In a new article on Human Resource Executive magazine's website, David Shadovitz digs into a revealing study by California-based global design and consulting firm Gensler.  According to Shadovitz, their 2008 Workplace Survey – which includes data from 900 respondents in the U.S. – finds that

companies with workplaces that promote collaboration, learning and socialization were more likely to have more engaged employees and higher profits than those that focus on "heads-down" work.

How much higher on the profit side?  Fourteen percent.  Not too shabby.

The employee engagement and team building that ensue from a workspace that fits employee needs and the overarching culture improve productivity and innovation, which in turn beget higher profits.  Shadovitz writes that employees at companies in the study at the high end of workplace effectiveness – those in the 91st or higher percentile – consider collaboration as critical to their job success.  And they walk the talk here, spending almost a quarter (23%) more time collaborating as compared with the "average" companies in the study.

Gensler's findings mirror what we're seeing among the winners of our 2008 Top Small Workplaces competition.  One of the nine major themes we wrote about in our 2008 Top Small Workplaces Benchmarking and Best Practices Report is that, just as much as employee engagement activities focused on learning and development, workspaces that eliminate communication silos and reinforce desired behaviors contribute to sustained employee and revenue growth, and lower turnover.

What does this mean in terms of actionable best practices?  Consider these common, or soon-to-be-common, workplace configurations in use by our 2008 winners:

• Decagon Devices (design/engineering): Within an environment of workspaces that are grouped together without barriers, their departments and work groups are led on a rotating assignment basis, not by someone with a permanent title in a set office. Key result: greater risk taking.
• Jackson's Hardware (retail trade): In direct contrast to the usual format in both small retail hardware facilities and Big Box retailers – a cramped space in the back, out of sight of customers – at this 44-year-old business all 63 employees, including the president and CEO, have their desks in an open platform. Key result: managers able to instantly give guidance and support for customers' projects.
• Resource Interactive (advertising): Their 261 employees played an integral role in designing their office space in the Arena District of Columbus, Ohio. Collaboration-friendly pod arrangements and the inclusion of elements from home, from dogs to skateboards, were the outcome. Key result: annual turnover that's well below the industry average of 18-22%.

Here's one last example I like from a small firm whose President and Founder, Tim Keenan, we honored in 2006.  In presenting for a webinar we hosted earlier this year on maintaining community in a virtual workplace, Tim talked about a practice he uses for his 300+ employees at Virginia-based HPTi – who work mostly at client sites in an IT capacity – called "hoteling."

The idea is to make employees feel welcome when they return to headquarters by providing them with a two-drawer file cabinet on wheels that handles like rolling luggage.  The receptionist is in charge of assigning them a desk and routing a phone line to them.  The employee then docks their mobile file cabinet into the desk.  Tim said it's had a big impact in making employees "feel like they're not a visitor in their own company."

Is your organization using your workspace to its fullest potential wih one or more of the above practices?  If not, take a page from the firms mentioned here and think about how your physical work environment factors into your employee engagement best practices.