Size Up Your Current Space

Bad office layouts are made, not born. An office configuration that suited the way business was done even five years ago might be irrelevant now. The best way to find out if your office is dysfunctional is to conduct a formal study. Whether you conduct an in-house study or hire a design consultant, the three key methods for gathering information are shadowing employees on their paths through the office; visiting conference rooms and desk areas every half hour to determine how they are being used; and asking employees to track their own movements and report back on how they spend their time.

Here’s what to look for:

Space Layout

Study whether the layout of the building is helping or hindering employees in the quest to get work done. Shadowing workers for a few days will reveal wasted motion and inefficient organization of space.

Red flags:

Collaborative spaces are bunched at the far end of the building
People whose jobs are highly collaborative do not naturally come into contact with colleagues during the workday
Employees spend a lot of time in transit to meeting rooms, printers, copiers, and fax machines

Space Usage

Find out how often people are using existing spaces. Check in on what’s happening by stopping by cubicles and conference rooms every half hour.

Red flags:

An area is always empty
An area is overcrowded
Workers are competing for certain furnishings or equipment and not using others

Workarounds

Look closely at whether workers are using their space, furnishings, and equipment as intended. Does the environment support their process, or have they been forced to circumvent it?

Red flags:

Employees meet at a coffee point because they can’t find common space
Workers use drop-in space on another floor because the area around their desks is too loud
They bring lamps from home to avoid harsh fluorescent lighting

If your study reveals a number of red flags, it’s time to hire R+H Interiors and find out how a redesign can improve the efficiency of your space.