Category : desk-mounted panels

Lighting experts at Philips and office furniture designers at Haworth have put their heads together and come up with a bright idea for combining their products. Since lighting is a key feature that lift employees’ moods, it’s important to ensure the workplace is well lit. However, quality is just as critical as quantity.

Choose Your Luminosity with Care

Natural daylight is best while flickering, oddly tinted fluorescent lights that make everyone’s skin look chalky green are arguably the worst. LED lighting comes the closest to mimicking sunlight. In fact, LEDs can be created in literally dozens of different subtle gradations of “white” as well as hundreds of other colors. In addition, unlike filament based incandescent bulbs and tube based fluorescent lamps, LEDs can be delivered along a much more diffuse surface.

Divide and Illuminate

Haworth and Philips are leveraging these features of LED to create the ideal workplace lighting solutions that combine furniture and illumination. Haworth already features Philips lighting in the MeetYou lounge furniture series. Now, the companies are collaborating on more innovative ideas. One forward-looking design is the lighted divider concept. Imagine a workplace where light is used to define boundaries.  Instead of creating dark nooks and crannies, these gently glowing screens would make the workplace appear more bright and open – even as they provided necessary separation.

Let There Be Light

We like the idea of incorporating light into dividers. This could be done with floor-to-ceiling walls, head height privacy screens used to delineate teaming areas, and even in desktop dividers where the LEDs could provide task lighting. So far, Haworth and Philips are just debuting their LED office furniture ideas in Europe. But we think you could achieve something similar by attaching a clamp-on LED task lamp to one of our cubicle panel extenders or desktop dividers. That way, employees can get all the light they need even with higher cubicle walls that provide more privacy.

Perhaps another location for an extra panel is in the reception area. A reception desk should feel open and inviting to visitors. But it can often feel a little vulnerable to the receptionist. This is especially true in a layout where reception is located near an open hallway and employees are traipsing back and forth all day. If the front office has floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking the sidewalk, the receptionist may feel under scrutiny from passersby as well. Placing a desk mounted privacy panel along one side of the desk offers a little shielding while still making the receptionist easily approachable by guests.

Are you building a new office space or renovating your existing site? The LEED point and credit system developed in 1998 by the U.S. Green Building Council may provide you with grant funds and tax breaks if you make the right design decisions. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program looks at the entire office building, inside and out, to determine compliance with best practices for sustainability.

Points are tallied up for each choice that promotes greater energy efficiency, more environmental responsibility, or better indoor air quality. Everything from building materials to lighting choices and office furniture are taken into consideration during a review by an LEED accreditation professional. Participating businesses can achieve progressively higher levels of certification all the way up to “Platinum” which offers the biggest incentives and most bragging rights.

How OBEX Products Factor In

One of the smartest ways to take advantage of the potential financial benefits of LEED certification is by saving money up front. You might think that buying “green” office furniture is more expensive than purchasing standard equipment. That might be true – if you buy new. But pre-owned office furniture is much cheaper and qualifies for LEED points because it reduces the energy and raw material consumption that goes into furnishing your office. In fact, buying used furniture is always more environmentally friendly than buying even the most eco-responsible new furniture.

The downside of buying used workstations is that you don’t have quite the range of options you might like. For example, you might not find cubicles with walls high enough. Or, you might find that the most cost-effective option is a benching configuration – but not want to go with an entirely open office layout. Our panel products can extend the height of cubicle walls or turn a regular desk into a more private, less noisy workstation in minutes at a very low cost. Second hand cubicles can be refurbished in the fabric of your choice – and you can have your panel extenders made to match.

To answer the question in the title of this post: Our privacy panels give you more flexibility in using pre-owned workstations. So, we think they deserve a little appreciation for making it easier for you to earn those LEED points while saving money at the same time.

Coworking spaces represent what urban studies theorist Richard Florida calls the “fourth place” for today’s workers. These locations serve a population that isn’t fully supported in a traditional office setting, at a home office, or in an informal “coffee shop” work setting. In a coworking environment, there is an even finer line than normal between the need for socialization and a desire for privacy. Patrons of these establishments are looking for a place to be “alone together” with other people while working. They aren’t collaborating on the same work in any sense, so the need for completely open access to each other isn’t a factor. On the other hand, providing a high level of privacy to the point of isolation isn’t necessary either. If people wanted to be completely alone while they worked, the home office is usually a better option. In fact, the coworking space is specifically designed to offer a little bit of a “buzz” for those who feel uninspired when they aren’t around other people.

There’s Such a Thing as Too Much Chatter

At the same time, high noise levels aren’t appreciated by coworkers. In the “NetWork” white paper sponsored by Allsteel, the authors observe, “In general, clients for coworking spaces seem to prefer a dedicated work environment without the distractions of a café or the hush of a library. Both acoustic dampening and office etiquette tend to lower ambient noise compared to cafés, while encouraging conversations and social interactions.” Acoustic ceiling tile and wall coverings do provide a level of noise control; but desk-mounted panels could also be useful. For example, desks with privacy panels might designate a section of the coworking space as the “heads down” area. This is where patrons would retreat to make the most of a sudden burst of creativity and concentration to complete a specific task.

Panels Add Function Without Fuss

From a visual design perspective, there’s certainly a place for our bold range of polycarbonate privacy panels in the coworking interior. Here’s another excerpt from the NetWork paper, “Coworking spaces are often more minimalist in décor with an emphasis on simple, clean, uncluttered space. Design is pragmatic and focused on a straightforward approach to getting work done. Nonetheless, these spaces are not stark, but attractive, well lit and well furnished.” We like to think that the simple, elegant design of our panel products help make a space more functional without adding clutter. If you are a facilities manager, architect, or commercial interior designer tasked with outfitting a coworking space, we hope you’ll consider our products as a way to enhance your project!

Have you read Haworth’s paper on Why Daylight and Views Matter in the workplace? Apparently, workers who have a view of the outdoors (preferably a natural scene rather than a cityscape) have less stress and more satisfaction on the job. We would all probably like to have an office with a big picture window to let in the sun and give us a panoramic perspective on the great outdoors. Of course, we aren’t all lucky enough to work in that type of space.

Perhaps the next best thing would be to decorate the office interior with nature scenes? Our privacy panels can be custom printed with any imagery you choose. This means you can bring the great outdoors indoors with pictures of mountains, forests, the ocean, or any soothing scene you can imagine. Relaxation is only one benefit of bringing art and nature into the office space. As a bonus, you’ll be happy to know that a visually interesting office helps stave off boredom.

Did you attend NeoCon 2012? You probably noticed that healthcare workplaces represent one of the fastest growing and most innovative segments of the contract furniture industry. Herman Miller, Steelcase, and many other leading manufacturers are spending lots of R&D and marketing money positioning themselves as experts in this space. They are doing extensive research into what both patients and providers want in healthcare furniture. Pieces that are ergonomic and easy to clean are generally at the top of the list. Privacy is also a major concern – above and beyond the basics required for HIPAA compliance. That’s where OBEX products could help in retrofitting existing healthcare workspaces.

The administrative and admitting areas of healthcare organizations are a prime space to install our panel extenders to block sound and ensure more visual privacy. For example, even a patient sitting down to discuss or dispute an invoice with a billing representative might not want their conversation overheard. Having workstations equipped with acoustic panel extenders can help prevent sound from traveling. The Sound Transmission Class (STC) rating is what you want to look for in these cases. It’s not just the material itself that makes a difference. The higher the divider, the better it will be at limiting sound “leakage”.

In the same way, someone filling out all their personal identifying information at admitting might want to keep those details away from prying eyes. Having a check-in table or bench style worksurface installed along one wall in the waiting area would provide a flat surface so patients don’t have to balance a clipboard on their knees. It could be equipped with multiple desk-top mounted privacy panels to create small, private spaces for completing paperwork. The polycarbonate panels in aluminum frames would be ideal for this setting since they can be easily sanitized.

If you are a facilities manager or business owner looking to cut down on the square footage requirements of your office, you’re no doubt familiar with the terms “hoteling” and “hot-desking”. In these arrangements, workers don’t get a permanently assigned desk or workstation of their own. Instead, employees pick a station on a first come, first serve basis. Or, they check in and get assigned a desk that’s available.

This approach has a few advantages. Some employers are able to cut down dramatically on the number of workstations required for their staff. This works particularly well in situations where many employees have flexible work schedules and/or telecommute. They aren’t as likely to feel put out that they don’t get their “own” desk. Plus, the odds of all your workers being in the office at the same time aren’t high. This means that if you have 100 employees, you might figure out that you need only 60 workstations to serve everyone on an average workday. The details vary and not every office culture is a good match for hot-desking (you can get more great information about the pros and cons here).

How Desktop Mounted Privacy Panels Can Help

If you have done the math and decided that hot-desking will work for your company, here are some ways our desktop dividers can help:

Taking away an employee’s sense of “ownership” over their workspace shouldn’t mean taking away their sense of privacy. As you reduce the footprint of your office with hot-desking, noise and visual distractions become even more of a concern. Adding privacy panels can help reduce the sound level and give workers a greater chance to concentrate.

What if far more employees show up than you have desks for? Add more spaces at a moment’s notice by installing desktop dividers cross-wise along any flat worksurface. You could turn a conference table or a long table-style worktop into multiple “work pods” in minutes. If everyone’s using laptops anyway, they don’t necessarily need a lot of surface area.

That’s a good question to ask if you are outfitting workstations at your office with our desk-mounted privacy panels. Some of our customers like to put up a panel across the front of the desk and add one along the side just like the setup in the photo. Here are a few questions that can help you decide whether you need maximum panel coverage. Each ‘yes’ answer means your employees are likely to be happier with two panels rather than just one.

• Are workstations located next to high traffic walkways?
• Is there a lot of noise in the workplace?
• Do employees have coworkers directly in front of them and on either side?
• Have workers expressed dissatisfaction with the privacy level afforded by their desks?
• Do employees work with paper or computer files that are considered confidential?

Of course, since these panels can be easily mounted and removed, you don’t necessarily have to make up your mind without trying both options. It’s just nice to have an idea up front so you can order the right quantity and sizes. If you change your mind, you can always buy more later.

The more control employees have over their own workspace, the more satisfied they tend to be with their work environment as a whole. Task lighting is one type of workstation customization that can brighten an employee’s mood while making it easier for them to see what they’re doing. An articulated or otherwise highly adjustable task lamp is a helpful tool. But you can run into problems when one employee’s lamp casts a glare in a neighboring coworker’s eyes or on their computer screen. Desk mounted privacy panels provide a shield against this unwanted illumination.  So, don’t keep your workers in the dark by forgoing task lighting – just add some panels to help keep the light where it belongs!

Employers typically want to achieve 4 things when they start arranging office furniture:

1. Make efficient use of space
2. Ensure productivity
3. Promote collaboration
4. Make workers comfortable

Unfortunately, these goals can sometimes come into conflict with each other. This has led to a lot of experimentation with workstation configurations over the years – with mixed results. It can be difficult to achieve everything you want with one layout. That’s why objective #4 on the list above is usually given the lowest priority in an effort to save space. For example one of the most awkward arrangements for coworkers is to have their desks directly adjoining so they are facing each other. They end up just a few feet from the person sitting across from them. People in Western cultures tend to have a sense of personal space that extends out further than that. So, employees may spend all day every day at work feeling like someone is “in their space” or “in their face”.

This problem is compounded if one coworker tends to:

• Make an aggressive amount of eye contact
• Eat foods that produce bad breath
• Talk too much or too loudly

If you’ve ever been stuck across the desk from someone like this, you know how grating it can be. One solution to this problem is to let employees pick who they sit across from. However, that approach is likely to lead to a never ending game of musical chairs as people change their minds. Plus, there will always be a few employees that no one wants for a workstation partner. The more sensible way to solve this problem is by adding a simple divider to separate the worksurfaces. Our desk-mounted privacy panels make it so that coworkers can work together in peace – even if they can’t stand the sight of each other!