What Type Of Office Design Is Right For My Business?

Getting your office design right is essential if your firm is to fulfil its potential. The look and feel of your workspace can have a major impact on the productivity and morale of your employees, and it can affect your company’s image. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to designing offices. Every organisation has its individual needs and preferences, and it’s important to make sure that your premises perfectly reflect the requirements of your business. To help ensure you get your design spot on, it helps to ask yourself the following questions when you’re planning your work environment.

One open space or separate areas?

One thing you’ll need to decide on is whether you want to create one open space or you’d like separate areas within your office. A rising number of businesses are knocking down walls and cubicles to create open plan workspaces, and top officials and managers now often sit alongside other employees rather than in their own personal offices. This approach can help to encourage a culture of openness and transparency, and it can also foster team spirit. Of course, this approach doesn’t suit all enterprises. As an alternative, you may prefer to have certain parts of your office cordoned off for your high-ranking personnel. Meanwhile, as a hybrid solution, you could use glass instead of solid walls for any personal offices, giving managers more privacy but still creating a working environment with an open plan feel.

Designated desks or freedom to move around?

Another question you must ask is whether you’d like your personnel to have their own designated desks or you’d prefer them to have the freedom to move around and work from different parts of your premises. There are benefits to both approaches. By creating different zones within your workspace, such as breakout areas where workers can have impromptu meetings and discussions and quiet spaces where people can concentrate on their work, you can ensure your personnel can always find an environment that suits the tasks they are completing. On the other hand, if your personnel have their own desks, they can create a personalised area and they can keep any documents or stationery that they may need in one place.

Conventional or quirky?

When it comes to the overall style of your workspace, you have to decide whether to go for a conventional look or to opt for something more contemporary and quirky. The route you take will depend on the image you want to convey both to your workers and to your customers. If you want to come across as traditional, leather seating, square-edged desks and other such design features will work best. Alternatively, for a more modern take on office design, rounded-edged furnishings and colourful seating will work better. It’s only once you’ve decided exactly what it is you want your office to achieve that you should start the process of designing this space. Whatever route you take, make sure that your overall design scheme is cohesive and that it perfectly reflects your brand and business ethos.