For Employee Breakrooms, Small Changes Can Yield Big Impact

Office managers are responsible for providing their team members with a safe and productive workspace, ensuring their office environment is conducive to employee flourishing. This includes not only the areas where employees get down to business, but also the areas where they eat, rest, and socialize—including breakrooms and kitchen areas.

Creating a pleasant employee break area can improve the mood of the entire office, and thankfully, creating a space where employees feel seen and cared for doesn’t require starting from scratch. Making a few small tweaks to an existing break area can greatly enhance aesthetics as well as functionality.

Creating a Beautiful Space for Employee Downtime

Ideally, employee break areas provide a space where team members can briefly distance themselves from the hectic pace of their work—potentially providing a quick mental health boost during coffee, snack, or meal breaks.

For employees to experience these benefits, they actually need to find the break area a desirable place to spend time. Office managers can consider a few simple tweaks to ensure a more welcoming aesthetic—none of which require major renovation, but all of which can significantly change the ambiance of the room.

• Soften the lighting. Fluorescent lighting can feel harsh—making employees feel less like they’re relaxing at home and more like they’re stuck in a hospital, school, or other institutional facility. Swapping fluorescent for softer bulbs or LED lamps can create a much warmer, homier space.
• Add greenery. Another way to spruce up the employee kitchen or breakroom is to invest in a few healthy, green plants—positioning them on floating shelves, on top of the refrigerator, or in the middle of tables. Incorporating natural elements can refresh the entire facility and even promote healthier air quality.
• Use intentional colors and patterns. Many employee kitchen and break areas include hodgepodge dishware, utensils, and décor pieces—giving the impression that furnishing the break room was an afterthought. Avoiding this slapdash approach in favor of consistent accent colors and uniform dishware helps employees see that the break area was assembled with intentionality.
• Enliven the walls. Bare walls can make any space feel sterile and uninviting. There are plenty of ways to bring color and personality to the walls of an employee break area—with pieces of art, motivational posters, or even a communal chalkboard, allowing employees to share notes or doodles with one another.

Ensuring Organization and Functionality

To encourage regular use of employee break areas, creating a welcoming vibe is important, but it’s ultimately not enough. These spaces also need to be well-organized and free from clutter. Employees shouldn’t have any problem finding the dishware they need to prepare their lunch, nor an open seat where they can sit down and take a load off.

There are a number of ways in which office managers can promote organization and functionality within employee break areas—and again, small tweaks and adjustments can ultimately make an outsized impact.

• Maximize space in cabinets and drawers. Chances are, the employee kitchen already has some built-in cabinetry. To create additional space in those cabinets, and to provide employees with greater ease finding and storing the dishes or utensils they need, consider cabinet inserts. Adjustable-height inserts provide maximum flexibility and make it possible to create discrete sections for different types of items. Drawer dividers can be used to similar effect. (Speaking of cabinets and drawers, cabinet refinishing and door replacement provide another great opportunity to improve aesthetics without the need for extensive renovations.)
• Install vertical storage. Most employee kitchens are fairly limited in space, which can make seamless storage a conundrum. To make the most of existing space, think vertically—add open shelving, pegboards, and magnetic strips along open walls, allowing for easy access to commonly used items.
• Create flexible seating areas. To encourage use of an employee break area, it’s crucial to create a flexible seating arrangement. This might mean a combination of tables, stools, and booths, ensuring space for employees who want to eat together or enjoy a moment of solitude. Adding phone and device charging stations only enhances the break area’s hospitality.
• Make designated snack and drink areas. Another small step toward a more organized employee kitchen: Create a snack station using bins, baskets, or shelving, allowing employees to quickly and easily see their options and choose the right pick-me-up. Along the same lines, a devoted coffee or tea station can go a long way toward reducing the area’s clutter.

The bottom line: Office managers have ample opportunity to enhance employee productivity and morale—and that means being intentional not just about work areas, but break areas, too. Small adjustments can make a big impact when it comes to aesthetics, function and overall usability.