Your company has decided you are ready for a change; your current layout fails to meet your needs and your goals truly align with a redesign for the office. What comes next after the decision has been made? The steps you take are important. HBi Office Solutions has 5 tips that will help guide you in the planning process.

Asking Your Employees for Input

Collaboration is a word frequently used for projects, meetings, and other aspects of business. Why wouldn’t collaboration transfer to planning where the work is actually taking place? As The Receptionist, a global Office Management Solutions company states, “Your employees are smart, they know their needs.” In fact, in one poll, 33% of respondents claimed that office design has an impact on whether they would even take a job offered to them or not. Elicit ideas and needs for the areas that impact team’s or individual’s ideas. They may provide information on the storage they need, the type of seating or workspace the prefer, and even specific needs such as more electrical outlets or extra waste receptacles. Also, it is imperative to inquire about project spaces and the amount of time that is actually spent in the office. Employees who work remotely may not need an assigned desk when access to a conference table, touchdown space, or supportive chair and communal supplies are enough.

Gathering Inspiration

Have you ever walked into someone’s office and thought how wonderful it may be to incorporate an aspect of their space? Or perhaps the opposite is true and you thought you would never use one of their ideas? Inspiration can come from a number of sources, gather as much as you can and record what inspired you about the space or detail. Inspiration can strike anywhere so snap photos on your phone, browse websites, and save to your Pinterest board. Collecting inspiration costs nothing and can provide clarity for the planning stages.

Incorporating Your Brand

Finding ways to display your brand, both literally and symbolically, is important to companies who want to increase employee and client engagement. Branding provides constant reminders to employees about your work team and the goals they are striving to meet. For any clients who enter your workspace, branding provides messaging that you are proud of the company they are interacting with as soon as they step foot in the door. An obvious way to incorporate branding is to find ways to include your company name, logo, or using your color palette. Other ways to think about branding involves company values such as using eco-friendly and renewable materials if eco-responsibility is crucial to your business.

Personalizing Space

Pictures of kids, mementos of vacations, and calendars with personal meanings, are commonly found in cubicles, around offices, and on desks across our nation. Employees want to bring their own touches and flair to their workspace. These personal touches, when appropriate and not distracting, provide motivation for work and opportunities for personal connections when interactions take place. Finding ways to allow for these personal touches, even in the absence of walls, is imperative in planning your next steps. Whether you choose to incorporate bulletin boards in communal spaces, technology to display personal photographs, or follow suit with traditional displays, encouraging their use is necessary.

Providing Alternate Areas

Alternate areas can summarize a wide spectrum of rooms and sections of an office redesign. While open offices possess value in numerous ways, individuals do need the opportunity to make confidential calls, to have a place for focusing on specific tasks, to find flexible seating or working spaces when a change of pace is helpful, or to find time to socialize and engage with fellow employees. Having a dynamic workspace that promotes movement and engagement can prevent lapses in the workday where people feel sluggish and tied to their desks. 

HBi is passionate about seeing the energy and excitement that pairs with renovations and redesigns. We would love to show you the work we have already completed and discuss how we can serve your work needs. Take the opportunity to contact us to begin sharing ideas today.

http://www.todayssystems.com/blog/theofficeredesign
http://www.strategyhat.co.uk/blog/is-brand-identity-essential-to-office-design/
https://thereceptionist.com/blog/7-pitfalls-to-avoid-when-redesigning-your-office-space/
https://www.cofcogroup.com/tips-for-a-successful-office-redesign