Renovating your workspace is a project that can benefit your employees’ productivity, but it’s not an easy one. There are many things you should consider before you start the project and look for experienced home builders to see it through.
You should think about the budget, how you’ll organize the workspace, the thermal insulation, the lighting, and how to make your office more convenient by making it smart. But, you should also think about a sustainable solution and where your employees will be at the time of renovation.
1. Think About the Budget
The budget is the most important factor in an office renovation project. You can’t renovate without an appropriate budget plan. That’s why you need to think about the cost of the materials and the labor.
Consider materials that are durable but also not expensive. You don’t have to have leather sofas and wooden furniture in your office, because other materials are equally resilient but cheaper.
Find a balance between cost and quality, or get a professional opinion on estimating those. Also, it’s great if you let the home builders you’re collaborating with know the budget before the project even starts. They’ll probably have some notes on that, and you’ll get a better idea of what can and what can’t be done.
2. Consider the Organization
Think about how you’ll organize the workspace. It’s a question of whether you’ll have an open office space or separate offices for your employees. Here, it largely depends on what your company does, so you’ll choose either:
Once you choose the basic office space type, think about flexibility. Employees will expect better facilities and more flexibility. So, don’t cram everything into one place, spread things out, and make sure that there’s enough room for all your employees.
3. Thermal Insulation
Don’t cut costs on thermal insulation based on average weather. Even if the work environment is in a mild climate area, you should have good thermal insulation because it protects not only your employees from the cold but also from excessive heat.
When the weather gets extreme in terms of temperatures rising or falling, you’re going to split your electricity bills in half because of good thermal insulation, and your employees are going to be happy as well.
4. Lighting Is Important
As one of the more important factors to consider when renovating your office, lighting affects your employees’ productivity levels, as it can affect the way they feel during their working hours. Exposure to different light affects our internal clock and can make us feel tired at some point.
So, don’t get lights that will make the office shine bright like a diamond, but also try not to go to the other extreme where your employees won’t be able to see anything. It’s important to find a good balance to avoid light’s effects.
5. Make Your Office a Smart One
Something that surely makes your office distinctive from the other offices is making it smart. When renovating your office, install smart electronics if you have the opportunity. This can highly boost productivity and convenience for all your employees.
If you create a smart office, you’ll integrate the things that are smart into one large network, such as smart TVs, interactive whiteboards, laptops, phones, appliances, etc. Imagine being able to control the room temperature, lighting, and humidity using your phone or laptop.
Another advantage of smart offices is the organization. You don’t have to open a list of booked meeting rooms to see whether or not there’s an available meeting room. You can just take out your smartphone and see which one is available.
6. Consider Safety
It’s important to think about all the safety features when renovating your office. You need to consider where the best positions for emergency exits would be, where to position fire extinguishers, instructions, etc.
You can use the smart office tip to your advantage because if an emergency occurs in the office, you can use smart TVs to communicate an instructional message for the employees on how to act in this emergency.
7. Aim for Sustainability
You need to achieve some kind of sustainability when renovating your office space. Designing your office for sustainability is a very important factor because you’ll be making your office infrastructure more cost-effective and easily manageable.
So, think about energy-efficient solutions such as the thermal insulation we suggested, think about renewable energy sources, sustainable waste management solutions, automated light switches, and sustainable office materials.
8. Think About Employees
Last but not least, consider the employees. Provide a good alternative workspace for them while the construction workers renovate your office. You can opt for remote work while the renovations are in progress and share home office designs with your employees.
But you can also rent office space to keep the integrity of your office culture intact. You’ll need to consider the budget for renting an office space carefully. Try not to rent something that’s better than the office your employees are expecting to come back to.
Author Bio:
Gabriel Hill is an Australian blogger interested in various spheres from home improvement to health and management.
