The Importance and Benefits of Communal Spaces within an Office

A workday can be super busy, but with communal office spaces, flexibility can come into play. Whether you want to be social, or more productive, these types of areas are there to hand you a full plate of benefits.

What Classes as a Communal Area?

A communal area is defined as a space shared by people. If somewhere is a private space dedicated to one person and nobody else, it’s not a communal area. In relation to a workplace, employees often have the option to access communal spaces. This can be as simple as a staff room where you may run into others from your company.

Meeting Rooms

Meeting rooms can create a specific space for productivity. Whether you’re simply having a meeting or carrying out a brainstorming session, you’ll be able to get use out of them.

The benefits of this communal space include:

An area for privacy – Meeting rooms allow you to do what you need to do without distractions. This is particularly good for when you need to discuss confidential information
They have amenities to help you get the job done – Visual elements, like TV’s and whiteboards, can help you share relevant information with others. This might be a presentation or a business idea. Amenities like these can improve teamwork and boost your work life
Appear professional to clients – Meeting rooms are designed to get the job done, so if you can present one to clients, you’re already heading in the right direction to come off as professional

Shared Kitchen Area

Having a staff room gives you the space you need to take a break from your busy workday and can also be a great social area. Having a kitchen in your staff room can make things all that bit easier.

The benefits of this communal space include:

You can make food! – It’s an obvious one, but it really can be useful. Not everyone fancies a cold sandwich every day for lunch, which is where having a kitchen comes in. It allows you to have warm food and helps with flexible meal prepping for a healthy lifestyle. And don’t forget hot drinks!
A place to keep food – Throughout the workday, we all need a snack, and a kitchen is a great storage area. Whether you fancy biscuits or fruit, you’ll know where to find it!
You can be flexible with how you want to use the area – If you want to relax – you can, if you want to talk to a colleague – you can, if you want to make food – you can. This area is like a staff room but in a multi-functional sense where you can do what feels best for you

Multi-Purpose Communal Areas

If your workplace has a variety of communal areas, this can set employees on the right path. Businesses may not also have the space for this though, which is where multi-purpose communal areas come into use. Examples of this include a communal kitchen which has a lounge area or a work gym with a comfy seating area.

The main benefit of this is flexibility. They’re designed to make things easier for you. You can be social with others as well as getting things done.

Gyms and Exercise Areas

We spend so much time at work that it can sometimes be difficult to find the time to get physically active. If there’s the possibility to do this at work, it can be super convenient for people.

The benefits of this communal space include:

They can save people money – Public gym memberships can be costly. Some workplaces will ask employees for money to use the gym, but this is often a small amount compared to public one
Exercise is good for mental wellbeing - As well as your physical health, mental health is also of upmost importance. A work gym can help employees to feel their best and lower stress in the workplace
Exercise areas can increase productivity – If you feel mentally and physically good, you can put more energy into your work. Exercise can also contribute to a good night’s sleep, which has a positive effect

The Benefits of Communal Spaces for Employees

It’s clear that there’re many benefits of specific communal spaces, but what are the benefits as a whole?

You can make social connections – Sometimes with the rush of work, it can be difficult to make time to engage in conversation with others. With office communal areas, it’s easy to bump into people and get talking. They can also allow you to allocate time to spend with other employees, like having a gym session together
They can attract people looking for a job – The difference between having meeting rooms and not having them might be the deciding factor for someone checking out a role you have going
They can help you be productive – Each communal area can work in a different way to get you ready for completing work. The gym can allow you to get in the right mindset, meeting rooms can give you a place to be productive, and a kitchen area gives opportunity for a quick break in the middle of a busy day

Offices with Communal Areas at Spacepool

When searching on our site for the perfect space, you can filter to help you look for what you need. Office communal spaces can be filtered for, like if it has a kitchen, a gym or meeting rooms. We have hundreds of places to look through which have all sorts of communal facilities. Whatever space you’re looking for, you’re bound to find it on our site.