Moving office is not dissimilar to moving
house. It can be stressful and filled with a long list of confusing legalities,
but it also presents a wonderful opportunity to reinvent your environment and
create a space that is fit for purpose and welcoming.
1. Why move?
Consolidation, lease breaks and bringing
teams together under one roof, or simply looking for a cheaper rent, are the
most common reasons for relocating. However, we’ve noticed another trend that
is emerging among both big and small enterprises – companies are now moving
their office spaces with the aim of having a place that better represents them
and boosts their brand. As the office space can physically represent the type
of business you run, the talent you have, and the clients you work with, it
holds within it a major competitive advantage, especially if you do it right.
2. Good office design
Of course, there are the obvious benefits.
Office relocation has been known to have a positive impact on streamlining
working practices and patterns, improving the company’s overall workplace
culture, re-energising staff, and attracting and retaining the best possible
talent. However, as with moving home, relocation is not for the faint-hearted.
There is a lot of detail to consider and a good office design is
fundamental to this process.
Firstly, you will need to have a really good
understanding of the business and its brand to work out what’s needed. Often
senior management will think that it understands what the business needs and
this may very well be the case in some instances, but not always.
3. The idea of change
It is worth getting staff involved and doing
the necessary legwork before making any final design decisions. Staff
engagement during office relocation has always been important, but be sure you
don’t scare people by asking too many questions too early on. Instead, allocate
team leaders who can relay the necessary information between staff and the
design team that will help build up your plan, while sensitively introducing
the idea of change to the workforce.
Additionally, doing a bit of investigative
work in the first instance can be really useful in developing a workplace
strategy. You wouldn’t move into a new home without understanding the new
property or how different rooms could be used for different purposes – the same
goes for your new office. Once you’ve properly explored your needs and the new
location, a workplace strategy can help to outline the parameters and highlight
the best opportunities for change.
4. How much space do you
need?
As part of this assessment, you may find that
the smallest details can actually make a big difference. You may not actually
need more meetings rooms, for example. Usually on average, 10 per cent of
booked meeting rooms consist of one person conducting a phone call or trying to
concentrate on an individual task. Also most meeting rooms are just too big,
with only a third of the seats being used in the space. As a result, a lot of
businesses are now shifting to social settings, with meetings taking place in
coffee-shop style spaces. The same misjudgement can also apply to the actual
layout of your desks. Open-plan tends to be the norm, but people can often
struggle to concentrate in open-plan environments and this can result in huge
productivity loss.
5. Don’t be a
copycat
A hugely important thing to remember is that
your brand is your own. One of the biggest mistakes we have seen businesses
make is trying to copy what has already been done. It’s easy to become misled
by the values of other businesses. Google might be renowned for having a very
‘cool’ and forward-thinking office space, but this doesn’t necessarily mean
that its office design would suit your brand. Every company will have its own
approach to working practices and, while it’s good to aspire to the values of a
respected brand, that’s very different from actually imitating its operational
and organisational culture.
