5 Tips to Consider While Designing an Office Layout

Does your office layout reflect your company culture?

This is the one question every business owner and facility managers should ask to themselves at times.

Office layout has a very broad meaning. From the systematic planning of equipment, machines, furniture to provide sufficient space to employees for work with efficiency comes under this term.

When the management decides to establish an office either by purchasing or renting, it has to cautiously define its plan for organized and scientific segmentation of various departments and equipment for the office. You have to customize the office layout in a manner which reflects your company culture.

Planning and executing a new office layout is not an easy task. It takes lots of time and brainstorming. Here are few important tips which need to be considered when creating an office layout:

1. ENOUGH SPACE FOR ALL
One of the most important parts of office layout designing is to assure proper amount of space to everybody and everything. An optimal floor plan is needed for placing furniture and other equipment. Employees, visitors, and clients should be able to move freely around while entering to the office, walking between workstations or going to meeting or discussion room.

There must be well-planned spaces for large equipment like copiers so that every employee in need can use them effectively without any chaos.

2. DESIGN FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

It’s a fact for any business that all departments don’t need the same level of collaboration. So you will need to consider an office layout which ensures seamless communication within and between the teams.

A great office layout should ensure to have better inter and intra-department communication. As a business owner and facility manager it’s your responsibility to plan for an open office or dedicated meeting rooms.

Providing dedicated spaces for discussions and meeting are very important to ensure the right flow of communication at the same time sitting arrangements should be planned for better communication within the teams.

3. FLUID NAVIGATION

There must be an easy navigation throughout the office. There must be proper evacuation plans and fire safety exits. An effective floor plan is essential for the productive work environment. It’s better to think about the teams and their level of collaborations before designing office layout. It’s better to place two teams nearby which needs to collaborate more often. A better office layout design always ensures to have fewer movements of people and assets.
Few questions will help you to design effective office layouts like - Is the main meeting room easily reachable from the main entrance?

Can some visitors easily navigate to CEO’s office?

Design your office in a way so that everything would be in the place where it should have been.

4. EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES

An office space layout should be designed in a way which can save costs to the company. There should be the effective use of resources in an office. A study reveals that almost 35% of the average office space remains vacant during work hours.

It’s the responsibility of the facility manager to ensure that the whole team is using the space to its maximum capacity. It’s also important to have a proper plan for effective uses of lighting, heating and cooling costs.

A lot of companies are providing work from home facility to its employees these days. You should take care of these as well while designing office layout.

5. OFFICE AMENITIES

It’s a well-known fact that productivity increases when employees feel happy at the workplace. There should be some specific amenities to make employees feel happy like fitness centers, music rooms or recreational rooms. These days few employers even add nap rooms or special spaces for relaxation in workplaces.

Facility managers should be very careful in designing these kinds of spaces. They can check with employees about the amenities of their choices to ensure that these spaces wouldn’t end up unused.

If you’ll implement these points in designing your new office space layout then your employees will feel more comfortable at the workplace and it will result in more productivity.

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