Whether you’re refurbishing a single room in your existing premises, or you’re going to move the company into a totally new place, hitting your office design on the head is a big deal. Despite office design being so important, countless business owners still manage to rush through it, and make some pretty horrendous mistakes. Here are some of the common ones you need to avoid.
Source: Pexels
Not Working with Goals in Mind
As with any project, your office design work needs to start off with a set of goals. Just what are you trying to achieve with this new design? What kind of message do you want to convey? What practical features does it need to have? If you fail to define your goals right at the start of the process, you’re pretty much setting yourself up to pour money down the drain! With set goals in mind, you’ll find it much easier to make big decisions, and keep the whole process moving along.
Not Talking to Your Employees
Yes, it may be your company, but your employees are going to have a higher stake in the new place than anyone else. Before you make a single decision, be sure to consult your employees about what they’d like to see, and ensure that the new premises suits the workforce as a whole. If you don’t take a fairly pluralist approach to the whole thing, you can end up neglecting some crucial features. For example, if you’ve been expanding a lot lately, you may find yourself in need of specialist designers such as Coverite. It’s their office too, so don’t shut your employees out of the process!
Saving Money in the Wrong Areas
Knowing where to tighten belts is one of the many skills that makes a good entrepreneur. However, while you’re making those big decisions about the new office design, it’s essential that you’re not putting your employees’ comfort at risk for the sake of saving a few dollars! This is especially true when it comes to office furniture. Be sure to go through all the options you have available to you, and take your time with a thorough cost-benefit analysis before buying any one model of desk, chair, and so on.
Failing to Incorporate Your Brand
Ideally, you want the new office design to reflect your brand identity in some way. This will give it a potent dose of professionalism when prospective partners are looking around, and will help to get your workers in the right mindset. Use the company colours a lot in your colour scheme, and hang up some art that has something to do with your product or service. If your niche is so dull that you’re having trouble finding art with any direct link to it, then don’t be afraid to be a little quirky and out-of-the box. Unless, of course, that conflicts with your brand identity. There are all kinds of ways you can tweak an office’s design to reflect a specific brand, so start brainstorming!