We’ve all seen the headline “Sitting Is the New Smoking.” Last year, the Los Angeles Times published an interview with Dr. James Levine, director of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative, in which he declared that the bad habits of many working-age adults – including sitting for hours at a time behind computer screens – were causing irreversible damage, equivalent to losing “two hours of life for every hour we sit.”

Cubicles have long been the ubiquitous symbol of drab nine-to-five office life, but now the solitary gray workstations are being seen in a new light as open office floor plans receive increasingly negative press. With companies opting to seat clusters of employees at long tables in lieu of sequestered cubes, many workers are complaining of constant interruption and distraction, causing concern with managers over dips in  productivity and overall employee satisfaction.

 There’s a lot of talk out there about how office design can motivate employees and improve their productivity. As a result, companies are investing more and more in creating interesting, custom-branded spaces. However, even if your office has been professionally decorated, you may not be getting the most out of your space when it comes to employee comfort and workflow.

Technology continues to increase mobility and flexibility in the way we work. Our offices should be designed accordingly. By creating a flexible, fluid space that support our mobile workdays, you can better utilize each square foot in your office while actively facilitating employee productivity and well-being.

In this post, we’ll breakdown why flexible workspaces matter and how you can create one in your office.

There are tons of ideas flying around about what makes workers productive. Is it what we eat, how we organize our workspaces, or is it more about where we work?

It turns out, our work environments influence our productivity and general well-being. Employees who work in offices with biophilic design elements report a 13% higher well-being and are 8% more productive than those who work in environments without them, according to a report commissioned by Interface, a modular flooring company.

Bringing elements of nature into the workplace can have lasting results for employees. Here's how to incorporate them into your space:

With our mobile workforce estimated to reach 1.3 billion globally in 2015, the 9 to 5 workday is poised to join floppy disks and cubicle farms as a relic of our professional past. However, despite the fact that workers don’t need to be in the office to do their job, it remains generally true that they are most productive when they are.

To strike a balance between these two professional realities, employers are undertaking a fundamental shift in their approach to office design: if the workplace is no longer a place people have to be, it should be a place they want to be.

Likewise, as technology continues to make how, where, and when we do our jobs more flexible, employer expectations must follow suit. From Facebook chatting during office hours to answering work emails at 10pm on a Saturday, the distinctions between work life and personal life are becoming increasingly difficult to discern, and as a result, modern offices are reflecting this more integrated work-life approach in a design trend dubbed “domesticating the workplace.”

You’ve probably heard hiring managers, startup founders, and office managers talk about company culture. Maybe you’ve talked about it yourself.

As companies fight for top talent, many have jumped on the company-culture bandwagon, believing that adding a pool table, or buying more snacks, will make employees happy.

But employees don’t want to work at companies because they can play video games on their lunch break. Employees choose companies—and stay with them—because they’re part of a thriving community that feels like home.

        Recruiting is a forefront concern for companies of any size, and building a well-tuned recruitment strategy is now more essential than ever. In LinkedIn’s 2015 Global Recruitment Trend report, 53% of US companies cited competition as their greatest recruitment obstacle. In answering the follow-up question “What are the things that your competitors have done or may plan on doing that would make you most nervous?” companies reported “investing in their employer brand” (or in other words, their reputation for being a good place to work) as the greatest threat.

          As defined by BOMA, commercial building classifications indicate “the competitive ability of each building to attract similar types of tenants” by taking into consideration a range of key factors from infrastructure to finishes. To better compete within their market, property managers must identify the values of today’s office tenants and adapt to meet them as affordably as possible. For Class B properties, there are clear and effective ways to close the gap with Class A properties, without needing to make costly and time consuming physical renovations. To make that task a little simpler, I’ve compiled a list of  5 high value, low cost amenities here.

Get Art For Your Business For Free!!!

If your office needs artwork, there’s no doubt that headline grabbed your attention, and understandably so. Your first follow up question is probably along the lines of “How is that even possible?” Well, the answer revolves around a phrase that is sure to make most artists roll their eyes in frustration: “alternative gallery space.”Meaning, turn your office walls into a space for artists to show and sell their work.

At first, it might sound like a win-win; there are seemingly low upfront costs to the company, and it appears like a gesture of goodwill to the local art community. However, like any good click bait headline, the snappy sell of free art masks some rather disappointing realities.

We recently caught wind of a big expansion in Facebook’s new Cambridge, Massachusetts, office. At TurningArt, we’ve always had a lot of respect for the social media giant. Since its early days, the company has been committed to the arts and the concept that a great office has great artwork. A key part of Facebook’s recent office expansion, was the commission and acquisition of new artwork by local artists.