4 things every training room needs

Office design isn’t a simple matter of finding unique furniture and putting together brand-consistent color-schemes. There are offices in every city that look amazing, yet are still inherently dysfunctional. When executed correctly, design provides solutions to a wide variety of basic workplace challenges. Paramount among these is providing an avenue for building and strengthening the company’s team.

Employees should be the number one investment made by any firm. If your staff is unmotivated, apathetic, uncommitted and miserable, your output will suffer accordingly. If, on the other hand, your staff feels inspired and competent, they will overcome any challenge.

Towards that end, it is crucial for your business to have a training room that will inspire and cultivate your team from the ground up.

For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of your employees. Imagine that you are being asked to participate in training. Whether the training is set to last minutes or months, how will you see this use of your time? Will you see it as an important part of your own professional development, as well as an investment that your employer is making in your future? Or will you think that training is just boring waste of time?

In order to create buy-in and maintain the employee’s resolve, it is crucial that the training room itself is comfortable and inspirational. As such, the following are elements that should always be prioritized when it comes to designing professional training rooms:

1. Balance between comfort and professionalism

Training can oftentimes be stressful for both trainees and trainers alike. Keeping comfort in mind with an ergonomic design can help everyone focus on the actual topic of discussion rather than a growing pain in one’s lumbar region. Make sure the space is fun and engaging, not boring and headache-inducing.

At the same time, don’t focus exclusively on comfort. The setup should not be too laid-back. After all, this is still an office, not a movie theater or coffee house. To give your employees the best training area possible, there must balance to keep the staff comfortable while also remaining professional.

2. Good acoustics

Consider once again that you are in your employee’s shoes. You are sitting in training, doing your best to focus on the subject at hand, yet there is just one problem: you can’t really hear what the trainer is saying.

Now, for a moment, let’s instead imagine that you are an employee sitting just outside the training area. Even though you aren’t assigned to this training, you hear absolutely everything going on inside the room. Worse yet, you are frequently startled by occasional laughter or other loud noises. Trying to focus on a complex work challenge becomes futile.

These issues are very common. Noise can be an issue both inside and outside the training area. For this reason, training room designers need to do their best to both optimize and isolate the volume inside the room.

3. Connectivity and accessibility

While focusing on comfort and controlling sound within a training area, also remember that training rooms don’t have to be cut off from the rest of the world. In fact, incorporating devices and gadgets in the space can be helpful—it can contribute to the team’s productivity, especially when it comes to group activities and discussions.

Trainers need an area where they can keep their material and connect their own devices. They will also need a screen where they can project valuable information to help your staff conceptualize the concepts more effectively.

4. Efficient ventilation and lighting

A training room should have adequate ventilation and lighting. Unfortunately, lots of training rooms are either too warm or too cold, causing discomfort and complaints. Can your employees really learn when they are bundled up in their coats or fanning themselves with their notebook?

Add onto this inadequate or depressing lighting and learning can become impossible. If possible, try to utilize natural lighting, which has many health benefits and can also help you save on electricity.

With all of these concerns in mind, it is easy for many managers to become overwhelmed. Perhaps you think it isn’t worth your time or money to build or redo your training area. After all, couldn’t you just figure out some other solution to the problem? Well, maybe. But it’s also important to keep in mind that a poor solution isn’t really a solution at all.

What’s more, achieving a perfect office design can be a process. It is possible to attain it step-by-step, as long as the progress doesn’t get sidetracked. Being on a budget doesn’t mean that a firm has to settle for less especially when it comes to coming up with the most suitable office design plan.

In the end, your employees need a flexible and well-equipped space that will help them improve their skills. Proving that will not only help build them as professionals; it will help your company become everything that it is meant to be.

For more information on how to improve your workspace, contact Infinity Group today!