While you may be inspired to redesign your office space in order to create a fresh, new and impressive look and feel, there’s another valuable goal that you should aim for at the same time: better utilization of space.
Below, we highlight the key elements and aspects that you and your interior solutions partner will need to focus on to achieve this important objective:
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Environmental Systems
Heating, lighting and HVAC systems may not seem like they should be linked to space utilization. After all, what does temperature, the amount of lighting, or even the ambient noise caused by HVAC systems (e.g. fans, etc.) have to do with whether space is being used or not? Well, if you ask your employees this question, you may be surprised at the answer!
That’s because there are probably areas of your office space that are being under-utilized, because they simply aren’t comfortable or productive places to work or meet. For example, they may be poorly lit, drafty, stuffy, or just plain uncomfortable.
What’s more, as a result of these limitations, other areas of the office are likely being over-utilized beyond their intended purposes. For example, some offices with less-than-suitable meeting areas find that meetings take place in the lunch room or the customer waiting area – which isn’t where they’re supposed to happen.
Focusing on environmental systems and making sure that they’re working properly and supporting productivity – rather than impeding it – could significantly improve space utilization; in some cases, to a dramatic extent.
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Open, Collaborative Spaces
Business productivity and performance suffers when employees fail to collaborate and connect. However, while people and personalities have a lot to do with this problem, office design plays a role, too.
That’s because most traditional office space designs put physical barriers between individuals and teams. In fact, it’s not uncommon in some workplaces for employees to go for months or years without saying a word to each other! Obviously this was never the intention of the architect and interior designer, but it is a consequence that has real, bottom-line costs.
Redesigning your existing office space gives you the perfect opportunity to break down these barriers, and create open, collaborative workspaces that foster interaction and teamwork – and achieve much better utilization. Of course, you can (and should) still have designated meeting spaces, and areas where individuals can work without interference or distraction.
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Optimized Spaces
Certain areas of your current office may be under-utilized because the space itself doesn’t fit for current needs. For example, your operations may rely heavily on team brainstorming sessions and “huddles”, but your office space may only allow one team to meet at a time.
Or, your may find that your sales reps need to deliver customer presentations throughout the day, but there aren’t enough “spare rooms” for this to take place – and as such, your sales reps have to wait in line, or worse, sort our traffic jams in front of unimpressed customers!
The point is that by redesigning your office you’ll be able to create more optimized spaces that align with what your people need (e.g. more team meeting space, more customer presentation rooms, etc). This will profoundly improve space utilization – and your employees will be delighted and grateful, too!
Learn More
To learn more about the advantages of redesigning your existing office space – which include better utilization, higher employee productivity, more efficient heating and lighting, and many other benefits – contact the interior solutions specialists at Key Interiors today.
We’ll be pleased to provide you with a free consultation, and work with you to create an office redesign plan that will re-invent your space and make it qualitatively better now and for years to come.
