Signs that your workplace is in need of a new design

17-Sep-2019

An office redesign or fit-out is not an easy task and does involve a lot of planning and organisation!

Here are five signs that your workplace may be in need of a new fit-out or redesign.

1. You’re crammed in with nowhere to move

You’ve probably been there..when management move all your desks a few inches together to get another row in, but now you can barely get out of your seat, and you can hear your co-worker breathing – you’re that close!

You might not think something like this could cause issues but this situation is open to a lot of incidents and disgruntled employees.

Here are a few ways you can tell if the office space is overcrowded:

OH&S incidents are on the rise: When a space is overcrowded, people bump into desks, equipment and even each other more often.
There are more employee complaints and workplace conflict: Forcing employees into each other’s personal space can quickly make tensions rise and tempers flare.
Booked-up meeting rooms: Are meetings often delayed because employees have to find extra chairs to squeeze around the conference table? Are the meeting rooms constantly booked up, forcing employees to delay meetings in order to find an available slot? These indications certainly point to overcrowding – and all that precious time lost finding seats and rebooking meetings is time that could have been spent putting value back into your business.

2. Your employees have nowhere to relax

When space becomes limited in the workplace, often the first area to become encroached is the breakout space.

If employees are lining up to use the microwave or have nowhere to sit and enjoy their lunch, this often means people are sitting at their desks and will eventually become unhappy and over-worked. This is another giveaway that it may be time to factor in a new fit-out or design to cater for the extra employees.

3. Your company culture is effected

Sometimes the problem is not the lack of office space – it’s a lagging company culture.

You may, for example, have accommodated for new employees by leasing out another floor in your building. Your employees now have all the space they need – but collaboration has taken a steep nose-dive, because employees no longer interact organically like they once did.

Whatever the reason, it’s important to be proactive. A strong company culture is the backbone of a healthy company. It also helps attract and retain staff, while contributing to a clearer brand identity in the mind of your clients.

An office redesign, therefore, might be the perfect opportunity to revive and enhance the positive aspects of your company culture – and perhaps even mitigate some of those not-so-positive ones.

4. Space for paperwork and documents is diminishing

Mounting piles of paperwork on people’s desks are another sign your office space might be in dire need of an upgrade.

If people don’t have anywhere to store documents, then messy desks won’t be the only issue – documents will get misplaced, more errors will be made, and employees will waste more time searching for the information they need. And your clients will likely be the ones who suffer!

Sure, you could get some more filing cabinets – but these will take up even more valuable real estate, making the office feel more crowded than ever.

When considering an office redesign, therefore, it’s worth putting some careful thought into not just how much space your employees need, but also how much space your documentation requires, particularly if you work in a paper-intensive industry that requires extensive record-keeping.

5. The location is not ideal

It might not be the office space that is the problem, but rather where it is. Maybe you moved the office there several years ago, having been told it was an area on the way up, but things didn’t quite pan out that way.

Or maybe you opted for a location a bit further from the action, because, at the time, you couldn’t afford the exorbitant city rents, and now you can.

Being in a good location can have lots of benefits to your business – it can put you in closer proximity to your clients and it can help attract and retain excellent staff.

Yes, an office redesign or relocation is a lot of work – but staying in an office space you’ve well and truly outgrown will be far more frustrating and costly in the long run.

If you read this article and answered yes to any of the above, it might be time to and see how we can help with your office space.

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