Monthly Archives: October 2023

Homes are now part of the ecosystem of work: 75% of people have a dedicated workspace at home. People have learned how important a high-functioning home office is to their work and wellbeing.

Whether you use it one day or all week, a home office has become an essential space for both professional and personal use. While more people say they prefer working from home than the office, that number has dropped by 9? Since 2021. A lot of things can influence a person’s preference. But it’s clear the pandemic home office setup – with spare bar stools doubling as office chairs – wasn’t a long-term solution. People also learned some of the ‘fast-furniture’ options that looked great online didn’t feel great after working in them all day. It’s important to get the same level of comfort and support at home as you do in the office.

1. Globally people work an average of 1.7 days a week from home.

It varies by age, occupation, size of company and where you live.

Designing a Home Office That Works

To help you stay productive throughout the day, Steelcase suggests focusing on your comfort and health first.

2. Identify the ideal space.

Working from home is likely the place you’re doing a lot of focus work, so the place you choose matters. Start with a spot that is quiet, without visual distractions. Try to find a place with natural light. Connecting with nature does wonders for your mental health.

3. Choose the right chair.

People sit more at home than in the office. Look for a chair that lets you dial in a precise fit by adjusting the tension or amount of resistance you feel in your back as you recline to your personal preference. The chair should still allow you to stay connected to your work with your arms parallel to your desk and your eyes level with your screen as you recline. The right chair can keep you comfortable and supported, allowing you to focus longer.

4. Consider the essentials.

It sounds obvious, but many people wind up with desks at home that are too small or too big for their space. You need room on your desk for at lead your laptop, keyboard, mouse and phone. Height-adjustable desks allow for healthy movement throughout the day – a smart solution for lasting comfort.

5. Don’t forget performance tools.

You may not have thought about it, but tools like monitor arms can help you achieve greater comfort by putting your screen in the right position to help achieve greater comfort by putting your screen in the right position to help reduce eye and muscle strain. Laptop risers keep your device on a stable surface and at the right height whether you’re seated or standing.

6. Find the best light.

Look for highly-adaptable task lighting designed for video meetings that provide just the right amount of light on your face. A table lamp can also provide soft illumination for virtual meetings.

7. Curate a good background.

Create a distraction-free backdrop for virtual meetings with a well-curated background. If your work zone is part of a living space, consider a screen or room divider to create both physical and mental separation between work and home.

A Greener Home Office

Much like ‘fast-fashion,’ the phenomenon of ‘fast-furniture’ is designed for shorter life cycles and is being thrown into landfills at an alarming rate. Consider your furniture choices at home, in addition to recycling and watching your energy use.

8. Look for furniture made to last.

Higher quality furnishings have a more useful life and are less likely to end up on a landfill.

9. Choose pieces intentionally designed to limit waste.

These pieces not only use less materials and less resources to ship, but can have the added benefit of being lighter and easier to move within your home.

10. Look for certifications.

Find certifications that tell you the material makeup of the furniture to be sure they don’t negatively impact human health.

11. Think about who else may be using this space during the course of a day.

If you have pets or kids at home, consider how else the space can serve your home once the workday is done.

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A single room can do a lot for an organization. Whether that is reinforcing company culture or creating a sense of trust with clients. Today we highlight two spaces from different companies and how these intentionally designed rooms help each company meet its goals.

Reinforcing Culture Within A Physical Space

Accenture is an international company with thousands of employees across numerous offices. Establishing a unified culture across so many different offices can be a major feat. The photo here is a great example of how to do reinforce a culture within a physical space.

Pictured above is an open workspace doing a few important things for its employees.

1. It provides a place for multiple individuals and teams to work in a collaborative environment. Seeing coworkers easily and sitting in close proximity to them can help create camaraderie and provide a sense of belonging.
2. This workspace is equipped with t audio visual technology. Introducing technology to a space allows teams to easily collaborate and work through projects together furthering their company’s goals.
3. Vinyl decals reinforce the company’s values. Along the back wall is imagery putting the company focus front and center for employees to see and remember daily. No organization can create a strong culture without multiple avenues of reinforcement.

How To Create A Modern, High Class Space

Idaho Central Credit Union (ICCU) recently started a Wealth Management Division on the first floor of its Member Service Center West location in Meridian. Unlike most of their installations, this office has a unique look and feel. The space pictured below is a great example of how to intentionally design a modern, and timeless work environment in which to welcome wealthy individuals.

Three important design details make this space work.

1. Dark, rich finishes. ICCU harkens back to the dark finishes of wealth management companies by selecting dark wood for this private office. At the same time, they have chosen a color that is timeless and a desk that is highly functional.
2. Cool tones. While blues and greens are very on brand for ICCU, bringing cool tones into a space help create a sense of calm in an environment. It is a welcoming color that contrasts well with the darker finishes.
3. Lighting with glass walls. By installing floor-to-ceiling glass walls, each office has privacy without losing light. Unlike traditional stick-frame walls, the glass creates transparency both physically and psychologically. It also lets the light in while looking sleek and modern.

What can intentionally designed spaces do for your organization?

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Audiovisual (AV) technology is stepping into a significant role in helping create workplaces that prioritize employee wellbeing. These technologies are enhancing comfort, communication, and the overall workplace experience.

Lighting & Visuals:

AV systems can replicate natural lighting patterns, positively impacting employees’ circadian rhythms and mood. Dynamic lighting systems that mimic the changing daylight can promote alertness and better sleep patterns.

Acoustic Comfort for Wellbeing:

Sound masking technology is an excellent way to emit a subtle, soothing background sound to mask distractions and create a more private and focused work environment. Additional acoustic panels and materials can reduce noise reflections while creating a more peaceful environment. For added benefits, companies can choose to play relaxing music in addition to sound masking.

Ergonomic Collaboration Spaces:

Interactive displays and digital whiteboards make collaboration easier during meetings, providing ergonomic options for brainstorming and idea sharing. This technology supports flexible furniture arrangements so you can do what works for you.

Flexible Meeting Solutions:

Video conferencing solutions make remote employees feel they have a place in every meeting. With intuitive cameras, sound control, and lighting, conference room technology is helping remote employees achieve telepresence, a.k.a. the feeling they are in the same room while physically elsewhere. In turn, in-person meeting attendees can easily collaborate with those outside the office and schedule spaces to be ready for their meetings. These meetings build camaraderie between teams regardless of their physical location.

Personalized Experiences:

Employees can use digital signage to display tailored or personal content based on their preferences, which gives them a feeling of ownership over their workspace.

By integrating these AV technologies, companies can create work environments that are visually and acoustically pleasing and contribute to employees’ physical and mental wellbeing. This results in increased job satisfaction, productivity, and overall quality of work life.

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In 2019, Dan McKnight was half-retired from the construction industry and needed something to do. His wife Andrea was also looking to get out of the mortgage industry, so when the idea of creating a business in insurance liability limits tracing fell into their lap, they jumped on it. “We evaluated the market and said, ‘We can do that, but we can do it better.'” says Dan. It took about four months for Dan to get the newly minted company off the ground from his dining room when the checks started coming in, and Andrea quit her job to help run the business. Today, Dan is the President of Red Folder Research, running the production side of the company, while Andrea has taken the role of Vice President, running the operations.

What Red Folder Does

Red folder offers niche investigative services for personal injury attorneys who represent clients who have been injured. They help attorneys assess and determine the financial limits of case including the maximum amount the at-fault party’s insurance may be willing to pay. All insurance policies have a maximum amount they are obligated pay. Insurance companies want to pay as little as possible and attorneys want to recover the maximum their clients need to be made whole. Red Folder’s services can facilitate the resolution and compromise process and cut the length of time from injury-to-settlement by 90% or more.

“We can do that, but we can do it better.”

Dan McKnight

Red Folder revolutionized the industry by sticking to its core values of Speed, Accuracy, Service, and Development. They have a 99.8% accuracy rate compared to 80% in the rest of the industry, which has brought attorneys from around the U.S. flocking to their door. Since its founding in 2019, Red Folder has completed over 50,000 cases and recently doubled its daily caseload from the previous year. Red Folder also does very little advertising and has made no sales calls since their first day in business when Dan found an attorney willing to give him a shot. Within eleven minutes, Dan found and sent the information the attorney needed. That attorney became such an ambassador for their service Red Folder has never had to make another sales call.

Red Folder’s Massive Growth

With such a massive increase in demand for their services, Dan and Andrea had to grow their team quickly. Within the first two years, they were up to twelve employees and using garage sale office furniture. Today, they have designed and built two adjacent office buildings and have fifty-three employees, having hired twenty-six of them since May. Their original plan was to lease out one of the new buildings to another business until they realized they needed to fully occupy both new buildings.

The Vision For The Space

When Dan and Andrea started planning for their new construction office buildings, they wanted a clean, modern, and timeless environment where their employees liked to come to work. To achieve this look and feel, they chose to use floor-to-ceiling glass walls for all their private offices and bullpen-style workstations in central areas to increase the energy and collaboration of those spaces. While their branding is red, all their finishes include warm woods, leather, cool-toned fabrics, and green plant life.

With so much change in such a short time, Dan and Andrea have had to work closely with OEC Designer Jen Galloway to adapt the spaces to meet their needs. “I think in any relationship, you must go through some rough patches to figure out what you need and make that relationship harmonious. We have done that with all our vendors, but the entire time, OEC has desired to make us happy.” Andrea shares. Dan adds, “I think Jen knows me well enough now that when I say I need something, I know she is going to nail it.”

Favorite Office Spaces

Dan and Andrea’s favorite parts of the new offices are: 1.) Their large conference room that can hold all their employees for their quarterly “State of the Company” meeting, and 2.) The “Bullpen” which is a space with six workstations that helps keep the teamwork and energy high.

Sticking To Their Core Values

With so much happening so quickly, Dan and Andrea are planning for the future through the lens of their core values of Speed, Accuracy, Service, and Development. They are dedicated to consistently delivering an amazing service, but when it comes to their employees, Development is the focus. “We think everything should be getting better, not bigger, but better. Processes, techniques, equipment, personal lives, relationships, vacations, possessions. Everything in our lives should be getting better, and if it’s not, then we need to figure out what’s keeping that from happening,” says Dan.

“We think everything should be getting better, not bigger, better.”

Dan McKnight

Helping Their Employees Achieve Better

As they strive to improve everything for their team, Andrea shares, “Dan and I are striving for a more balanced life. A good life. We also want to provide a place where our employees love to come every day and work hard so they can earn an income to create the life they enjoy.” Dan adds, “Not everyone would trust a brand-new company, especially one operating from a dining room, so our goal is to invest in our people and demonstrate our commitment to them.

Andrea continues, “We’ve gone through some hard times in the last six months dealing with capacity issues, and people have sacrificed so much for this company that it makes me emotional. We couldn’t do it without that sacrifice. I want them to feel rewarded and like they are part of something that has grown into something great.”

With their new spaces meeting the needs of their staff and more business rolling in by the day, Dan and Andrea have their hands full. Regardless of what the future holds, you can count on the fact that they will continue to strive toward better, no matter what.

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OEC is pleased to announce it has joined forces with Machabee Office Environments. The merger will increase the OEC footprint to offer interior furniture and audiovisual technology in both the Idaho and Nevada markets.

I’m just thrilled to be working with the Machabee team, which has such a legacy in Nevada. With our combined resources, we will be able to offer an even higher level of service to customers.

Machabee has been offering commercial furniture services in Nevada for over 80 years. OEC has been offering services in Idaho for 35 years. Combined the organizations have over 100 year in business.

I would like to welcome all of the Machabee employees from the Las Vegas and Reno offices to the OEC family. We look forward to continuing the our mission of building “Exceptional Spaces -On Time and on Budget“.

Sincerely,

Scott Galloway
President
OEC

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