New office environment: technology + ambience + health & wellness = productivity

Studies have found that employee satisfaction impacts the bottom line. Satisfied employees are more engaged and more productive. Companies that focus successfully on employee engagement and satisfaction experience less turnover. Physical office environment and technology can play significant roles in employee satisfaction.

Let's take office environment. It's important that the office and other aspects of a company's physical environment represent its culture. The environment should communicate how the company wants to be perceived by customers and other stakeholders, as well as employees. In the past few years, for example, Comcast has opened several retail stores in the market area, including Batavia, Crystal Lake, Oak Brook, Schaumburg and Vernon Hills.

The stores reflect Comcast's role at the intersection of media and technology. They're experiential. Customers can sit on comfortable couches and store employees can easily demonstrate Comcast's Xfinity products and services. Employee and customer satisfaction have increased in these new retail environments and that's had a positive impact on sales. It's important to note that the design of an office environment should be authentic and reflect the products and services a company offers. It shouldn't be a copy of another company's design.

The trend in office design for years has been open space without enclosed offices and cubicles. These types of floor plans encourage collaboration and creativity and often are dotted with diverse spaces that reflect a range of work styles. Spaces can include small, medium and large conference rooms that can be used for meetings, as well as quiet places to work or for private calls.

Companies should have the technology infrastructure necessary to support a modern office environment.

Today's employees need to be able to work anywhere within a facility. So the first thing to assess is network bandwidth. Bandwidth has to be able to handle all the Internet-connected devices employees use on the job. Comcast Business offers up to 10 Gbps of Internet speed. Wi-Fi is equally important: The signal strength should be consistent throughout the entire facility and devoid of dead zones, which tend to occur in conference rooms, lobby areas, corners of buildings and hallways.

Mobility-enabled phone systems are a must in modern office environments. They make it possible for employees to begin conversations at their desks, transfer calls to their wireless devices and continue the conversation seamlessly without the person on the other end of the phone knowing he or she was transferred. These types of systems also enable calls to connect seamlessly to employees working outside the office (on the road, at home or even at a coffee shop), while continuing the conversation with customers, who are unaware that the employee is not at his or her desk.

Lighting, whether natural, brought in via new lighting technologies or created by how the space is designed, is extremely important. Open office designs that forego offices with external-facing windows should allow natural light into the space. Kitchen spaces in today's office facilities tend to be larger than in the past. They're more functional and offer greater varieties of food, including healthier snacks, in lieu of items like buttered popcorn and slushies. New designs focus on letting in more fresh air and even having an outdoor space where employees can work or relax. After exercise or a short fresh-air break, employees return to work more productive.

• Jay Dirkmaat is vice president of business services for Comcast's Greater Chicago Region.