At one time, when it came to office refurbishment the process was mainly about a new coat of paint in company colors, perhaps a few new pieces of furniture and a little rearrangement to stop people complaining about the sun. But the modern office refurbishment is about a lot more – it needs to consider both the function of the space, the staff and more subtle issues such as the eco-friendliness of the office and even the overall ethics of the business.
Using an office refurbishment specialist
Many businesses prefer to bring in a specialist to help plan and organize their office refurbishment. This is more cost effective than using a number of different companies and trying to bring it all together yourself. Specialists such as Office Principles offer a comprehensive service that includes workplace analysis, site survey and a 3D visualization and layout. It also looks at the strategic cost analysis for the project and even IT solutions.
Main considerations
There are several areas that such a specialist will discuss with you before formulating ideas for the refurbishment. These might include general ideas such as the company culture – what kind of workspace do you want to create for your staff? Will people have set work areas or do you use a more flexible style of office favored by some of the big tech companies?
The building itself obviously has a big impact on what can and cannot be done with the office and this is why a site survey is important. In older buildings, there may be regulations that limit what can be done and there are always structural considerations.
The timeline for the work and the budget that the company has are also crucial at this stage. We can all go a little mad with ideas but they need to be constrained by the budget permitted. If the office will be offline for any period of time for the work, then this will need to be managed too.
Needs and wants
The business should also consider needs and wants in terms of the office space. Obviously, it needs somewhere for staff to work but it might want a flexibility in design that can mean partitions to section off areas for meetings.
Another area might be that there is furniture needed for the space but that the business wants to use eco-friendly or sustainable materials wherever possible. This can help with the overall image of the business as well as fulfilling long term goals. It can also cut costs in the long term, using recycling and other green process automatically within the design.
