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August 16, 2016

How to take the bored out of boardrooms

It’s well known that the boardroom is the hub of any organisation – it’s where the magic happens! The boardroom needs to be a room which accommodates all employees and makes them feel comfortable and at ease. This room is where decisions are made and ideas are created – and meetings are as important as ever!

According to Forbes Insights, 8 out of 10 executives prefer face-to-face meetings to discuss ideas. Therefore, the boardroom needs to be a place of productivity!

However, often boredom can prevail in boardrooms and that is often understandable. Long meetings in bland rooms leads to day-dreaming from employees. Employees need to be in an engaging environment in order for successful meetings to happen. It is known that discomfort in the office can affect peoples’ patience and their decision-making in general. Ideally, the boardroom wants to project the ideas of the organisation. For example, when we made the move to Manchester One, the addition of the Manchester map added a personal/local touch to our office.

So how can we take boredom out of the boardroom?

There are many strategies for improving the boardroom and making it an engaging environment for your employees. Its interior can affect the employees’ mood directly and improve productivity. A productive team leads to effective decisions and ideas after all! Creating a comfortable environment is so important as let’s be honest; meetings can take a while sometimes. Let’s take a look at some ways to change the boardroom for the better:

Colour: The right colours can spruce up a room immediately. Having a varied colour scheme throughout the boardroom can affect employees’ mood. It is well known that colour and mood have a direct correlation. For example colours such as blues and yellows are calming colours, giving way to clear and creative thinking. Brighter colours such as reds and greens are correlated with higher task accuracy. It is evidently important to apply a varied colour scheme throughout the office, and especially the boardroom. Adding a splash of colour can brighten any room and improve the mood.

Temperature: The temperature in the boardroom needs to be just right. Too hot and employees’ will become tired and demotivated. Too cold and employees’ will complain. The ideal temperature should keep employees’ in the right frame of mind. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) the ideal temperature in a workplace should be around 16 degrees Celsius.

There needs to be a decent amount of airflow into the boardroom (with windows) and if windows are unavailable then adding temperature control into the room will be a great help.

Views: Natural light is definitely beneficial to a boardroom. Natural daylight helps sync peoples circadian rhythms and keeps them on task. Having a view in the boardroom gives variability and offers a positive impact on well being, according to Judith Heerwagen who has worked on workplace well being. Adding glass where possible into the boardroom can give a better view and the natural light will keep employees’ on task.

The boardroom from one of our fit-outs with Endless Gain provided plenty of windows giving natural daylight and pleasant views onto outside. The light and airy space provides comfort and enough room for employees’ to concentrate. Furthermore, the colour addition adds a bit of variation to the boardroom.

Comfort: Last but not least, the most important thing to keep everyone engaged in the boardroom is comfort. If people aren’t engaged in the boardroom then their concentration span will go much quicker. Making sure everyone is comfortable for what can be long periods of time will make meetings much more enjoyable!

Final Thoughts…

A boardroom is such an important room in any organisations office so it needs to be an inviting space for everyone, so that those creative ideas start flowing and the best decisions are made!

But what do you think? Share your thoughts on boardroom designs with us on Facebook or Twitter or get in touch with a member of team today to find out more on how we can help your workplace design.