This Illinois startup wants to change your office to fit your company’s needs

Office design firm Cubicle Concepts has been remaking workspaces in an effort to enhance productivity and get people to like where they work. The Illinois-based startup focuses on office furniture, interior design and space planning, according to its site. With more than 15 years of experience in the field, CEO Andrew Oziemblo has been creating offices that center around worker happiness. Oziemblo wrote in a recent article that a startup like his often gets typecast as only wanting to create modern-looking, open spaces that have now become the norm in Silicon Valley. However, each office represents its own needs depending on the industry and workers’ needs. “The drab office designs of the 1980s and 1990s continue to infect the modern office of today, turning off millenials and hurting worker productivity in the process,” Oziemblo wrote. “Companies who do not refit their office spaces usually use the budget as an excuse for upgrade omissions. However, office upgrades are not only related to open offices and modern designs.” Oziemblo and those at Cubicle Concepts are big on the idea of collaboration and making workers happier by encouraging communication and stronger relationships within a given office. In a stat that Oziemblo has cited in a separate column, some 80 percent of people now work in open offices. As that article mentions, there are certainly studies that have shown the open office concept to actually make workers less social and less efficient at the same time. However, Oziemblo maintains that what works for an accounting office is totally different than what works for a marketing or writing office, where studies have shown open offices do have a positive impact. “A happy worker is much more productive and these small changes can spur emotional wellbeing,” Oziembo wrote. “Take that empty cubicle in the corner and turn it into a small lounge area. Use that storage space in a more inventive, enticing way.” Disclosure: This article includes a client of an Espacio portfolio company