What to consider when designing a new office space
If your office is looking dated, the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time and money updating it, only to have it look obsolete again five years down the road.
Reality is that people come and go and businesses grow and change. You need to make sure that your office environment cannot only meet the needs of today, but also the needs of the future.
"When designing a new office environment for your company, you need to think in terms of health and ergonomics, but also your ability to transform a space to meet the needs of the moment like assembling small tables into one large table and back again to smaller breakout tables, based on how many people will be meeting at any given time," explained Mike Warren, Workplace Culture Consultant for Rieke Office Interiors (ROI) of Elgin.
Office planners also need to think about the many different sizes and types of workplaces which will be needed, ranging, for instance, from glassed-in calling rooms where employees can go to make phone calls or do "heads down" work, to small group collaborative areas with soft seating, to rooms where groups of different sizes can use marker boards or marker tabletops to spark ideas and innovation.
"Understanding the work activity which goes on in a given company is key to designing their space. The office environment needs to support a company's core business and also enhance interactions and daily functioning, making the company as effective and efficient as possible," Warren said.
Company executives and office designers also must consider the ergonomics of their workspaces in order to help keep employees healthy and functioning at a high level. Many desks today come with a sit/stand feature.
"We recently installed powered lift stations in a 120-person customer service call center. Twenty percent of the stations are currently equipped with those sit/stand desks and the employees love them. They know that they will help them stay healthy," Warren stated.
Other popular ergonomic office solutions include computer monitors mounted on adjustable arms, ergonomically-designed chairs and keyboard trays which can be moved.
And when planning for the future needs of a company, keep in mind that today's furniture is generally modular so it can be modified to meet new needs. Partitions can be moved, raised or lowered or even expanded in length, thanks to modern manufacturing processes and materials, Warren said.
"The office environment of today and probably tomorrow has fewer walls. Large open spaces are much more flexible than environments that are broken up into many small workspaces with doors. That is why movable partitions are so popular in modern office design," he added.
"Great design will include furniture that can be modified in the future to reflect new uses of space, technology and the way people will work in the future," Warren stated.