Office Space Planning Guide
Planning your office space faces you with many challenges and questions. Find out what issues you need to consider when planning your office space.
The first thing you will need to do when planning office space is to determine your office space requirements. Not only will you need to calculate the amount of office space for your current workforce, but you will also need to think about how your company will grow over the coming years.
There are a number of key office space planning issues you will need to consider, and these include:
Open Plan or Cellular?
Choosing to have an open plan office can really provide you with extra room and will cut back on office space taken up by partitions.
Department Adjacencies
Think about how your various departments interact, particularly if they are working closely together on a regular basis. Which departments have more interaction with clients and need to be located nearer the reception area and which departments require the "quiet zone" to best carry out their role.
Meeting Rooms and Break out Zones
Decide how much space you need to dedicate to your meetings rooms. Remember that break out zones with seating and desks can be used for more informal meetings that do not require the privacy of a closed off meeting room and they are a great cost saving solution too!
Office Equipment
Work with an IT & Telecoms Company to determine the best location for workstations, phone cables, printers and photocopiers. This needs to be planned well in advance of the office move as additional cabling infrastructure may be required in the new office to meet telecom and PC network requirements.
Office Furniture
Where possible, try to use office furniture that is easily configurable, such as workstations grouped together which can be built into different configurations according to each department's working practices. Hot desking is also a great office space saving solution if you have field sales staff who may only need to use the desk one or twice a week.
With a little ingenuity, you can really make your new offices work for you and drafting in the help of an experienced office design company will make your job much easier. They have specialist experience in maximising your work space and creating an office design which is practical and eyecatching and enhances your company brand and culture.
Need more help with office space planning or design? Request our FREE Tenant's Guide to Office Design.
To locate an office design company near you. Use our free Moving Office Space Calculator to work out your office space requirements.
