Five tips for planning and designing your office

Your new work space design can have a huge impact on the future of your business. Your choices can either make your employees more productive—or less productive. More productive employees, of course, means a happier, more efficient office environment which translates into better customer service, more sales and bottom line profits.

Here are five tips for planning and designing your workspace so that you not only get the most efficiency out of your space but also receive the best results from your employees: 

1) Try before you buy. Many companies change to a new workstation design when they move. The high walled cubicle is replaced with a lower wall cubicle. Some companies decide to use “hotel workstations” to condense space.  This means they are condensing space by using workstations where there are no permanent desk assignments, and a receptionist assigns a work station to each employee for the day.

This changes the dynamics of your office and employee interaction. So before you make a large investment in new workstations, sample the type of station you are considering. Try out the look, feel and functionality in your office setting before you buy. 

For example, after you approve your design, our crew puts a couple of the workstations you are considering into your office right alongside your old workstations so you can see in advance if the new workstations will provide a better working environment. Once you agree to the new workstations, an exchange program gives you credit towards your new workstations.

2) Use a full-service provider. When you use multiple companies each selling one piece of the puzzle, often you’ll find you end up with what is their highest priced product instead of the best solution for your situation. For example, when using multiple vendors, a furniture vendor might only show you all new furniture, when really you could reuse your existing furniture and only need new chairs.

A full-service provider will present you with every option available including reuse and re-manufactured furniture solutions. To save yourself aggravation and money and ensure you’ll be presented with every option, use a single source to plan, design and furnish your offices.

3) Get value for your existing furniture. Before you call up the liquidator who will give you next to nothing for your furniture or make arrangements to haul your furniture off to charity, consider relocating your furniture to get more value from it. A professional mover with a national footprint can give you the ability to relocate furniture and use it in another location in the country. For example, if you are decommissioning a location in Jacksonville, Florida and opening a new location in Phoenix, Arizona, you can use the value of your furniture against the procurement for your new office.

4) Use a licensed stage planner and designer. One of the big advantages of dealing with a full-service provider is that you have full access to a licensed stage planner and designer. This will bring options and ideas about how to put together the ideal working environment that you might never have considered and ensures you get the quality service you are expecting.   

5) Allow enough time. The more time you have to plan the process and your space, the better the end result. You are more likely to end up with an ideal solution versus a “second best solution” that was put in place for the sake of expediency.  

Combining services by using a single source workplace solutions provider can add significant cost savings to a project. You will ensure all the pieces of your new workspace fit together properly, meet your requirements and create the best possible working environment for your employees.