Office Efficiency in Omaha, NE – 2019

Did you know that the average American spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime? With that in mind, we think it’s important for employers and employees alike to do their part in making the office a positive and productive environment. For that to happen, office efficiency strategies have to be taken into consideration. Maybe you’re at a job right now and you often find yourself thinking about ways your operations could improve or you’ve identified a few little (or big) things in your office that are either currently happening or not happening, and are therefore hindering you from reaching your full potential at work. We talked to a few professionals in Omaha who had some interesting advice to share on this topic.

Since the impact and importance of a worker’s physical environment often go overlooked, we talked to Kate Gallagher, the on-site manager for Modern Work Suites & Studios, about how comfortable and efficient office space is essential to increase employee engagement. “Things like lighting, wall colors, desk arrangement, and quality of office equipment can make a difference to how employees work,” confirmed Kate.

If you haven’t heard of Modern Work Suites yet, well…Google it, but we have to warn you that the pictures you’ll find online don’t do it justice. We found this out quickly when Kate gave us a tour of their new 60s-inspired space, centrally located in Omaha at 8790 F St. As we talked to Kate, we thought about our readers who may be looking for a new office situation. Especially with so many start-up companies popping up, there are likely a lot of you who are ready to graduate from working out of your home and giving your business its own address. Or maybe you’re someone who is in a current commercial lease and you’re just ready for something new, more conveniently located, with better amenities, or…fill in the blank. You might not even be looking for a new office space, but after hearing more about Modern Work Suites, you’ll be tempted to look into it more.

Working from home or out of a stand-alone building may be the right fit for your business, but imagine if you could enjoy the same privacy you get at home or in your own commercial property, while also being emerged in a business ecosystem with built-in networking opportunities and professional allies from various industries just down the hall from you. This set-up has proved to be advantageous to the many business owners and teams who have chosen to make Modern Work Suites their work home.

Like Kate explained to us, Modern Work Suites & Studios is designed to be a “business community” or “business neighborhood.” The hallways are labeled with street signs and everything! “Modern Work is a unique space where tenants are able to interact and converse with people from different companies and backgrounds, all under one roof,” Kate noted. “The Modern Work vision is to provide continuous networking opportunities with founders, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and corporate-affiliated employees from all over the Omaha area. We do this by hosting a weekly happy hour for our tenants and monthly Networking Mixxers, which take place on the second Thursday of each month and are open to the public—any and all business professionals in the community are welcome!  Whether it’s conversing over a cup of coffee in the Mixx Lounge, taking in a game of pool or ping-pong on your break, or even giving your creativity a chance to reboot by building something at the Lego table—the opportunity for interaction and inspiration at Modern Work Suites is unmatched in Omaha.”

The founder of Modern Work Suites & Studios, Curt Brannon, decided he wanted to create a space where business people can do serious work without taking themselves too seriously. This progressive concept and vision facilitates the feeling of liking—even loving–where you work.  It’s no secret that people who like their job work harder and are overall more productive. So, if you’re trying to achieve a higher level of efficiency in your office, we suggest planting (or replanting) your business at one of Modern Work’s private office spaces. They can accommodate various sizes of companies, from one-person studios to large suites that can office 10–15 people, and if you need more space than that, they will make it work. They currently have a company that is renting out an entire hallway of offices! Altogether, Modern Work Suites has 46 single studios, 18 double studios, nine triple studios, and nine suites. You can take a virtual tour of the floor plan on Modern Work’s website.

“A really neat thing we offer our clients is the ability to customize their office space by selecting from a catalog of desks, bookshelves, chairs, and lamps, which is a perk included in the rent,” added Kate. “Our tenants can even choose what color they want their accent wall to be! This allows people to really feel like their space is their own. Plus, businesses have access to three levels of WiFi, a mailing and packaging service, a business service center where things like fax services, copying, and scanning documents are available, a low-impact gym, free and easy access parking, and four separate conference rooms, which tenants can rent for free up to four hours a month.”

So, to increase productivity in your workplace, take a look around your current office, or maybe lack thereof, and think about what needs updating or what would help you feel good about the space you work in. If you have employees, invite them to give their feedback on the current environment. Find out what aspects they’re happy with and what necessary changes need to be made. If there are a lot of changes and you decide your current situation just isn’t cutting it, look into leasing a private office at Modern Work Suites & Studios.

Physical and mental health plays a crucial role in the success of any company. Healthier employees could potentially result in fewer sick days and higher performance levels. Sometimes, all it takes to achieve this is a clean office. You may be really content with your current office space, which is great, but are you keeping it clean and organized? We talked to Allisyn Meadows, Omaha manager for 360 Clean, LLC, about how important it is to keep your office clean. “The workplace can become very dirty very quickly, especially if you work in a company with a lot of high-traffic areas where a lot of different people touch the same surface,” Allisyn addressed. “Consider elevator buttons, railings, door handles, countertops in the break room or conference room…these are some of the most germ-filled places in an office. Wiping your keyboard and mouse every day with a disinfectant wipe will help kill organisms and prevent sickness. Little day-to-day cleaning efforts help a lot, but having a professional cleaning service come through once a month or even once a week is recommended. At 360 Clean, we offer daily, weekly, and monthly office and building cleaning. We work with you to accommodate morning, afternoon, evening, or even after hour appointments. Our team is all about cleaning those places that most people forget about, or simply don’t have time during the work day to attend to themselves. Our commercial cleaning services include: restrooms, carpet, windows, and everywhere in between. We even do clean up for parking lots and construction projects.”

In addition to finding the right work space for your business and keeping that space clean, a major key to efficiency is having fast and reliable technology in place. Considering there aren’t many businesses that don’t utilize technology for at least one aspect of their operation, we interviewed Vern Kathol, VP of hardware and managed print services at Scantron Technology Solutions. Here are a few of the questions we asked him and his responses:

In your opinion, what makes office efficiency and productivity so critical for businesses? 

Aside from the obvious cost and productivity benefits of optimized desktops and physical efficiencies of conveniently placed devices, businesses can benefit from a complete cultural shift to efficiency. It’s all hands on deck, looking for the best way to accomplish tasks and serve customers, all the time. This spurs innovation and exploration of new ideas. Being open to reevaluating your workflows, policies, and practices will uncover hidden waste and faulty assumptions that are costing you money.

What can you offer business owners who are looking for ways to improve upon their productivity and efficiency in the office?

Our solutions directly and immediately impact productivity and efficiency, primarily by relieving busy people of reactive or complex tasks and allowing them to focus more on value adding tasks. This effect is magnified in smaller companies, where a principal or senior manager already wears many hats in addition to IT manager or CIO. It’s about delegating to a trustworthy expert. The task might be something as basic as troubleshooting a computer issue, applying security patches, or mapping a printer. The task might also be more complex, such as right-sizing the printer fleet of a mid-sized office in order to place devices centrally to the optimal number of users, or configuring productivity application suites (like Office 365) for different departments according to their teams’ unique requirements. Our support model is scaled to handle the needs of very large companies across the country, yet smaller companies can enjoy the same depth of coverage and support infrastructure as a company with 10,000 personnel. We charge a unique cost per page for our managed print services, which entitles customers to unlimited service. They only pay for what they print and receive regular expert consultation. We have a fixed-fee offering for unlimited managed IT service, which means that we are incentivized to maximize performance and availability for each customer without charging trip fees or hourly billing.

In what ways can you come alongside local professionals to help achieve office efficiency and/or increase productivity?

There are several common situations where you might want to consult us to achieve measurable productivity and efficiency gains. One common event is the pending renewal of copier leases or retirement of aging printers and multi-function devices. Another would be an upgrade or refresh of your network servers, endpoint PCs, and laptops, or the deployment of Office 365 to your workforce.

It’s sad enough that a quarter of Americans say that work is their number one source of stress in life. We can’t control our boss, co-workers, clients/customers, or even things like the copy machine breaking down unexpectedly, but we can do our part to keep our space clean and tidy, and make sure that we have the best support system in place!