Your entrepreneurial dream is becoming your reality. Your business is expanding, and it’s time to seek new workspace. When you’re moving into a new office, you need to think about what you really need. Practical concerns, like having enough room for all of your people and equipment, will come first. But how it impacts your team mentally and contributes to the company culture should be carefully considered, too. That is if you want to continue to grow and keep your team motivated. An office that stimulates, invigorates and inspires the team is a powerful tool, indeed. Here are a few out-of-the-box ways you might want to consider.

Office downtime

Everyone needs a break, but if your employees are taking them at their desks, however, it can impact their work. It has been shown that eating at the desk makes it more difficult to re-energize and rest, which will lessen their performance after resuming their work. On the other hand, creating a break space, complete with pool tables, table football, arcade cabinets, and the like, can give them the respite they need. They will be in a much better mood when they come back to their workspace, which can make them even more productive.

Add some real life

Believe it or not, pets in the office have significant mental health advantages. Before you start building a kennel, think about more manageable additions such as a fish aquarium. Fish are inexpensive, and you can easily find water tanks for sale, so they aren’t too budget intensive. Fish have been shown to have a calming presence in the office and increase a sense of office unity as everyone looks to them as something like a “team mascot.”

The team that eats together stays together

As a boss, you might think that your team doesn’t want to spend their lunches with you. However, lunch and learn programs have been shown to prove precisely the opposite. It helps you to build a rapport with the team that allows for more honest communication. A more relaxed atmosphere lets ideas flow freely, which means that people tend to think out-of-the-box, often coming up with ideas that they would be hard-pressed to come up with in a more formal environment.

Goals outside the business

A sense of satisfaction in what you do is important for any member of your team. This applies not just to their work, but the impact they make on the world outside it. Cause marketing, joining forces with a charity or nonprofit organization, has been shown to be a great way to give employees a better sense of satisfaction, achievement, and importance in what they do. In turn, that means they’re happier to stay where they are and likely to be more committed to the company as a result. All of this makes for a more satisfied, more engaged team.

The office is an asset, just like any other tool in the business. It can be utilized poorly, or it can be used to strengthen your business. When you focus on how it impacts the team overall, it’s more likely to accomplish the latter. When you want to keep your team motivated, it will undoubtedly require you to operate outside of the box. Are you ready?

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