How Open Office Plans Affect Workplace Productivity

How open office plans help workplace productivity 

The open office concept was devised in Germany in the 1950s. Known as bürolandschaft (which translates to “office landscape”), open office plans aimed to eliminate workplace hierarchies. 

In the U.S., the trend took off after Google reinvented its main offices in 2005. Facebook followed suit in 2015 with what became the world’s largest open office layout, a single-floor space housing about 2,800 employees on its expansive campus. According to a study by global architecture and design firm Gensler, two-thirds of U.S. knowledge workers worked in an open-plan office in 2020 and 71 percent of workers in 2023 still preferred open areas for collaborative work. 

Open offices caught on for valid reasons. Businesses noticed that the layout brought increased cost savings, more collaboration, and enhanced transparency. Here’s a more in-depth look at the advantages of open office plans. 

1. Open offices save companies money.

Open offices fit well into small business budgets. The spaces reduce overhead costs by minimizing office space needs and equipment expenses. 

In an open office plan, businesses don’t have to buy cubicle materials or furnish private offices. They can squeeze more people into less square footage and enjoy fewer maintenance costs. 

Open offices can also save money in more intangible ways, such as mitigating the costs of disengaged workers. According to the 2024 Gallup State of the Global Workplace report, only 23 percent of the global workforce is engaged, which costs the global economy trillions of dollars annually. 

Open floor plans allow managers to interact with and observe employees up close. They can spot signs of employee burnout, monitor and measure employee performance, and pinpoint disengaged workers. When these problems are brought to light, companies can address them head-on and help employees improve. When engagement levels increase, stress and productivity issues decrease — and businesses save money. 

2. Open offices increase collaboration.

Beyond their cost-saving benefits, open offices foster a sense of shared mission among co-workers and managers. Team collaboration improves employee performance, and open office plans are inherently collaborative. They create a less hierarchical, more laid-back atmosphere, facilitating communication and co-worker interaction. 

Kiana Porter-Isom, chief improvement officer at Reading Horizons, noted that collaboration often leads to enhanced productivity, creativity, and team innovation. “There’s also an undeniable energy in shared spaces, especially when teams hit a collective ‘flow time,’ where everyone seems to be moving in sync toward shared goals,” Porter-Isom said. “This synergy can lead to fresh ideas and faster problem-solving.”

3. Open offices bring communication transparency.

Open offices cultivate a sense of community and bring inherent business transparency. By the very nature and setup of an open office environment, it’s easier to share information, keep teams updated, and work toward common goals.

When executives and workers share the same workspace, barriers break down and communication and understanding increase. When manager-employee relationships improve, problems tend to be solved more efficiently and effectively, profoundly and positively affecting workplace productivity.

How open office plans hurt workplace productivity 

Despite an open office’s benefits, the floor plans have significant downsides. Here are some of the most important cons of open office plans. 

1. Open office plans can distract employees. 

Open offices create a shared environment — and shared environments often present persistent distractions, including noise. Whether they take the form of ringing phones or water cooler talk, noisy workplace interruptions can waste employees’ time and drain their productivity. That’s especially true when workers feel they have no control over their environment. 

Porter-Isom agrees that maintaining focus in an open office can be challenging for some people, but simple strategies can combat noise distractions. “Balancing collaboration and focus is important to making the most of an open office layout,” she said. “Tools like noise-canceling headphones can be game-changers for those who need to block distractions during heads-down work.”

Porter-Isom also suggested using “do not disturb” signs and establishing quiet hours, during which the entire office minimizes noise. “Quiet hours allow teams to recharge and tackle tasks that require deep thinking without sacrificing the collaborative benefits of the open layout,” she said.

2. Open office plans can bring higher stress levels.

Background noise and chaos can do more than distract — they can also increase stress and inhibit employees’ cognitive performance. According to an often-cited study by Cambridge University Press, there was a 34 percent increase in sweat response and a 25 percent increase in negative mood after just eight minutes of simulated open-office noise. 

A general sense of overstimulation in open offices can lead to higher stress levels, and it’s well known that stress and productivity don’t mix. 

3. Open offices lack privacy.

Open offices have an inherent lack of privacy, which is a significant downside that can derail focus. (Anyone who’s ever received a call from their doctor while sitting elbow to elbow with their co-workers can attest to that.) Close quarters may facilitate collaboration, but it can significantly impede focus. 

When employees have nowhere to stash their valuables, take confidential meetings, or do anything else that may benefit from privacy, they have a harder time focusing on their work. Privacy cultivates concentration and can improve job performance; depriving employees of it may decrease productivity.

4. Open offices can increase employee sick days.

Open office spaces can hamper productivity by increasing sickness-related workplace absenteeism. Viruses can spread quickly in an open environment. If stress levels are already high, workers’ immune systems can be less than optimal, creating a contagion of call-ins.

How to maintain workplace productivity with open office plans 

Providing every employee with private office space often isn’t financially feasible. To improve productivity in an open office, try to find a healthy balance between collaborative and private spaces. Below are a few ways to improve your current office plan to increase employee productivity and wellness and create a strong company culture. 

1. Find ways to provide respite space for employees.

Employees benefit from collaborative workspaces, but they also need space to process interactions, hold private meetings, concentrate on challenging or time-sensitive work, and otherwise satisfy their work style. To achieve that, consider adding private alcoves, work bays, or breakout rooms to an otherwise open office space. 

When you foster an empowered employee culture in which team members can shift their work environment according to their needs, office morale and performance can increase.

2. Make small changes to your office and floor plan.

Aside from allocating private spaces, find ways to tweak your open office plan and work environment to cultivate employee wellness and productivity. Ensure adequate space for work areas, for example, so employees aren’t uncomfortably close together. Additionally, improve employees’ health and productivity by ensuring quality airflow, using natural lighting, offering access to green spaces, and providing ergonomic workstations.

3. Focus on providing an inviting company culture.

Your goal is to create a work environment that makes employees feel valued. In this scenario, executives are approachable and workers are empowered to adapt their workstations to their needs (or work remotely if necessary). Creating a happy and productive work culture can help with employee retention, consistent communication, better teamwork, and alignment with the company mission. 

Porter-Isom emphasized that intentional design is key to a successful office plan. “Ultimately, the success of an open office depends on intentional design, both in the physical space and how people interact within it,” she said. “With the right tools and agreements, creating the best of both worlds is possible: creativity and productivity.”

Daniel Scalco contributed to this article.