Planning an office refurbishment? Things you should consider.

As it is springtime, it is historically the time when we look at a ‘spring clean’. This can take many forms, and it is often a time when we look at upgrading our office environment.

On average, an employee spends a third of each day at their work, it, therefore, stands to reason that the surroundings of the physical working environment in which employees spend so much time are highly impactful on their job satisfaction, motivation, patterns of interaction, and overall wellbeing. This is important when it comes to considering aspects such as layout, furniture, lighting, temperature, as well as the inclusion of nature.

The environment that businesses provide for their employees to work in i.e., office space, is reported to have a serious impact on shaping the behavioural and psychological wellbeing of employees.

Trying to carry out day to day tasks in a dark, cramped, unwelcoming environment, is highly likely to increase an employee’s stress and anxiety levels.

The impact of physical environments on employee wellbeing, topic overview

Given that we can recognise that the office design is important to productivity and wellness, the next step is to consider your initial reasons for wanting to improve the office, and why it is important.

It might seem obvious, perhaps the office looks tired, perhaps you are wanting to make changes to accommodate different working conditions since the return to work from Covid, this thought process is, however, crucial in making sure your refurbishment project is perfectly executed.

This is a step that we can help you with, to ensure that all the desired designs can be prioritised within the project, manage your expectations, and offer recommendations to complete your ideal design.

At Sussex and Surrey Partitioning, we have put together a guide to assist you with organising your perfect office refurbishment project.

Here are some of the important things to consider:

Space

It could be that your business has grown, you may need to reorganise your office space to create the room or separate rooms for your staff, or you might want to make better use of the space by reorganising.

As already alluded to, it is well documented that cleverly reorganising the design and layout of your office could provide a much-needed boost to staff morale, and potentially improve productivity.

Branding

Whether you are having a brand update or have little or no branding visible in the office, branding is important for first impressions for existing and new clients should they visit your office.

Examine your company values and brand, and tie in colours, styles and links to the company branding with furniture, colours, signage, and branded partitions for example.

Time

Once you have your office refurbishment vision, time is a key consideration to take into account with the planning.

Office refurbishment projects are exciting, but we know that the potential disruption can be daunting, the good news is that Sussex and Surrey Partitioning will be able to provide a plan to cause the least disruption possible, and our dedicated office refurbishment team will oversee a project from start to finish and give clear timescales.

Health and safety

When planning an office refurbishment, it is the perfect time to consider and review your health and safety policies and measures.

Sussex and Surrey Partitioning can advise you if you are fitting in more equipment or furniture, as you need to factor in health and safety to think about how it might affect your staff.

If workers are using laptops and second monitors, have they all got laptop raisers and ergonomic office chairs?

Perhaps you have the space for a calm breakout area to help employees take a break or have a quieter area to work on specific tasks.

Colour schemes

As mentioned, it is important to make sure that your refurbishment plans factor in your brand, you should also consider how you will actually colour co-ordinate your offices, especially when colours can actually affect your staff and productivity.

The importance of colour should be considered, and colour should be chosen to compliment your brand identity, after all, if you have a black logo/brand, it is not going to be great for motivation for staff to be sitting in a black office!

Colour Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?

Office furniture

This is where you should consider your brand identity, technology, comfort, colours, as well as health and safety requirements, and also take into account the space that is available.  At Sussex and Surrey Partitioning, we can help you plan the right furniture for the dimensions of available floor space.

It may be that you are separating the office into smaller workstations or office spaces with partitions, and need to plan on exactly what is the best furniture for the space, we can help from planning to installation.

Lighting

Whether an office light source is natural, artificial, bright and blue, or dim and yellow, the type of light that employees are exposed to not only impacts mood, circadian rhythms, and physical health, but also affects productivity and creativity.

Our expert team can assess your environment, and recommend the best options for you and your team.

Effects of Light on Circadian Rhythms | NIOSH | CDC

A Wishlist

Once you know your overall goal for office refurbishment, it’s time to dig in a little deeper and expand on that initial brief, by getting more specific about what you want to change about your current workplace.

The best way to do this is to get together with the office refurbishment team at Sussex and Surrey Partitioning, to plan for important design features that you may have identified in your current office space, and anything that you think could be improved.

Want to know more about how we can help? Would you like to book an appointment?

Contact us today and we can assist in creating the office of your ideals!

On 01444 220525, or, if you’d prefer to email: sales@sussexandsurreypartitioning.co.uk.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.