Companies that enjoy long-term success rely especially on one recipe for success: They regularly launch new products and innovations, which enables them to stay ahead of their competitors. Fertile environments for such creative innovations are offices that make possible an intelligent interplay of communication and concentrated work. For quite some time, however, modern office concepts have been doing more than just enhancing the flow of information and workflow in a company. Their attractive designs also contribute greatly to a company’s or organization’s ability to recruit and retain employees.
In fact, offices have to be ergonomic. It’s required by law — a workplace must not endanger the health of employees. But offices also have to serve their practical purposes. That’s required by the business world — employees who can find a colleague or contact person only after a lot of searching are wasting time and money. And offices have to provide an atmosphere that contributes to a sense of well-being. That’s required by human nature — a person who likes being in the office is more motivated and more productive.
But why is it that some offices function well, but others don’t? Similar to what happens in any competitive situation, there are often worlds of difference between what a company makes of these universally valid prerequisites and being able to actually realise excellent offices. Optimally tailoring everything to the workflow and creating spaces for ideas and visions requires just as much boldness as thinking outside of the box and creating new products.
With this in mind, the journal WirtschaftsWoche, the Institute of Ergonomics at the Darmstadt University of Technology (IAD), and Koelnmesse as the organiser of the Orgatec trade fair, will once again be honouring companies that use their offices as a key to success in the global competition for customers — with the 2008 “Best Office Award”.
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