Office Layout & Office Productivity
The vast majority of office employees, regardless of career level or industry, believe office layout has a direct impact on a company's productivity. This has been backed up by scientific studies. Unfortunately, office layout is rarely a high priority when choosing office space. More often than not, the average business owner will gravitate toward the office that offers the most space in the best location for the lowest cost without really considering factors like work flow of work, communication or potential expansion. Then, they just buy whatever furniture and equipment is needed and put it where it fits.
A poor office layout isn't just bad for employees. It's bad for business. Here are a few factors to consider when planning your office layout to make your business more productive.
Work flow. Work should move in a straight line with little to no backtracking or crisscrossing. This involves relationships between not just people, but between people and equipment, files and more.
Organizational structure. Studying what departments interact most frequently and who reports to whom is critical to productivity. Also, consider who deals most frequently with outsiders and what departments and equipment tend to produce the most noise.
Private offices vs. shared space. The trend today is for more open areas and fewer private offices, which often reduces space requirements and costs, but this ultimately depends on the individual business. Everyone wants his or her own office, but how many private offices are really necessary?
Space requirements. This is determined by how much space is need by each employee for furniture, equipment and overall workspace. Common areas like conference rooms, break rooms and copy/printing/mail rooms should also be considered. Also, are you allowing room for expansion?
Equipment & furniture. Wireless connections maximize the flexibility of space and make sense as long as you take steps to ensure the security of your company's data. Virtualization that allows employees to access files anytime and anywhere are great, but you still need to plan for the traditional basics – copier, printer, fax, shredder, etc.
Furniture is more than desks and chairs. You need to account for filing and storage, cubicles and reception furniture.
Ergonomics. Endless research has shown that ergonomically designed office chairs, desks and keyboards, along with proper placement of monitors and phones, can have a direct effect on employee comfort, health and productivity. Learn about ergonomics, talk to your employees and find out what they need to work more comfortably.
Now, the actual layout. This used to be accomplished by moving furniture and equipment by hand, staring at it for a few minutes and repeating this process until you came up with the right formula. Today, OSI uses CAD (computer aided design) to plan and design your office space in a way you and your employees will find to be comfortable, inspiring and most of all, conducive to productivity. To find out more about our space planning and design services, contact us today.
