Benching workstations are the cornerstone of today’s open office environment, providing flexibility and cost savings for your Philadelphia floor plan.
Benching systems enable you to accommodate more people in less space with bench-like desks and tables. Featuring individual lamps, computers, and chairs every 5 to 10 feet, these systems make it easier for employees to collaborate with colleagues and share ideas compared to a typical office cubicle environment.
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Advantages of Benching Systems
- Benching encourages group interaction and teamwork, making for better communication between departments.
- Benching accommodates more workers in the same amount of space, decreasing real estate costs per square foot.
- Many benching systems are modular and can be easily moved or reconfigured to meet different business needs.
- Hybrid solutions allow for power and data distribution along a center spine, and can support long horizontal worksurface spans.
- With lower (or no) partitions, natural light, which has been shown to dramatically improve productivity and mental alertness, increases.
Benching systems work especially well in environments where employees often work in teams, e.g., marketing, engineering, research and development, product development, IT project teams, consultants, managers, architects and designers.
They are also ideal for outside salespeople, telecommuters and other transient workers who spend more time on the road than in the office. The bench provides them with a place to plug-in, work and collaborate with colleagues.
Drawbacks of Benching Systems
If your employees need a lot of privacy to be productive, benching may not be the ideal choice. However, you can combine benching workstations with their cubicle counterparts to create the best of both worlds in terms of aesthetics and functionality.
To counteract complaints that open offices are too noisy and offer little privacy, consider adding phone rooms for private calls and provide small meeting rooms where employees can concentrate on projects without interruptions.
A combination of low- or no-wall benches and higher-walled cubicles with acoustic or high-acoustic panels can help absorb the sound. In terms of individuality, add tackable cork panels so employees can pin their work to the walls, or install marker tiles or whiteboards to promote creativity.
Although cubicles and private offices may still be necessary in some work environments, they are disappearing today in many offices. There is no single optimal office design that works for everyone. Instead, you’ll want to foster the right balance between working in privacy and working together to achieve greater productivity.
Office benching workstations can be a fantastic solution for your Philadelphia office. Studies have shown that providing employees with different spaces to work, whether it’s a lounge area with beanbag chairs and a whiteboard or a soundproof room where they can be alone to concentrate, creates a happier work force!