Depending on your work environment, you may or may not already allow personalization of workspace. For the longest time, particularly in open offices where everything can be seen, facilities managers have discouraged personalization. There is the idea that a neat, orderly environment with identical workspaces promotes efficiency – even though studies over the years have demonstrated that this is not true.
The Advantages of Personalized Workspace
There’s been quite a bit written about allowing each worker to add some individual touches to their workspace. One such study, “Office Clutter or Meaningful Personal Displays: The Role of Office Personalization in Employee and Organizational Well-Being” conducted by Meredith M. Wells in 2000, provides plenty of insight into the idea. Adding some pictures, mementos, and other trinkets is demonstrated to have positive effects on the workforce.
- Personalization is a form of marking territory, and it can help to foster a connection with the new environment for new workers
- Personalization can make the work place feel like more of a home, and co-workers feel more like family members, as they can learn more about each other and will have more connections.
- Adding some humor or whimsy to an otherwise monotonous environment that is lacking in stimulus can help to elevate the moods of the worker and other workers around them.
- Having personal displays can provide motivation to the worker during the day. For instance, the writer of this article keeps pictures of places he has been and places he wants to go on his computer desktop and around his workspace to remind him of why he works hard.
- There are also advantages for the employer – Wells’ study indicated that the companies that allowed personalization had better employee morale, better social climates, and lower turnover rates than those that did not.
Clutter, or Meaningful Displays?
There is a fine line between an organized display that has meaning, and general clutter. Clutter can create hazards, and just looks bad, especially if customers come in to the office. Make sure your employees understand that their personal displays are to be orderly, kept to their particular workspace, and otherwise not intrusive on the office as a whole. A small plant is fine – a tall palm tree is not. Anything that may intrude into the workspace of others, or may be a cause for office-wide distraction, shouldn’t be acceptable.
Dealing with Perception
Of course, sometimes personalized work spaces might be a bit off the mark. Allowing employees to post cartoons, religious symbols or political matter can touch off disagreements. Set forth some rules at the beginning so as to avoid any possible HR issues down the road. Personalization should not lead to co-workers being offended, or feeling uncomfortable. Encourage employees to use displays that they feel the entire office can appreciate.
Shared Workspaces
The personalization of shared workspace can be a bit touchy. This includes cubicles that workers rotate in and out of, movable workspaces like trucks and forklifts, and public areas.
- In trucks and forklifts, displays should be limited, for safety sake. Photographs should be allowed, as long as they don’t impede views. They should be removed at the end of a shift if the vehicle is used by a different worker on the next shift.
- In cubicles or desks where workers rotate through, the personalization should be sparse, and easy to set up and remove. Company time shouldn’t be wasted every day putting up or taking down the displays.
- In areas like the water cooler or coffee desk, the only personalization should be things that the entire workforce can appreciate. Relevant comics that will not offend anyone, company photographs or calendars, and similar displays are fine.
If you don’t allow the personalization of workspace, you should consider it. It may be surprising, but even minor personalization can make a major difference to your employees, and can help your bottom line along with employee morale.