Savvy business owners understand that a well-designed office space plan is a key factor that contributes to your company’s efficiency and productivity. It can also have a profound effect on the morale and level of engagement of your staff.

Here at Cal Bennetts, where we’ve been considered experts in the field of office space and furniture planning for over five decades, we get lots of calls from clients who want advice on the best way to set up their offices. In many cases, the calls come from managers and owners of business who are finding problems with the physical layout of their offices. If you haven’t carefully planned your office setup, you may very well find that the layout may interfere with your workers’ efficiency.

Offices are not “one size fits all”.

It’s important to remember, when you’re doing office space planning, that there really is no such thing as the standard, generic, “best solution”. No two companies are alike. The optimal setup for a new tech startup may not work well at all for a venerable old accounting firm. You may find that even within your own organization, what works best for one department or group may be a disastrous setup for another group.

Go With The Flow

It really comes down to identifying an office plan that’s going to align well with your company’s workflow requirements. Use that as a starting point, and work out a plan that will allow your employees to accomplish their duties efficiently. Creative groups, for example, will have very different requirements from executives, and thus need to have their office space planned differently. Customizing the layout to your staff’s unique workflow requirements will help ensure that your office plan is a solution, not an additional problem to overcome.

Open Spaces for Collaboration

At this time, the debate still rages on as to whether the open office plan is a blessing or a curse. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that there are some companies, or at least groups within the company, whose workflow requirements include extensive collaborative work, and will thrive in a more open office setup. Eliminating walls and cubicle barriers allow for easier communication and increased interaction between staff members. Whether you set up your entire office this way or only some designated areas, again, should be a function of your workflow requirements.

Don’t Forget Privacy and Focus

Not everyone or every company works in the same way. Even in the most modern, open office setup, there will be some projects, or perhaps entire groups, for whom an open setup is far from ideal based on its workflow requirements. Account managers will require some private space within which to meet clients or make sensitive phone calls. Some work simply requires levels of focus and concentration which will be hard to find in a noisy open office area. Make sure to include sufficient private, quiet areas to accommodate your staff’s needs.

At Cal Bennetts, we’ve been planning office spaces in central California for over fifty years. Give us a call today for a consultation to help you find the optimal office setup for your workflow requirements.