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Throughout the space of one year, you will face many different challenges as a business. The best way to overcome those challenges is to focus on the health and wellbeing of your employees and give them the best working environment possible. That way, productivity will increase and you’ll find your way out of any major problems.
Of course, finding the best solutions aren’t always easy, especially when it comes to create a near perfect office space. The truth is you’ll never create a perfect office. Perfect doesn’t exist. What you can do is create a space that suits the needs of your employees for the overwhelming majority of the time.
The key to that is focusing on flexibility.
The differences between needs from summer to winter are stark. The summer office is a hot and sometimes stuffy place if you don’t design it correctly. Similarly, the winter office can be a cold and uncomfortable spot. What you can do is put in place elements that allow the temperature to be more ‘middle of the road’, which basically solves most other problems.
Don’t assume that you simply crank up the air conditioning during the summer and then turn on the heating during the winter. That will simply mask a problem. Instead, you need to look at the different parts of an office that retain or give off heat.
For instance, do you have draughts around your windows? Seal those draughts and you’ll solve many cold-related problems in your office. Do you have office furniture blocking your radiators? Move them somewhere else and allow heat to circulate.
During the summer, open those windows and allow fresh air to make its way around your office. Think about what you have on your floor and if that is carpets, roll them back and store them away until the winter. Having a rotation between laminate/wooden flooring and carpeting is a great way to add flexibility.
Air conditioning machines can also blow hot or cold, so make sure you invest wisely when you buy your AC unit.
It’s more possible than you might think to create a flexible working environment. Modular office furniture is a perfect example of that. You can move this type of office furniture around and allow it to suit all needs.
Your office can be flexible as long as you think outside of the box.