If chosen correctly, your office space can boost creativity and productivity. It can be detrimental to the office morale if not chosen wisely. One of the most important questions while choosing an office space is old fashioned Cubicles or new open Office Plan? Which is better?
Open office spaces are getting popular for few years and cubicles are slowly disappearing from the workplaces. The reason given for this switch is the ability of open offices to have better collaboration between employees. But every office types have their advantages and disadvantages.
Let us compare the Cubicles with Open Plan office spaces to find out which works best for a business:
Open Office Spaces
Open plan for offices is quite popular these days. Open offices need less space per employee, so it’s quite cost effective. Practically every employee in the same room brings everyone together to collaborate easily
Open office spaces are often seen as modern layout and claimed to have favored modern businesses but it’s not true in every situation. If your office needs more creative works then open plan might be a boon. It’s best in encouraging communication. Employees can discuss creative ideas with each other very easily.
But Open offices are a failure if more of your employees are introvert. Every employee might not like the idea of working on long open desks. It simply lacks privacy, which in turn could decrease productivity. If your business needs more private discussions and meeting then open office might work as a disaster for you.
Noise can be an issue too in open plan office spaces. You have to be very careful in implementing policies like uses of headphones etc. Few employees might not be able to talk to clients comfortably in open offices.
It’s super easy to communicate via e-mails, chats, and phones these days but an open office plan promotes a lot of face to face communication. But it can be a reason to inter-office tensions too on very trivial issues like AC, curtains up or down etc.
Cubicles
Cubicles exist in offices for decades. It’s an office setup where people are assigned a small but cramped space of their own to work. This system gives an illusion of having your private office at the workplace. It works best for employee’s privacy. Cubicles are known to make employees feel better about them and their workplaces. It gives a personal space, computer, phone desk etc to employees.
Employees just feel good working in silence and it enhances their productivity too. Office spaces are really important for your employees because they have to spend at least one-third of their day in offices. So it’s better to have their own space where they can work peacefully.
With cubicles, there are few shortcomings too. Some employees might feel they are stuck with cramped spaces in cubicles. It can be hard for an extrovert person to sit in a cubicle and work. Many types of research and studies concluded that people working in cubicles are less creative than open office employees.
Cubicles are a bit costly too. You can accommodate more employees in the same area of open office plan than cubicles setup. Office collaboration is also an issue with cubicle setups.
Which is better - Cubicles or Open Office Plan?
Different office setup works for different people. It’s quite obvious from the above points that both kinds of offices have their pros and cons. So this debate about open office plan vs cubicles, which is better, seems to have no simple answer.
Both are right and wrong in their own ways. It all depends on the business types and employees. As a business owner or facility manager, you have to analyze every aspect of your business and employees before deciding on one.
There can be a hybrid office setup too. In this kind of workplace you can have few cubicles and rest of the open office setup. Employees who need creative workplaces can sit in open planned spaces and privacy-seeking and peace loving employees can take cubicles. It can be a win-win situation for all.
If finding an office space on rent is your concern, Commercial Office Bangalore can help you. We provide commercial real estate services and helps business owners and facility managers to get great office spaces for rent in Bangalore. Contact us today and let us know your requirements.
