When Manhattan Associates India, which is involved in the development and implementation of supply chain solutions, moved to a new office space in Bengaluru in September 2019, its 1,500 strong work-force got to experience more than just a change of address. The 1,70,000sqft facility has been designed ‘to promote agility, openness, and collaboration’ among various engineering groups.
On the other hand, the swift rise of the startup culture has seen entrepreneurs opting for office spaces that are designed keeping in mind the ergonomics, thus promoting innovative and interestingly designed workplaces. For instance, when invoice discounting platform KredX moved to a new facility as part of its expansion spree, the core idea was to locate a space that reflects the team’s innate entrepreneurial spirit.
From a simple science relating to desk, chair or lighting re-arrangement, ergonomics is beyond this today. It includes space-planning, acoustics, aesthetics and more. In fact, ergonomically and thoughtfully designed office spaces are key performance indicators of any business setup. A well-designed office space is known to have a significant impact on the productivity and well-being of its employees.
Beyond cubicles
Ideally, employees spend over 50 per cent of their waking hours in an office and that environment greatly influences their performances and mental framework and consequently the key performance indicator of any organisation. Companies have started recognising that promoting collaboration and team spirit is crucial and an office space should essentially highlight this. “Our spirit is ‘push possible’ and we want our workplace to reflect the same,” says Ushasri Tirumala, senior vice president and general manager, Manhattan Associates India. “The new smart facility provides the capacity, capability and a conducive environment needed to drive focused innovation happening across the organisation. Specific infrastructure and workspaces geared towards 24x7 cloud support operations and service delivery were developed for this purpose,” says Tirumala.
KredX
Further, she says that office spaces must bring in the various elements of workplace experience, aesthetics, and a place where employees feel happy and can work efficiently. “In addition to sustainability, one must focus on building the capacity for agility and enhanced productivity, through the implementation of smart technologies,” she says.
Similarly, Manish Kumar, CEO and co-founder of KredX says that their new office is something that perfectly imbues the work-life balance. “It is a space where employees feel comfortable and look forward to spending their day in office where we have provided multiple collaboration areas, a library, shower facility, a recreation room, window side lounge seating and more with greenery all around. Each corner has been designed in a way that not only mirrors the brand, but at the same time defines the space with the employees being at the core,” says Kumar.
While designing its office space, the startup firm thought of having more open and collaborative spaces—‘more of teamwork and no silos’. “We wanted to make the look and feel of the office space more alive so that it is all the more fun and inviting to work. Hence, we tried to utilise maximum space for open collaboration. Our furniture is hand-picked by the team and harmonises impressions with positive cues. Keeping in mind our humble beginning, we created a ‘journey wall’ in the office that depicts our journey—right from the ideation and inception of the company to our growth and future goals,” says Kumar. In addition, an amphitheatre has also been created where people come together to learn, collaborate and have fun together.
Further, he says that every area within the office serves as a multi-functional area. “We have made sure to provide a mix of casual and formal in all the spaces within the office, even if it is just the pantry with regular seating and high tables where people choose to sit and work at times, ample meeting rooms with furniture that’s a mix of formal and lounge-style sofas,” says Kumar.
Ergonomic readymade
At times, health positive amenities such as ergonomic office chairs, standing desks and natural lighting are expensive to implement for small businesses. However, co-working spaces are providing a suitable option for migrating employees to flexible workspaces that already have these components set up.
According to the report published by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the co-working industry’s market share in the commercial office space leasing industry in India has increased to 12 per cent in 2019.
Green Meeting Room, Manhattan Associates
“Our office spaces are designed keeping people in mind, we ensure that our setup is based on how people work and the environment they feel comfortable in. Our designs include enough natural light, open spaces and community areas where people can meet each other, interact and hold events. We ensure that desks in offices are spaced out well so that each person gets enough space,” says Nakul Mathur, managing director, Avanta India, which operates multiple business centres offering unbranded, flexible office space, virtual offices and meeting rooms.
While going into details, Mathur says that each workstation is ergonomically designed and is flexible enough to be comfortable to different body types. “We ensure that each work desk has 300-400 lux levels which are the right intensity of light for anyone to work without straining their eyes. Chairs are an important part of a workstation and it is very important that it provides lumbar support, should be height adjustable and deep enough for thighs to fit in. It is important to ensure that the backrest is flexible enough and that chair does not topple over if one bends backwards while sitting,” he says.
Similarly, Ishaan Khosla, co-founder and partner, Huddle, which is a startup incubator, says that the approach to design thinking was heavily dependent on the ambience their company wanted to create. “We ensured a heavy focus on colours, a mix of materials and lighting to create a vibrant space. Keeping the co-working persona in mind, we wanted to create a space that would suit a variety of different audiences, so we ensured maintaining a bold yet sophisticated outlook,” says Khosla.
Understanding the end-user profile and having flexibility in offerings is key to a co-working space, points out Khosla. “We understood that we will be entertaining teams of various sizes, hence ensured we build our space accordingly. At Huddle, we have multiple workstations with different seating capacities—this way each team gets their privacy while enjoying the collaborative environment of a shared workspace,” he says.
The first move
Essentially, making an ergonomic office space takes a lot of effort in planning right from day one. It is important to have the right architect, the right consultants on board before a company starts the project and it is also quite important to give them the right brief, points out Mathur. “Often people cut corners to save cost which turns out to be more expensive in the long run as they end up with an office which is not comfortable to work—everything from not meeting the fire regulations to complying to basic health and safety standards,” he says.
However, for companies that have gone a step ahead when it comes to innovative and ergonomic workplace while keeping in mind the needs of its employees, the results in terms of overall enthusiasm and productivity remain quite positive. “Our associates are leveraging maximum use of all facilities such as the open thinking spaces, collaboration areas, and green rooms, among others. Teams are able to collaborate better and there is visible difference after we moved to our new campus,” says Tirumala.
Similarly, Kumar remains quite upbeat about the new workspace. “It is great to see the pride with which our employees talk about their new office space and click pictures to share with their friends and families,” he says.
In short, there can be so much more to a swanky new office lobby than meets the eye. As for innovation and ergonomics, it is just the beginning.
