The secret behind the world’s most impactful organizations is their people. The most engaged employees work creatively and productively and feel loyal to their company and its values. Boosting your office culture to new heights may be as simple as putting your best break room ideas to work for your organization.
In FMLink, Stephanie Heiple writes, “[T]he environment silently communicates the values of its residents.” What does your organization’s break room say about what your organization values and how much your employees mean to you? Furniture, lighting, amenities and overall design can all influence whether people retreat to your break room to relax, refresh and engage in creative brainstorming sessions with their co-workers.
Not only does your break room reflect your culture, it will be reflected in how effectively your people work. Taking regular mental breaks from focused work is critical to performance and employee happiness. Professor Allison Gabriel writes that employees who don’t take regular breaks experience burnout, stating, “If you get depleted, we see performance decline. You’re able to persist less and have trouble solving tasks.”
Read on to learn how some of the world’s most effective organizations redesigned their break rooms into relaxing, inspiring employee retreat spaces without a massive budget for the overhaul.
Step 1: Build a Plan for Your Break Room Redesign
For many firms, break room design has been relegated to a low-priority project that can be done later or on a minimal budget. However, Cornell Research points to the value of break rooms for all organizations. Break rooms are critical for organizations to retain talent, encourage informal learning and avoid staff burnout.
The same research points to the value of balancing physical and ecological factors in break room design planning, including weighing each of the following when designing or implementing a first-time break space for your staff:
- Does the location encourage easy access?
- Are there spaces for employees to gather, and if they want, to work with colleagues?
- Is the break room largely a space that’s work-neutral and relaxing?
- Are there sufficient amenities such as healthy office snack food or cold brew coffee for employees?
- Have employees been involved in the selection of furniture, fixtures and design elements?
- Is natural lighting maximized if possible?
- Is noise minimized to the greatest extent possible with sound-absorbing finishes?
For Woodland Manufacturing, a firm that specializes in custom signs and displays, a break room redesign was the opportunity to provide physical and mental respite for employees outside of a fully functioning manufacturing facility.
It transformed the break room from a simple, bare-bones space common in the industry to a homelike environment, complete with an enormous dining table and chairs to encourage employees to eat together.
Woodland invested in a visual facelift for its break room. It affirmed the commitment to providing many different kinds of healthy snacks to employees at work. The customer-centric culture is communicated through beautiful custom signage and a digital display that rolls through online customer feedback.
Step 2: Use Your Community for Break Room Ideas and Feedback
Your personal perception of the right break room design may be quite different than what your employees want. It’s important to avoid underestimating the value of your employee’s feedback in generating the right kind of break room ideas.
In fact, research reveals that giving choices and a voice to employees when company-wide decisions are being made is correlated with better motivation and superior performance. Employee feedback at wealth management firm William Blair & Co. inspired the organization to create a peaceful open-air space equipped with a cafe and espresso machine.
By listening to its employees’ feedback that high-stress finance jobs demanded a mental respite from time to time, the organization went from a rarely used break room to one that was frequented by 200 to 300 people daily.
Step 3: Consider the Value of Professional Help
Rebuilding your break room isn’t a small undertaking, especially if your organization is in the middle of a cultural overhaul or operating with a limited budget. Professional services can help you balance the key concepts of functionality, community, customization and culture while collecting the employee feedback you need to create a space your people love.
Many organizations underestimate just how much can be done with an existing space. A professional break room consultant can leverage decades of experience in helping you use your retreat space as a tool for employee retention and morale.
Pepsi CEO Vic Pemberton is a firm believer in the value of professional break room services at a cultural level. Pemberton cautions against limited renovations, stating, “Even if you install new vending machines… in an old break room, it’s still an old break room; it’s not a destination and people still aren’t going to go.”
Maximize the Potential of Your Break Room Ideas
If you can tap into the hive mind of your organization, there are surely plenty of brilliant ideas for a break room redesign just buzzing around. With the help of a professional consultant and employee feedback, it’s possible to transform nearly any space into a relaxing, refreshing retreat for your employees to gather, collaborate and take a mental break from work.
Corporate Essentials brings more than two decades of experience with high-caliber break rooms that deliver results in customization, functionality, style and in employee morale and engagement. With the latest research and years of experience, our team knows what it takes to make any break room idea a reality.
