Planning your Office Layout for Tomorrow's Business

Are you planning a new office layout? Perhaps setting up a new office area, or renovating or developing a new layout for an existing area? One of the things that it will be important to consider is the tendency for many office areas to develop organically. If you don't take into account the natural organic generation of an office space, then you could be looking at either an expensive renovation further down the line, or an office space which quickly starts to become less efficient and productive.

In terms of what is meant by an organically developing office, most office spaces tend to develop over time. There could be a number of factors which are responsible for this development. Expanding the business and taking on more staff is an obvious reason why an office space might develop, and with extra staff inevitably comes the need for extra desk areas, chairs and so forth.

Another reason why office areas tend to adapt and expand is through storage. Although many businesses try to retain as much data on computer and digital media as possible, it is inevitable that we still retain a great deal of documentation in paper form, and along with letterheads, leaflets, promotional materials, reference materials, training documents and so forth it can often become necessary to expand an existing office space.

If the office layout hasn't been thought through carefully with expanding storage needs in mind, then it can either become the case that the existing storage facilities become over crammed with paper, making it harder to locate important information. Either this, or documentation becomes dropped in a variety of drawers and boxes, making it incredibly difficult to keep track of where everything is. This also brings into question any degree of responsibility for the data, since it can be harder to update the information, store it securely in compliance with legislation, or destroy it once it is no longer relevant.

Another cause of the tendency for office areas to develop and expand organically is the increased use of technology and the development of the technological solutions themselves. From computers which are replaced with newer models to monitors replaced with flat panels, printers, faxes and photocopiers, the technology can adapt and change very rapidly. If your business needs to stay at the top and remain competitive, then it will probably be important for you to take advantage of new technological options and capabilities.

What you do not want to find happening is that you are limited in your choice of technology and digital solutions as a direct result of poor layouts and bad office designing, with desk furniture and office layouts which cannot adapt adequately to new demands.

This is exactly what happened when offices tried to migrate from older bubble jet, inkjet or dot matrix printers to the newer, faster and more professional laser printer. Because of the huge area needed for the laser printer, in many cases it was necessary to dedicate an entire office desk to this one printer. This meant losing a member of staff, perhaps only potentially, but nonetheless it had to be considered which was more useful - a member of staff or a printer.

You do not want to find yourself having to make choices based on limitations. Rather, your choices should be based on what is best for the business. An office layout which allows for development, adaptability and expansion is one which can embrace the undeniable organic nature of most office areas, and provide you with a much greater freedom of choice for the future.

Modular desks are extremely popular, providing the opportunity to create good-looking office spaces quickly, with desks making good use of the space, without creating a crowded appearance. But if you are buying desks based solely upon the number of staff you currently employ, or the number of computers they are using, then be careful not to purchase modular desking or unusual shapes if there is any possibility that you will need to expand or adapt the office in future, since this could result in you having to reduce the quality of the overall appearance by breaking up modules.

If you are starting your layout designs for your office workspace from scratch, then this provides you with a valuable opportunity to give serious consideration to power sockets and network points. All too often offices have to be designed around where the power supplies and network terminals are currently sited, whereas placing the outlets convenient for your layout is a significantly better option.

Plan out your office, and then think about ways in which it could expand in the future, and plan right from the start to provide the option to expand in the future without having to become limited by electrical sockets, network points or existing technological solutions. A good office layout should be designed for the future office, not just the one you're building in the present.