guide for office employees, which you can download and review from the link below. Just briefly though, here is why ergonomic chairs are more important than you might think.

First, there is the consideration of long term health. Using an insufficient office chair over a long period of time…often many years…can lead to back and neck injuries, as well as affecting shoulders and even legs. If a chair is poorly designed or simply uncomfortable, that can lead to bad posture and slumping, which in turn puts stress on the spine and can cause health problems over time.

A comfortable and well-designed office chair can not only minimize injuries and long term effects, it can also improve productivity. Being uncomfortable in a chair is a distraction and often stressful. When an employer invests in comfortable chairs for their employees, they’re not only helping employees be comfortable and productive, they’re also helping to avoid future absences and health care costs from long term spinal and other deterioration.

Find Out More About The Importance of Ergonomic Office Chairs

In addition to the downloadable ergonomics guide you can find below, the professionals at Bellia are happy to meet with you and show you the difference that well-designed and comfortable office chairs can make for your business.

Let us tell you more about why ergonomic chairs are important to your employees! Reach out to us today, and ask us about the many options we have for furnishing and designing your office, for maximum comfort and productivity. We’ll help you love the space you’re in!

Source: https://www.haworth.com/na/en/knowledge/research/well-being/ergonomics.html?icid=homepage|subfeature2|ergonomics

As offices continue to retool and make the most of their space, and as companies continue to strive for inclusion, there is a growing number of companies that are finding new ways to attract and keep top talent in every demographic. This includes working mothers, especially new mothers, as companies are designing spaces in the office for mothers to nurse their young children.

As a recent article from Haworth® pointed out, the U.S. Department of Labor conducted a study that showed that 58% of women with children under the age of 1 are still a part of the workforce. While there is still a sizable amount of employees working remotely, sometimes it isn’t possible…say, if someone works with classified information in a closed area…and so companies are doing what they can to accommodate working mothers.

This new accommodation includes nursing rooms…private spaces where mothers can safely and privately retreat and care for their young baby. Spaces can be designed for convenience and comfort, including adding lockers for pumping equipment, waste disposal units, sinks, wipe-able fabrics and more. Rooms can be furnished with comfortable seating, adjustable lighting, and aesthetically pleasing artwork.

For a mother to balance a career and a new baby especially is profoundly challenging. Anything an employer can do to assist with that balance will be a useful edge in helping to keep their best professionals not only productive, but comfortable and stable too.

Interested in Helping New Moms In Your Office?

If you’d like to find out more about offering spaces for new mothers in your workplace, and how you can help your best employees achieve ideal work-life balance, reach out to the office design pros at Bellia! We’ll be happy to meet with you and discuss ideas, transformations, and redesigns of your office space, and how to make the best of it for all of your employees.

Click here to request a free workspace evaluation, and let us help you love the space you’re in!

Source: https://www.haworth.com/na/en/spark/articles/2019/how-to-create-spaces-that-empower-mothers-in-your-workplace.html

Are you employing elements of biophilic design in your workplace? Chances are that you are to some extent, even if you’re not familiar with the term. As more and more employees are returning to the workplace, companies are doing more to enhance their working environment. Biophilic design can play a large role in improving the office atmosphere.

First, let’s discuss what the term actually means. Stephen Kellert, a professor at Yale University, is quoted as saying “Biophilic design is an approach that seeks to fuse nature with architecture—not just inspiring natural design but specifically affecting how buildings and communities function.”

It’s probably a bit simplistic to suggest that this simply means adding plants to the office, although that is certainly an element of biophilic design. Ultimately, it involves truly bringing your employees closer to nature however possible. Each added aspect of biophilic design in the office helps reduce stress, and makes for a more comfortable and productive work environment.

Biophilic design includes multiple steps when it comes to remaking an office. Among them are using environmental features such as greenery and water, making the most of sunlight and your office’s space potential, using natural shapes and forms (i.e. using nature-inspired colors and images), and using spaces to improve human relationships.

Introducing a new level of biophilic design in the workplace also promotes sustainable behaviors, and reminds us of the ever-growing importance of nature in a digital age.

While all of this sounds like a modern concept, this idea has actually existed for many decades. The recent pandemic, however, with its effect on employees leaving and then returning to the workplace, helped to place a whole new emphasis on reducing stress in the workplace however possible. Biophilic design can create a whole new environment in your workplace…one that employees truly look forward to being in.

Are you interested in finding out more about this concept, and the difference it can make in your office? Reach out to the office design team at Bellia today, and ask us about how we can improve your office space, your working environment, and your bottom line. We’re happy to help you and your employees love the space you’re in!

Request Your FREE Workspace Evaluation Here!

Sources:
https://www.haworth.com/na/en/spark/articles/2020/biophilic-design.html
https://www.haworth.com/na/en/spark/articles/2022/q3/activating-biophilic-design-in-the-workplace.html

As technology enables us to host meetings where virtual attendance is almost always an option, we’re learning that virtual meetings aren’t always the most effective choice. As a result, companies have been starting to focus on creating hybrid collaborative spaces in the office.

The technology of Zoom meetings and virtual attendance makes it possible for people to collaborate with the team without leaving their home or office desk. But there are a number of problems with this that aren’t plainly obvious at first glance. For one, there’s potential technology troubles, such as equipment not working or employees forgetting to put on the mute button. But there’s also a deeper loss of connection without in person collaboration too.

As employees become increasingly remote and removed from physical attendance, the social network starts to break down. People have fewer “off the record” interactions and conversations, and as a result, share fewer ideas. With online meetings, there is a smaller social component, and there is a greater possibility of “groupthink” taking over the gathering.

So what can companies do to create hybrid spaces to encourage more interaction? As the article in the link below points out, they first should define a space and what it’s meant for, as in social connection or information sharing.

A company should design that space accordingly, with furniture and lighting that enables team members to interact effectively, both with people in the room and on video screens. Privacy is a concern too; companies should encourage interaction while respecting members’ privacy and avoiding distractions.

Ideally, as more and more employees seek to avoid commutes and spend their work time remotely, there needs to be a focus on encouraging their presence, or at least, to help remote employees feel as involved with the company vision as possible. Creating hybrid collaborative spaces in the office, when done properly, can encourage more effective interaction and social relationships, and ultimately help the team function better.

Interested in Improving Collaborative Spaces in Your Office?

If you’d like to find out more about what we can do to help make the most of your collaborative spaces, reach out to the Bellia office design team today! We’ve helped businesses of all kinds make the most of their office space with top quality furniture and design, and we can do the same for you. Let us help you love the space you’re in!

Source: https://www.haworth.com/na/en/spark/articles/2023/q1/4-considerations-for-creating-hybrid-collaborative-spaces.html

If you own or operate a healthcare facility, you know that there are probably other places your patients would rather be spending their day. If your office and waiting room environment is “too clinical”, it can affect your patients’ mood, and give them a less than stellar overall view of your facility.

There are a number of things you can do to improve the look and function of your offices, waiting rooms and examination rooms, and make your healthcare facility more welcoming to your patients, often without heavy expenses. Here are just a few:

5 Tips For A Warm and Welcoming Healthcare Facility

Make enhancements to the facility. Try painting the walls in a light blue or other sort of warm color. Add some plants for a touch of nature in your office, waiting rooms and exam rooms. Natural light always helps, so try to arrange your waiting areas to offer as much light from the windows as possible. Adding nature-inspired artwork on the walls can give a more homey feel too.

Create better organization. Efficiency is vital to running a welcoming healthcare facility. Of course you want your space to feel warm, but it should also include healthy organization so that anything can be found quickly and patients are waiting as little as possible. It also helps to include clear signage and directions, so that staff and patients can easily get around the building.

Improve the waiting area. No one wants to sit in a room and wait for their appointment, but you can make the waiting area as pleasant as possible. In addition to magazines and a television, add a coffee maker (or hot water machine for tea). Including charging stations is an excellent idea, since people naturally turn to their phones for entertainment while waiting. Be sure to make Wi-Fi access available throughout your building.

Improve the examination rooms. Make sure that your exam room furniture is comfortable and that there are privacy curtains and dividers in the examination area. As with the waiting area, you can arrange any furniture and beds for maximum efficiency and comfort.

Make your overall space encouraging. If you can, find a way to display patient testimonials or your company’s achievements. Having pictures of your employees along with their bios is a way to both assure your patients and boost your employee morale.

All of these things, in addition to an efficient arrangement of furniture, will lead to a more welcoming and warm environment for your patients and employees. It’s all part of a facility design that leads to better business.

Are you interested in redesigning your healthcare facility and creating a more welcoming environment for your patients and your employees? Reach out to the office design experts at Bellia today, and request a free workspace evaluation. We’ll be happy to share more ideas with you, and remake your facility to help you love the space you’re in!