How should I arrange my office?
November 18th, 2007 | by Simon Rattray
How you arrange the layout and furniture of your office can be critical to the level of productivity and morale of your staff. In this respect it is vital that you carefully plan the office.
Office space is designed in differing ways. The type of layout will depend on what type of business you are, the number of employees you have, the type of office equipment you use, and whether you are client facing or not. When you move to a brand new location it can be difficult to decide where you should place all the furniture.You should try and arrange your office to suit the needs of your staff and enable them to work in a way that allows them to be highly productive.
Your company may require some staff to have their own office within your office space, as well as staff working in sectioned cubicles. In addition to this you may need some staff to work in one single room together, in an open plan fashion. This could range from a few dozen to over a hundred employees which is what you often find in a call centre for example. However it is important to recognize that vast open plan offices seldom produce high levels productivity, as the noise level will be high with many possible disruptions and also distractions.
But you may not have enough room to section everyone off or give them their own office. If this is the case, try breaking the room down with screens or cubicles to lessen the impact of such a large area. This could help reduce noise and disruption and improve productivity . An additional benefit maybe that staff will feel more secure with greater privacy. Whilst this is not a private as giving individuals their own office, it may be infinitely better than placing staff all in one huge office together. Call centres tend to have high staff turnover rates, and while this may be attributable to the actual task involved, it could also be argued that placing hundreds of employees on one large floor of an office may also be to blame.
We advise that you plan the office with the assistance of your staff rather than steam rolling out an office plan. Find out what they want and need from office space. A social area may seem like an unnecessary expense for your business, but if it enables employees to relax during the day they may feel more inclined to work harder and longer on your behalf.
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