When you get bored with the layout of your living room or bedroom, don’t you always want to re-arrange the furniture and redesign the space? Isn’t there a tiny voice that tells you it’s time to revamp the bedroom? The prospect of staying in a newly designed room is always exciting. Even simply changing the location of where the bed is will improve the way you see the bedroom. The same is true for office designs. A change in layout and design can improve workers’ productivity.
However, office design changes aren’t always easy. You can’t simply move a table and not impact others. This is especially true if you have a cramped office space where moving your chair from left to right is almost impossible.
While it is good to follow a routine and schedule, office redesign isn’t like a car oil change or a trip to the doctor. There is more at stake when you redesign an office in terms of your workers’ productivity. You need to consider several things before a redesign happens. There is no exact timeline that business owners follow when it comes to redesigning an office. You have to look at the signs that tell you it is time for a redesign. So, what are these signs?
Your Office Has Bad Lighting
Older offices tend to have bad lighting. They use low lights that make it harder for the workers to see what they’re doing most of the time. The office feels dark and dingy because of the wrong lights. An office interior designer will use three kinds of commercial lighting for your office. These are general, task, and accent.
General lighting provides illumination to the whole area while task lighting will help the workers perform specific tasks. Workshops usually have a goose-neck lamp per table so the workers can focus the light on what they are working on. Accent lighting, on the other hand, adds drama to a room. It brings focus on a decorative piece in the office. Usually, it has three times the light of general lights.
The Space, Furniture, and Equipment Are Outdated
When was the last time you redesigned your office? While there is no exact schedule for when an office space needs a redesign, the feel of an outdated office should push you to look at renovating it. You should keep the office as modernized as possible, and that includes using new office furniture, repainting the walls, upgrading office equipment, and creating an open-space design (if that will fit your office culture).
It Is Not Impressive to Clients
Offices should impress the clients. Even if you are not a retail store or a coffee shop or a boba tea shop, you should work on your office design for your clients. When clients drop by your office to inquire, your office should impress them. It should reflect your brand and improve it in the eyes of those who will see it.
If you are an advertising or marketing agency, your office should be fun, adventurous, exciting, and casual. Public relations agencies, on one hand, tend to be more formal and serious. An office for an events place is elegant. A lawyer’s office should always look professional and modern.
Your Employees Are Calling for It
Your employees are being very vocal about the need to redesign the office. It lacks natural light. They are hunkered over the desk tables because of the mismatched heights of the tables and chairs. They’ve been outright telling you it’s time to revamp the office space. Listen to them.
Soon, you will notice a dip in their productivity. They will no longer be as productive as they once were because of the ineffectiveness of the office design. You will also see an increase in absenteeism. Employees are bound to be absent from work when they dread the thought of spending time in the office.
The Company is Expanding
You are growing your company. You are adding more team members. So, why are you not redesigning or expanding the space? With new employees and clients, the old office design doesn’t work anymore. You have to invest in the comfort level of your team members. You also have to think about how the current space can accommodate the amount of work you currently do.
There is no exact formula to find out when you should redesign the office. In truth, it’s more about what the space demands from you rather than an exact timeline. Once you see these signs, you should crunch the numbers and look for an office interior designer to help you come up with a great design and layout.
