Rearranging where staff members sit can be one of the easiest ways to boost employee performance by up to 15 per cent, according to research from talent management software firm Cornerstone OnDemand and the Harvard Business School.
“Physical space is something organizations can manage relatively inexpensively and it should be viewed as an important resource in increasing the returns to human capital,” Dylan Minor, visiting assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, said in a news release.
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Analyzing data from 2,000 employees at a technology company with locations in the United States and Europe, the researchers divided workers into three groups based on productivity. Productive employees create a lot of poor-quality work. Quality employees produce insufficient but well-crafted work. And generalists are average in terms of both output and quality.
The researchers found that creating symbiotic relationships is the most helpful. That is, sitting productive and quality workers together and keeping generalists in a separate area boosts productivity by 13 per cent and effectiveness by 17 per cent.
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“With modern organizations shifting to open floor plans and flexible workspaces, this study shows that there is actually a science behind employee seating charts,” said Jason Corsello, senior vice-president of strategy and corporate development at Cornerstone OnDemand.