Redefining workplace collaboration and productivity: using quality coffee to drive workplace collaboration

Stefan Vermeulen, Nespresso Professional Commercial Manager

For many of us, our workplace has become our home away from home. After all, it's where we spend a good 40 hours of our waking life, every single week. It's where we form relationships, develop our skills and hone our knowledge.

While we know an organisation's success is inherently linked to its people, the office is also where we contribute to something bigger than ourselves. Whatever the business goal may be, it is through a collaborative approach that the best work is delivered.

In order to attract and retain the best in the business, offices must evolve to better support collaboration. Making coffee a centre point can help make employees feel more at home and ready to exchange ideas with each other. Employers don't have to make huge changes. Rather, consider these simple ideas to promote innovation, collaboration and productivity.

1. Do your research, identify the rules, then break them as you see fit:
It comes as no surprise that disruptor brands like Spotify and Google are driving innovation at work. Take a leaf from them and experiment with methodologies from different industries to inspire collaboration, and tweak as needed to suit your unique team.

2. Create smaller spaces that nurture sharing and collaboration amongst teams:
Forget open-plan offices. The next step in collaboration is open-plan spaces, specifically designed to meet the needs of each individual team. This helps encourage teams to achieve business goals through collaboration. Making these spaces comfortable with amenities like quality coffee help to reinforce a business' appreciation for its staff, making each employee feel like a valued member. Through this approach, work can be delivered at a high standard, quicker than before.

3. Create opportunities for variety throughout the working day:
Research reveals 82 percent of Millennials (18-34 year olds) admit to losing focus and suffering an onset of fatigue come the afternoon*. Thus, companies are faced with a need to help teams overcome the ‘3pm slump'. Try integrating new activities into the day, like working from a new space over quality coffee.

At Nespresso, providing our customers with quality coffee experiences is one of our key brand values. And variety is what keeps our mind active and productive. Whether it's a morning Cappuccino or afternoon latte, we know that a slight variety in workplace practices can help improve productivity and inspire new ideas.

This is why Nespresso offers 13 unique coffees within its Professional range. Its variety in the category so you can never lose interest regardless of the time of day you drink it, how you like to make it, or what coffee you choose to use.

*Research conducted in February 2017 by Galaxy Research Online Omnibus with 1,000 Australians. This study is based on 598 workers (Full time and part time) and commissioned by Nespresso.