Remember....Once you’ve identified your biggest issues, decide which ones you want to attack. I recommend that companies evaluating an office redesign project identify four or five priorities to tackle, such as increased collaboration, improved productivity, or more efficient use of space.
Goal: Weigh the merits of a redesign or “restack” versus relocating to bigger digs.
Once you’ve identified where your workplace lacks logic, it’s time to assess what can be done. Depending on the scope of your problems, your imagination, and your budget, the next thing you’ll have to decide is if it’s better to reinvent existing space or move. This is tough to do without an office professional.
Typically companies try to stay where they are as long as they can. It’s very expensive to move. When companies are bursting at the seams, the solution is often a “restack”: reorganizing cubicles into smaller spaces — such as a six-by-six instead of eight-by-eight — in order to fit more people onto a floor. I am sure all workers are excited about this corporate decision (yawn...)
Of course there are downsides to extensive redesigns. They’re often so invasive, noisy, lengthy, and messy that a company may need temporary space during the design’s execution, which is why some companies decide that moving to a preconfigured space is easier than living through a reconfiguration. Today companies that know they’re in growth mode often are able to secure short leases — meaning that leaving a crowded space is easier than in the past.
Technically Speaking--How much office do you need?
Here are some space guidelines:
• Executive office space: 241 square feet (down from 291 square feet in 1987)
• Senior professional: 98 square feet
• Call center employee: 50 square feet
• President/CEO/Chairman: 250 to 400 square feet
• Vice President: 150 to 250 square feet
• Executive: 100 to 150 square feet
• Employee: 80 to 125 square feet
• Conference room: 25 to 30 square feet per person
• Lunch room: 15 square feet per person for dining, and a food-preparation space roughly one-third of the dining area
• Reception area: 150 to 350 square feet
Goal: Improve upon your design over time by continuing to ask for feedback and make adjustments.
After an office remodel, it’s easy for companies to sit back and rejoice that they’re “done.” But larger challenges may need to be hammered out over time. If employees don’t take to a new design after several months, you can’t force it.
The best approach is to acknowledge such issues and explain how you plan to handle them. Remind employees that this does not mean the design was a failure: That’s the attitude that begets the need for a big, expensive overhaul in five or ten years. Continual adjustment is a saner, cheaper, and more flexible way to keep spaces up to date.
Some adjustment difficulties, of course, are psychological rather than physical. This is especially true if the company’s office redesign or relocation came on the heels of a merger or acquisition — a time when the combination of changes in cultural and physical space can unsettle employees. Human resources may need to get involved in order to massage egos accustomed to bigger or more luxurious spaces.
Checklist
A clean, well-lighted place--in a recent report titled “Innovative Workplace Strategies,” the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) offered a list of “Hallmarks of the Productive Workplace.” If you’re overseeing a redesign post-mortem, or if you plan to take a periodic look at how the workplace continues to function in the coming quarters, here is a list of elements the GSA recommends examining:
• Spatial equity: Do workers have enough space to accomplish tasks?
• Healthfulness: Does the workplace offer clean air and water, sufficient artificial and natural light, and freedom from distracting noises and smells?
• Flexibility: Can the workplace be rapidly adjusted to respond to industry-related challenges?
• Comfort: Can workers adjust light, temperature, furnishings, and acoustic levels to their preferences
• Connectivity: Can on- and off-site workers share the same networks and data and communicate easily? Is there connectivity for workers who change work modes often — such as working from home and rotating among offices in “hotel” cubicles?
• Reliability: Are technology systems and physical plant systems (heat, cooling, and water) reliable and consistent? Are upgrades necessary as an expanding office pulls on resources?
• Sense of place: Does the workplace decor (office furnishings) and atmosphere mirror the company’s brand or mission? Does the workplace create a culture appropriate to the work done there?
Gone are the days when offices were typically cubicle, surrounded by white walls and lit by white fluorescent lights. Architects and designers constantly reexamine the changing workplace to solve problems and accommodate needs. Some of their innovations have played better than others.
Isn't it time you moved to the next level with your office environment by talking to an office environment expert? Need help? Call me...
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