An office refurbishment is not something to take lightly. If you go into it half-heartedly, without thinking about all aspects, and without shopping around carefully for your office furniture, you’re going to end up repeating the rather costly process a little sooner than you would have hoped.
There are many things to take into consideration, such as the general theme, the vibe, how to represent your brand within your decor, the lighting, the ventilation, and the artwork (if you choose to go down that route), and the furniture within it. Will you go for grey office furniture, to add a more modern, sleek look, or will you stick with tradition, with wooden hues? The decisions are plentiful!
Here at Calibre, we have a huge range of London office furniture choices for you to look into, but there is one part of your office design that you need to pay close attention to - your office desk ideas.
If you get this part of the deal wrong, you’re going to have less than productive, rather uncomfortable employees!
There are many different types of desks you can look into, from corner, L shaped, modular, reception, and a host of other choices besides, but bench desks have remained the option of choice for many businesses.
Why?
In order to answer that question, we need to explore what bench desks are, why they are so advantageous to offices, and also discuss the types of bench desks on offer for you to think about.
What is a Bench Desk?
The name may be a little misleading, because benches are generally something we sit on - you don’t sit on these desks, you sit at them! The name is really derived from the shape of a chair-style bench, i.e. long and rectangular. That is what a bench desk is - the regular desk you will have seen countless times before, a literal table, which may or may not have drawers to one side underneath.
Bench desks are hugely popular, and are often simply the option of choice for many people, because they offer simplicity, cost effectiveness, and they save a lot of space. As modern styles have taken over, it’s not only the case that you can get a bench desk in regular colours nowadays either, as you can opt for many different colours, such as grey, or even white desks, to add a hint of modern style to your office design, whilst retaining the perks of this style of desk.
What Are Bench Desks Used For?
We mentioned that times have moved on from regular working practices, and that means that the way we utilise our office furniture has also changed. Bench desks can be used for a huge variety of purposes, from a regular desk which your employee sits at to do his or her work, for meetings, for decoration, and for another practice which is cropping up more and more these days. We are talking about the idea of bench desk collaboration.
This is when a group of staff sit at the same bench, obviously a larger designed desk, and this not only saves space in the office in general, but it allows for work-based discussions and collaborations on projects to happen much more effectively. To give you an idea of what this style looks like, think about when you’ve been to Starbucks in the past, or another big chain of coffee shop. You’ll have seen a large table (bench) in the middle of the room, or to one side, with several stools or chairs at it. On that table, you will no doubt have seen four, five, or even six people working away at their computers whilst sipping coffee, either talking because they know each other, or just getting on with what they need to do. This design saves space in the coffee shop, so more tables that are individual can be placed around the room.
As you can see, bench desks are not just tables, they are very flexible and useful pieces of office furniture!
The Advantages of Bench Desks and Bench Desking
We will put the two together here, i.e. the idea of a bench desk in general, and the working practice we have just mentioned. What exactly are the plus points of these two notions?
• More space - Bench desks, either for one person or more, are designed to save space. They can easily be put up against a wall, under a window, or placed in rows. When you consider the flip side of this, i.e. curved desks or L shaped desks, you’ll see how much space is saved, cutting down on wasted room within the office.
• Flexible for future expansion - You might not have the first idea at this point, but if you decide to expand your business, and therefore expand your workforce in the future, you’re going to need more desks - those staff need somewhere to sit! If you have a range of different desk shapes to fit into the room, the jigsaw just isn’t going to work! If you have bench desks, you can arrange these in a huge range of different shapes and plans, giving you much more flexibility for both now, in the future, and for any renovations, you might simply feel like doing.
• Cost effective - Because of the flexibility aspect, bench desks are much more cost effective, because they are likely to last you longer. You’ll also find that this type of desk is very easy to find, in whatever colour you want, and that means the cost is lower than the more unusual shapes, or the larger shapes. Think about it - large curved desks use more wood, so they’re bound to be more expensive!
• A range of styles and colours available - You don’t have to go with block wooden colours in a flat surface design, as there are many different colours and designs around these days. This means you can create an attractive style for your office, but remember to make sure that you don’t go too ‘out there’, and you stick with a design, which is going to stand the test of time - office furniture can be expensive to replace otherwise!
• The option of storage - Most bench desks are high enough and large enough to fit a storage cabinet underneath, and many come with inbuilt drawers, if that is the option you require. Again, shop around and find the best choice for you.
• Suitable for wide range of technology - Bench desks are smaller than curved desks or L shaped desks, but they are still large enough for all types of technology, e.g. desktop computers, laptops or tablets. Remember, desktops are much more streamlined than they have ever been before!
• Bench desking encourages collaboration and communication - Having several members of staff sat around one large bench desk is the ideal way to boost idea sharing and communication between staff members. This can boost morale, help with projects, and means a much more productive, and higher standard of work, which does require that collaborative and brainstorming element.
• Bench desking can work hand in hand with the ‘hot-desking’ idea – Hot-desking is when no member of staff has an allocated desk, and they sit where they feel the need to sit for that day, e.g. next to someone they are collaborating with on a project. Bench desking can facilitate this, whilst meaning only one large desk is required, as opposed to several smaller ones - again, more cost effective, and space effective too.
• Bench desking can be used hand in hand with other working practices - There is nothing stopping you from incorporating regular working practices alongside bench desking, or even hot-desking at the same time. It all really comes down to what works for your particular business, but the options mean extra flexibility for managers to think about, in collaboration with their staff.
By now, you should be pretty sold on the idea of bench desks, and possibly the idea of bench desking too. Perhaps this working practice isn’t right for your business, and that’s fine, but the idea of bench desks in general is a very positive one for every single office space. The idea of cutting down on wasted space, saving money, and decorating your office in a way that will stand the test of time, is a huge plus point all around.
How do you feel about bench desking as a working practice? Is it something you feel you could make use of in your office? Alternatively, as an employee, is it something you would enjoy or feel inspired by? Perhaps you wouldn’t like it, so share with us why! Bench desks in general are a fantastic addition to your space; tell us how you have utilised them in your space, and whether you have any new, innovative ideas on how to make it all work.