Author: Rohan

As an employer, it is important to create a positive experience for your employees and the physical appearance and design of your office space can contribute to increased productivity. By ensuring your tenancy is well designed, you can help create an environment your employees will enjoy working day after day.

Benefits of happy staff

Having happy staff can mean increased productivity, greater loyalty to your business, lower staff turnover and fewer staff sick days – all of which benefit your business financially.

Design aspects that help create the right environment
There are a number of aspects to the design of an interior space that may affect how a staff member works.

Function

Good interior design of a space will consider how the office functions on a daily basis. From there a layout can be created that easily facilitates the harmonious workflow around the office.

Aesthetics

Don’t underestimate the power of aesthetics. Your staff spend a large percentage of their life in the work environment you provide, and you can assist making it an emotionally bright and happy experience by ensuring it is well designed and aesthetically pleasing.

Space

Providing your staff with adequate space that is suitable to their role is important in making them feel content at work. Interior Design can aid in ensuring enough space is allowed for certain areas while maximising its use.

Colour

It has long been known that colour can have a very dramatic effect on a person’s mood. Too much, too little or the wrong choice of colour can all have strong negative effects. Great care must be taken in making your choice to avoid a space that is too stark and uninviting or too chaotic and distracting.

Light

An adequate level of both natural and artificial light is important in achieving a well-lit and bright feeling space. Natural light should always be maximised but keep in mind the glare it can create. Artificial light is required to ensure all corners and work areas are evenly and well lit.

Acoustics

The right balance of acoustic absorption and separation will aid in generating spaces that your employees feel relaxed and comfortable in. Not only do you need to address the acoustic separation between spaces but also the surface textures and composition of items within a space as these will increase or decrease the amount of acoustic absorption.

Storage

Clever use of vertical space can help create storage solutions with minimal impact on your floor space usage. Creating more storage will help reduce visual clutter and generate a feeling of order, neatness, and organisation within the space.

By providing your staff with a work environment that allows them to feel and work their best, the rewards for your business may be more than just an upbeat, beautifully appointed atmosphere.

Not all businesses are created equal when it comes to size requirements. The type, size, and space required by your business will be dependent on the type of work you do.

In order to accurately determine the space you will need, you should prepare an in-depth analysis of your requirements and take into consideration the minimum sizes of workstations, offices and utility/printing areas.

For example, a law firm would require more individual offices as opposed to a call centre which would need a large number of open plan workstations

The size and layout of offices and workstations will be different depending on the type of work being undertaken. Again, consider a lawyer’s office – will they have clients or staff in their office? What are they there for – a quick one on one or a more formal meeting? Could they alternatively have access to a meeting room for this? How many files do they need to store in their office at any one time?

These questions and more need to be considered when planning an office layout, as the answers will determine your space requirements. If an office doesn’t require space for visitor’s chairs, it may only need to accommodate a corner desk and filing cabinet. Otherwise, the office may need to become much larger to house a small meeting table and chairs and more filing cabinets.

Once workstation and office sizes have been determined there are other areas and considerations you will need to consider which may include:

Reception – how many people sit here and what activities do they perform at that location?
Waiting area – how many people are likely to wait at one time, how long will they be waiting and does this mean you need bookshelves, tv, and/or coffee facilities?
Printer/Utility area – how big is your printer and how much room is required remembering to allow space for access to sides. How much paper/stationery storage is required?
Staff room – if you are located within walking distance to cafes, shops, and parks you may find you only require a small kitchenette. Otherwise, you may want to include a larger room for staff to be able to sit in and eat.
Meeting rooms – do you require a formal boardroom and if so, for how many? Do you require a small secondary meeting room for times when there is an overlap – and could this possibly double as a lunchroom?
Showers – do you want to provide shower facilities for your staff if they ride to work, or do exercise during lunch?
Corridors – the minimum distance between built-in items is 1000mm for access between them. Main thoroughfares and access corridors need to be wider especially for disabled access which must be in accordance with the Building Code of Australia and the Australian Standards.
Storage – how much storage do you need for files, stationery, marketing collateral and anything else?
Sever and computer equipment
Taking the time to do a thorough analysis of your needs will assist with planning your new layout but could also potentially save you thousands of dollars by leasing a space that is the right size for your business.

There was no rest for the construction team at Buderim Private Hospital over the Christmas break. Refurbishment works for Dr Chris Martin’s consulting rooms were in full swing in order to present a beautifully finished space which opened early January.

The refurbishment comprised the installation of a new access lift and the construction of a bridge to connect the existing South Wing and MDC buildings and was an extension of the current hospital site works. In order to provide an access corridor to the new bridge a reduction in the tenancy’s footprint was required which gave the client the opportunity to conduct a complete facelift.

Although the area was reduced significantly, the new design actually disguises this fact through the clever reorganisation of the space, furniture and a more functional reception counter layout.

The use of beautiful naturally toned finishes with darker accents has created a simple yet extremely warm and inviting colour palette that honours this small and simple layout.

Our Client is over the moon with their new space and grateful for the hard work put in by everyone over the break to have this job finished in time for the New Year.

Our client was delighted with the result and said, “The rooms look completely amazing, and I believe that you have more than actualized our original vision of creating clinical spaces that manage to be modern and contemporary whilst still being warm, welcoming, calm AND STYLISH!”

Although there are other important factors in commercial design such as space and aesthetics, one of the most important to achieve is function. When an office is not designed with the everyday function of a business in mind, you can end up with a space that may actually cost you more money in the long run.

A Waste of Time

When designing a layout, ensure paths of travel are devised around the natural flow of staff and clients going about their daily routines. It is extremely important to have a layout that is easy and efficient to move about in or you may find that precious time and money are being wasted in the following ways:

People spend too much time moving around the space if the paths of travel are too long.
People may procrastinate about getting up to do jobs if the paths of travel are not easy or too far.
Consider developing a flow chart to help visualise the natural flow patterns within a work environment and better understand how a layout may begin to take shape.

Disruptive Situations

Poor space relationships can create disruptive situations that will decrease staff productivity and cost you money. Ensure you create a functional layout that is conducive to work by considering the use of each space and its interaction with adjacent spaces. For example: The photocopier/printer area or the tea bench can create a ‘social hub’ where casual discussions create a noisy and disruptive environment. Consider the impact of this environment on a person busy at work and aim to, either spatially or acoustically, separate them from one another.

Happier Staff

A space that is highly functional creates a sense of harmony and your staff will feel at ease when working in and moving around the layout. Of course, there are other factors that attribute to your staff’s mood such as light, colour, acoustics etc. however functional design is the skeleton on which you can build upon to create an overall fantastic space. If a space is not firstly functional, no amount of decorating will be able to hide this fact and it will affect the people trying to use the space.

Make certain to consider function in your tenancy design to help make your staff feel their best and in return, a happy staff member will perform better in their job and be more productive.

Searching for a new location from which to operate your business can be a tedious task. Ensure the process is not complicated further by limiting the types of available building you consider. Be prepared to think outside the square and you might be pleasantly surprised by what opportunities you discover.

Escaping the Trap

Some people fall into the trap of believing only a certain type of building would suit their needs. Instead of thinking in terms of tenancy types (such as office, retail, industrial etc), develop a set of parameters that define the qualities required in a tenancy.

For example, if the initial thought for a new office tenancy is – ‘it needs to be in an office building’ – then you are immediately limiting your search. This could mean the difference between investing in a good space that does the job, compared to a great space that is highly suited to the business.

By pinpointing a few important characteristics, you can develop a tenancy description that is much less limiting.

Consider characteristics such as:

• size
• location
• amenities (incorporated or in close proximity)
• proximity to public transport
• future expansion potential
• future development potential
• visual presence
• onsite/offsite parking

Change of Use

By searching within the parameters, you have created you will come across tenancies that may be what you are looking for, but the existing use may be quite different to your intended use. Don’t let this deter you, consider changing its use.

While there may be added fit out costs and extra council approvals required, if you are serious about finding the best tenancy for your business, the extra cost may be well worth the investment in the long term.

An Example

When needing to find a new home for our businesses, Blackburne Jackson we actively looked for something that would suit our needs and accommodate a growing business. We were frustrated to find that no readily available, existing office spaces were suitable in location and size. However, an existing restaurant became available that suited our requirements for location, visual presence, car parking and proximity to parklands and the beach. Better yet, it could be extended within its original footprint to suit our spatial requirements. Once renovated, this tenancy catered for all our prerequisites and successfully demonstrates that it is worth thinking outside the box and broadening your scope when searching for a tenancy.

So, if you are searching for a new home for your business, broaden your outlook as the perfect property may be right in front of you.