GET IT RIGHT - FIRST TIME
Designing your perfect office layout isn't just about desk space or cramming as much in to the space you have available. It is about the way staff use it, if your customer and suppliers visit how they interact with your in the space. A correct work place layout has many significant advantages not only in terms of work flow efficiency, privacy for meetings and many more, so it is paramount that you understand these interactions and requirements during the design process, failure to do so will just result in poor work flow or missing areas.
You will need to give consideration to what spaces you actually require from your office fit-out or refurbishment.
INDIVIDUAL & OPEN PLAN OFFICES
The best way to start considering this is by considering your staff and their functions. Do you need an office for the accounts department? Do you think the best floor plan and format for your office would be open plan? Do any senior managers need a private office? Ensuring you have given consideration allows a plan to be developed that better understands the requirements and ensures nothing is missed, and added as an after thought.
CONFERENCE & MEETING ROOMS
Depending on the site of your business and the type of sector you operate in you may want a meeting room or rooms where customers, suppliers and staff can meet or even working together on projects. Understanding how your meeting rooms will be used, and even potentially adding flexibility to allow the space to be multifunctional needs to be considered.
RECEPTION
Do you need a reception area for greeting and controlling the flow of customers, suppliers and business partners? The initial perception for any visitors is critical to creating the right impression. Giving consideration to what you require from a reception area, in terms of seating, tables, and reception desks will help plan and ensure your maximise what can be a dead space for much of the time.
BREAKOUT AREAS
Many creative businesses will require areas where staff can work together away from their workstations/desks to brainstorm and agree strategies. You need to decide what these should look like in terms of how many staff members they allow to comfortably work together, what they require in terms of seating and other tools. Are they going to be very relaxed spaces or still require a more functional traditional layout.
KITCHENS, BREAK AREAS, TOILETS
Every business needs to provide toilet and kitchen facilities to their staff, but also what facilities you may offer your visitors. The location of a kitchen may be key when considering a conference room to ensure drinks can be served easily. If you have multiple floors, do you have facilities on each floor. Again giving consideration to these areas will be key to designing the right plan.
WAREHOUSE SPACE
You may be occupying a multi purpose building, so need to give consideration to your warehouse space layout and how it interacts with your offices. Consideration may need to be given to work flow and security to protect the space from wandering visitors.
Once you have considered the areas and these are just the main ones, you then need to consider how you want the space to feel, and how the staff will work. Will some or all of your staff desk swap? Is privacy a key factor both in terms of visual and/or acoustic privacy?