How to Design an Office – 8 Tips for Managers
8 Workplace Remodel Tips for Managers Doing it Themselves
A workplace is more than just the four walls that surround people. Rather, a modern workplace is an environment in which ideas are born, where breakthroughs are made, and where profit is generated.
Impressive campuses likes those of Apple or the trendy refurbished factory that now houses a Brooklyn start up are impressive and can help define company culture. But not all of us have the budgets nor the ability to do this, and yet we still need to create a workplace where our people can be at their best. What can the rest of us do? How do we make the best work environment we can for our small businesses that is within our means? Here are 8 tips for remodeling your workplace on a budget, and the most important considerations you need to make.
Remodeling a Workplace on a Budget
First, my confession – I am not an architect, an interior designer, or a Ph.D candidate in inter-office human dynamics. Rather, I am just a manager of a 75+ employee department.
So, why am I writing about designing an office space? Simply put, due to some unexpected restructuring in my firm, we had to remodel our office in order to accommodate additional employees who were joining my team. There was not enough space for the added staff, and the consolidation forced a remodel.
Since it was a sudden change and because I didn’t have an extra $50,000+ in my budget to pay someone else to design the layout or manage the project, I found myself in charge of designing the office space and managing the whole thing.
On a positive note, the sudden restructure offered an opportunity to make some necessary improvements and much-needed changes to office.
Designing and rethinking an office space with no budget is no easy feat and I had no “roadmap” for doing it. But, by taking it one step at a time and making the most of an unexpected opportunity, I was able to convert a dated workplace with torn carpet and dingy lighting into a modern think lab (or at least, something close to it). Here are my tips for designing a productive workplace on a budget and the decisions I had to make.
1. Emphasize Productivity
When considering ways to set up your office layout, your first priority should be creating an environment of productivity.
If you run an organization of technical professionals who are writing documents all day, you might want to come up with a layout that promotes solitude and the ability to concentrate.
Conversely, if you are in the graphic design business, you may wish to promote productivity by playing music on an open layout floor to keep the creative juices flowing.
If people spend a lot of time on the phone, consider taller cubicle walls to help cut down on background noise.
In short, take a careful look at what your staff really needs in terms of a work environment to promote productivity. Increasing productivity should be at the heart of all decisions you make in the workplace remodel.
My Team’s Productivity Needs
My organization is composed of various sub teams – some employees need the solitude to concentrate on complex technical work, others need a work space equipped with a large open area to work in teams on various projects and to process stacks of paperwork.
Though our previous layout could be viewed more as “open concept,” in truth, it also meant there was a significant amount of noise (and therefore distractions). Additionally, the open floor plan permitted employees from other departments to easily pass through, which contributed to the continuous amount of distraction.
Thus, for our office redesign, we elected to go with a more standardized cubicle arrangement with high outer walls to keep noise down across the floor. Inside each section, though, were smaller walls so that employees could interact more freely.
The tall outside walls also created natural walkways that helped establish seclusion where people were working and guided passing foot traffic away from individual work areas.
2. Create Natural Work Groups
Particularly if you oversee a large organization in which there are several working cohorts, you’ll want to create an office layout that naturally groups those sub-teams together.
For example:
- Put your pricing analysts in the same cubicle or area of the floor.
- Put your accounting team together to allow them to effectively communicate.
- Group program managers in the same area to enable them to more easily discuss relevant matters.
It may seem obvious to do this, but grouping similar roles in the same area improves their ability to collaborate and easily ask questions of one another than if everyone is placed randomly around your office.
Aside from creating distinct work areas for each sub-team, co-location also helps each team create a sense of identity.
Creating Work Groups in My Office
In our cubicle arrangement, I elected to install a 4-person team setup. For my organization, natural teams of either 2 or 4 existed according to product lines, such that the quad layout created a natural seating chart for the office.
Within each quad, I deliberately placed at least one ‘experienced’ individual to ensure the junior staff members sitting within the quad had a person to whom they could easily ask questions and who could provide ongoing mentoring.
3. Separate the Talkers
OK. I don’t want to sound like a strict elementary school teacher here. But, when you are redoing your office layout, carefully think about your seating chart.
While you shouldn’t look to turn the office into a maximum security prison, you should look to promote an environment where people can do their jobs effectively and efficiently.
Let’s face it – a job well done requires employees to spend more time working than socializing. So, when you are creating your seating chart, take a few moments to think about putting some separation between your more “chatty” employees.
Even if you’re not sold on this idea, consider this: talkers may still get their jobs done but the extensive conversation can be very disruptive to your other employees in the vicinity.
Reducing Excessive Talking Between My Employees
For my office remodel, I did have to make some ‘deliberate’ moves to separate a few individuals who seemed to talk to one another more than to customers.
The changes were not profound, but since these individuals were part of different product teams, separation was naturally created by seating employees within their respective 4-person workgroup…The groups just happened to be placed a little too far away for convenient chatter.
4. Carefully Consider Individual Needs
In the workplace, as in life, keeping everyone happy is only a pipe dream. But you can (and should) at least make an attempt to accommodate individual work styles and needs. When creating an office layout, do your best to place each employee based on his or her ideal working conditions.
Here are some common examples for an ideal workplace seating chart remodel:
- If you have an employee who likes to work alone and in solitude, considering putting him off to the side, away from the main hallway to help minimize disruptions.
- For your brand new employees, consider putting her next to a veteran staffer, so she can easily ask questions and come up to speed quickly as she goes about the day.
- For your top talent, consider placing him or her near other team leaders to facilitate their professional development.
RELATED: How to Develop Your Top Talent Employees
Accommodating My Employees’ Individual Needs
To maximize seats, I had a few extra desks off along a far wall. I placed certain individuals there who I knew liked to work in quieter conditions, and whom I could trust would work even if the boss were not watching.
As described earlier, I also placed my newest employees adjacent to an experienced employee in each of the 4-person pods, to create a natural mentor-mentee relationship.
As for the loudest talker on the floor – whose voice carried throughout the day as he was on the phone – he was placed in a corner, deliberately facing away from everyone. I gave him a spot with a window, so he didn’t think it was punishment, but his loud booming voice was greatly deadened by the window he faced.
RELATED: Proven Ways to Enhance Employee Productivity
5. Value The Importance of Common Areas
Common areas are a critical element of your office space. Conference rooms, printer areas, cafeterias, whatever. These are places within your office where people may gather, interact or simply go to share certain equipment.
Here are a few questions to help you evaluate if you have enough common areas:
- If 30% of your staff are in meetings at 9AM, do you have enough conference room capacity for them to meet?
- Are there enough informal work spaces (e.g. tables) where employees can pull up chairs to have a 10 minute discussion?
- If you have a department meeting or all-hands meeting, can they all fit in one room?
- Is the break room large enough for at least two groups of 5 people to sit down for 10 minutes and have a casual conversation?
In addition to meeting space, try to centralize things like printers, scanners and other shared equipment to minimize the amount of time employees spend walking to and from.
Lastly, consolidate floor space for the coffee machine, microwaves and the refrigerators, or consider multiple break areas to prevent overcrowding during lunch hours.
How I Made Common Areas for My Workers
For my workplace remodel, I placed the regular printer and scanner in the center of the floor, tucked behind a column so it was close to everyone but not an eyesore. However, I placed the 3D printer off in a corner to reduce the noise since it would run for hours at a time.
Additionally, we created a library room stocked with text books, manuals, guides and other literature that employees used from time to time. All of these items had previously been littered about the office on random bookshelves and hidden in drawers. Centralizing the books also helped us eliminate partially used bookshelves and furniture that was taking up precious floor space.
In terms of work space, we also created a ‘lounge’ area, complete with oversized club chair, which are great for impromptu meetings, and where employees can go to simply get out of the cubicle for a bit.
6. Remember Visitor Space
Every office area needs extra work space for visitors – customers, suppliers, auditors, interns or just colleagues visiting from out of town.
When planning a new office layout, don’t forget to allocate work space for visitors who will need an area to set up shop while at your facility. Provide space for temporary work stations, or consider creating a dedicated visitors’ office if you have an extra room with a door.
Particularly if they are not part of your organization, giving guests a little privacy to make phone calls is always a good thing.
Creating Workspace for Visitors
In my case, since we did not have enough empty offices with doors, we resigned to creating two temporary workstations off in a corner where visitors could have some amount of privacy.
However, we were able to create an external network line since guests had previously been unable to have an internet connection in our office.
7. Take Advantage of the Opportunity
The organizational restructuring that drove the need to remodel was stressful enough. Moreover, adding a major project like an office remodel (during the holiday season I might add) was certainly not something I wanted to add to my normal workload.
But, I quickly saw the project as an opportunity to take care of some legacy issues my team had often grumbled about. If you’re going to go through the effort of creating a new office layout, seize the opportunity to fix some lingering issues.
Here are some items you should consider as part of any workplace remodel to take advantage of the situation.
- New lighting to give the workspace a new and modern feel.
- Make network upgrades to phone and ethernet lines, while furniture is out of the way.
- Cosmetic updates like carpet and paint are inexpensive and can drastically improve your employees new “home.”
- New furniture, for all areas, including cubicle walls, chairs, tables and desks.
- New Wi-Fi projectors for conference rooms to improve collaboration.
- Brand new white boards for all offices to replace the old ones that can no longer be cleaned.
- New conference room phone equipment.
- Upgrade or fix any leaky pipes and HVAC lines in the area to get rid of those ceiling spots.
- Fresh art work or branded decor around the workplace.
- Restroom and break room updates (fixtures, floors and lighting).
- Update emergency systems like fire doors and alarms.
Seeking Opportunities for Improving My Staff’s Work Environment
For my office remodel, since I had to create office space for 30 more people, we had to replace all the furniture to optimize space.
Because of this, we spent some funds replacing the old, coffee stained carpet before the new furnishings were delivered. We also had the walls repainted and upgraded the lighting.
Lastly, we replaced the old furniture in the conference rooms and purchased some more modern HD projectors.
8. Give People Something to Be Proud Of
Finally, the opportunity to remodel your workplace does not come often. It may sound silly, but the condition of your office and work environment sends a message to your employees and can have an impact on the morale of your organization.
Every employee wants to be proud of his or her work – the products you make, the customers you serve, and even the look of your facility.
Give your people something to be proud of. Instead of buying the cheapest carpet, or basic lighting, spend a few extra funds to make your office and your employees’ workspace a pleasant place to be.
After all, we all spend 40 or more hours surrounded by the cubes, the tables, the conference rooms, etc.
You don’t need to break the bank, but keep in mind that if your employees don’t feel the company is willing to invest in their work environment, there will always be an inherent level of distaste in your employees’ mouths.
Giving My Employees a Place Where They Felt Valued
Although we had already spent a good deal of unplanned funds on remodeling our workplace, we went a little further to sweeten up our new office for my staff.
To start, we invested in a new dual monitor setup for every employee, which replaced the mixed and matched screens we previously had.
Additionally, we purchased standing desks for each staff member, so they had the ability to raise and lower their setup as they desired.
Lastly, we even purchased a nice display case to show off some of our products, and placed it by the entrance. It was a nice reminder to employees of the work we do and the value we provide our customers every time an employee walked in the door.
Redesigning an Office: The Overall Experience
Our office remodel cost around $250,000 when all was said and done, versus an arbitrary budget of $175,000.
But, we certainly did not go on a spending spree, opting for used furniture in some cases, and saving costs where possible. The impact, however, was tremendous.
A workplace remodel is a rare opportunity for you to fix your office’s infrastructure and a chance to modernize the facility where your staff spends so much time. It doesn’t need to be an over-the-top expense, and the results can improve both morale and the first impression it makes on anyone who comes through your front door.