Top tips for redesigning your office space

Your workplace design and environment is critical to the success of your business.

We carried out research with some 500 SME business owners, which found that 68% of them are concerned that the office design is impacting their ability to attract and retain talent.

From lighting and technology to choosing a colour for the walls, redesigning and updating your office space can be intimidating. We’ve identified some of the best ways to begin this journey.

1. Speak to your employees

Your employees are one of the most valuable sources of information in your repertoire. Gather their likes and dislikes of the current office set-up, ask them what they need from the workplace environment and design, not only to do their job but also for their wellbeing and downtime. Once you have established this, designing an office space or office fit out that meets their needs becomes much easier. Don’t just ask those that are based at the office every day of the week, but those that come in less frequently and hot desk. You want to ensure you get the opinion of all users.

2. Focus on lighting

Dark spaces sap the energy from the room. Give lots of thought to the amount of light your employees get, and how much natural light they need for wellbeing and productivity. It can be tempting to clump desks together to save space, but do the best you can to resist this tactic and organise spaces near windows. Experts recommend that employees have at least 30 minutes of natural light per day, a minimum easily exceeded by a few strategic placements. Consider mixing things up in your office and provide a combination of overhead and desk lighting.

3. Invest in quality furniture

We sit on office furniture every day, but few offices bother to invest in quality desks, tables, and chairs for their workspace. Office furniture forms a significant part of the atmosphere of your office, and the health and wellbeing of your employees. Consider the aesthetic you’d like to create before ordering pieces. Think about the current problems with your office. Could you fix any of them with new furniture? More spacious desks could be ordered if clutter is a problem, and nifty space savers and units can help to solve a storage space issue. Always look for quality. It’s far more cost-effective to invest in the furniture you will have for years than it is to take a shortcut now by disposing of the furniture and replacing them in a year or two.

4. Consider technology

While an office refurbishment is about solving the problems that exist for your business at the present, it’s also an opportunity to look toward future requirements. What does the future of technology look like for your industry? What technology do you require in the office to enable your employers to do their job? It is also worth looking at implementing technology and AI, improving IT services that can provide information about the usage of the office space, power, water, lifts and so much more. With the analytics you can save money on utility costs, better use areas of the office and future-proof your business growth.

Another IT consideration is hot-desking — it can save office space, but do you have the technology equipment to support it. Wi-Fi, cloud storage, and digital scanning services can all help to improve your IT efficiencies. This is also a great time to review how you manage your information and how it can be made more efficient in the new workplace if you are considering moving office.