When you’re planning a new office space, or you’re redesigning a current one, it’s vital to think carefully about where you’re going to put everything, and how you’re going to utilise the shape and space within the room.

Every inch of that room can be used for productivity, so it’s vital to be able to identify where you can get the most benefit, and then put into place measures to ensure that you utilise it as best you can.

First things first, you need to ask yourself a few specific questions.

What are you going to use the office space for?

Is it going to be one office or a series of small offices? Are you going to have meeting rooms and conference rooms? Are you going to have cubicles or standard offices? Think about the best environment for your staff, and how to get the most out of them. If you don’t currently have staff and you’re creating a new business, do some research into the type of business you’re creating and how other similar organisations work. Is there something you can recreate?

This is also about the type of culture that you want to establish in your business. Do you want a collaborative culture? Or, do you want a more initiative, single focus to your business? Cubicles are therefore best for a single focus, but for a collaborative view, you should go for open plan, if at all possible.

You should also think about the placement of your office furniture, e.g. your office storage units, to ensure space for people to walk around, and to ensure that you’re not placing furniture in the way of colleagues who need to connect and collaborate on projects. This is key in office space planning.

It's simple. Making the most of the room you have is vital if you want to create the optimum space for employees to work in. So, appointing professional office furniture specialists and/or architect services can maximise your office’s potential by providing alternative ideas so that you can get the most out of both your office and employees! In a nutshell, avoid putting all the pressure on yourself and make the most of the trained experts in the office furniture and interior design industry. Remember, you are not on your own!

How do you want it to look?

Of course, appearance is important too, because you want your staff to be comfortable and feel proud of their office space too. It’s also a truth that if your office looks the part, any incoming guests, such as prospective clients, will feel that they are dealing with a professional outfit.

How do you want the space to feel? Do you want your customers and clients to feel relaxed and ‘at home’? Or, do they want to feel professional and ‘at work’? The design will play a huge part in this, so we’re talking about interior decoration and the type of furniture you use, as well as the placement of it. For instance, your office desks should be in-keeping with the theme.

Also remember that colour plays a huge part. Blue is known to be calming and can increase productivity, whereas other colours can encourage creativity – it all depends on the type of work your company does.

Space for filing endeavours

Remember that any kind of business, as paper-less as it can ever claim to be, is going to need space for filing and storage. There are many Calibre office solutions which organise these problems for you, and can tailor-make your requirements. You might not need huge filing cabinets, and you may simply need drawers. Perhaps you don’t need to tailor-make your filing space, but you simply need something which fits the bill. Basically, you need to identify your needs and then shop accordingly.

Think about your technology needs

We are yet to come across a business that doesn’t have any technological needs of any kind, and all office furniture manufacturers work around technological equipment when designing pieces. For instance, desks will have cut away pieces for charging cables or landline wires. Technology is a huge part of life these days, so it’s vital to ensure that you factor this in to your space planning.

If you have a lot of trailing wires, you will need to think but getting these tacked to the walls, or hidden away under carpets. This is vital in terms of health and safety, as well as tidiness.

Personalisation needs

It’s a good idea to ensure that your staff can personalise their working environment to some degree. Some companies insist on a uniform appearance to every work station, but many studies have shown that this hinders productivity, because staff feel less valued and less comfortable overall. Creating a sense of personalisation and ownership means that staff make a space theirs, so ensure you can factor this into your design efforts.

Consider your budget, and stick to it

Unless you want to send your business into the red when designing your office layout (never a good idea), then it’s vital to have a budget that you can stick to. You can easily find designer office chairs for a good price, which ensure comfort for your staff, quality, a great appearance, and don’t break the bank. Similarly, many other types of furniture can be found for a lower price than you might think.

Planning and utilising office space is not just about making your office look good and sticking to a budget, it’s about using the space you have in the best possible way, to increase productivity and ensure that your staff are comfortable and happy in their working environment. Of course it’s also important to ensure that your office space looks the part, in-keeping with your company ethos and reflecting the values of your business. Incoming visitors will need to feel what your business is about when they walk through the door, and if the office is cramped and poorly designed, this is going to reflect badly.

Asking yourself the above questions and thinking carefully abut the points we have raised will ensure that you use your space in the most cost effective and productive way possible. If you are redesigning an office, it may also be a great idea to ask your current staff for their input – they are working in the space, so who better to give you an insider view on what would work best? You can put their ideas together and come up with a plan that will work on all levels.