Business can often be won or lost on first impressions, how you present your workplace plays a huge role in shaping your peers’ perception of you and your business. Whether you are trying to clinch a contract or hire top talent, your workplace needs to impress. ‘Workplaceinsight.net’ states that “Two out of every five people (40 percent) claim their perception of a company or brand has been negatively affected by their experience in the corporate lobby or reception area.”. This stat perfectly encapsulates why you need to impress with your office space, not only to attract top talent but also potential clients.
Here at Avent Interiors, we understand the initial investment of your office fit out can appear overwhelming which might leave you double checking the numbers and evaluating your ROI. In this blog we will be providing you with some strategies that not only look to save you money on you fit out but also create a workspace that will impress both clients along with potential and current employees.
Strategic Planning:
Strategic planning is the perfect start to any fit out or interior project. However, it is of paramount importance when you are on a budget. You should take a while to carefully plan the entire process from start to finish to avoid any surprise costs. It is also crucial to identify the objectives of the fit out early, so you don’t lose track of these throughout the process.
These objectives could include:
- Improving Productivity: This would be achieved by creating a space plan which lends itself to interdepartmental working or creating specialised spaces for employees to work to their full potential while in the office.
- Improving Logistics: Similarly to above, this would be achieved by creating a space plan which is concerned with the workflow of your office or workplace. For example, think about the regular visitors and deliveries you have and strategically place the meeting and storage rooms to best suit this.
- Space Utilisation: A well-considered space plan is the key to space utilisation, you should make sure you think about the different uses of areas and even consider the future workforce and area utilisation.
- Brand Identity: Colour and themes are key to bringing through your brand identity into a fit out. Feature walls, furniture fabrics, manifestations and wall graphics are all canvases where you can utilise your company colours, values or logo.
- Harbouring Employee Collaboration: The traditional way of seating employees simply isn’t effective for harbouring employee collaboration. When creating your seating plan consider which departments would benefit from being seated near each other and even which individuals often collaborate.
A detailed plan ensures that your resources are allocated correctly and minimises unnecessary expenses along the way whilst at the same time meeting key objectives for the project.
I caught up with Otto Avent, Director of Avent Interiors who had this to say about ‘Strategic Planning’.
“Businesses requirements and their strategy towards their office space seems to have changed since COVID. Not only are clients more engaged with staff well-being in general, which is great, but they are also looking to get the most from their workspace. Clients don’t want ordinary anymore and they want to get the most from their investment in their office. That’s why we now design spaces to be multi-purpose and always leave room for expansion within a design.”
Otto Avent
Budget-Friendly Materials:
Obviously, a large cost involved with an office fit out is the materials, therefore choosing less expensive ones can be an effective way to keep costs down. There are suitable alternatives to most desired finishes, for example hardwoods can be swapped with materials such as laminate or engineered wood.
It goes without saying that hardwoods look fantastic. However, they do require regular maintenance and will cost you more upfront. A number of other options are available such as laminates or veneers and these can be just as durable and require less on-going maintenance.
Other cost-effective materials or options include:
- Taping & Jointing vs Plastering which is more of a process and finish choice.
- Glazed vs Plasterboard Partitions which is an aesthetic and functionality choice.
Both options achieve roughly the same outcome however at 2 different price points.
There is nothing to say however the more premium materials can’t be used in smaller amounts or in specific areas of the fit out, such as meeting rooms or reception areas to impress visitors. It’s all about getting bang for buck!
Flexible Furniture Solutions:
Investing in flexible furniture is an effective way to save money in the long run. ‘Ie-uk.com’ claims that “…as many as 1.2 million desks and 1.8 million office chairs end up in UK landfills each year” this suggests that offices aren’t investing in flexible furniture and are therefore having to throw away desking that no long fits it’s required purpose way before the end of its lifespan.
I caught up with our Furniture Sales Manager, Tony Bryant, who has over 20 years’ experience providing furniture to workplaces and education facilities. Tony suggests that:
“When trying to futureproof your office space, modular furniture with lots of storage is the best way to go. This is because it is flexible and will meet the needs of your office space for not only the current moment but also the foreseeable future.”
Tony Bryant
One example of flexible furniture is desking. Desking can be bought singularly or in banks of, for example, 4. These banks of 4 share legs so are usually favoured due to the lower price tag associated with them. This may seem like a good idea at the time however buying slightly higher priced singular desks which don’t share legs allows for more flexibility in the positioning and uses of said desks. This will allow for repeated use changes of the desk and therefore improve life span which saves money in the long run.
Energy-Efficient Lighting:
An area which if often overlooked when planning a fit out is factoring in the bills you will occur after it is finished, and your workforce is all situated. Electricity is one of the biggest bills offices incur. An effective choice, with the idea of saving money on bills in mind, would be to choose to install energy-efficient LED fixtures which both consume less power and have a longer lifespan than traditional incandescent bulbs. ‘Phillips’ claims that its “LEDs use 90% less energy* than traditional incandescent lights, while producing the same warm and familiar light.” This product would be a perfect choice for any office space.
Futureproofing:
More investment shortly after a fit out is a nightmare for any business owner. If you undertake a fit out, you want it to last which is why futureproofing is so important. An effective way of futureproofing is to try and foresee how specific uses of areas might change in the future, this allows you to invest in more appropriate furniture for the area.
Most importantly however is avoid planning for the size of office you have now. As your business grows you will obviously be hiring more people therefore need more desking, larger breakout areas or more meeting rooms for example. Predicting this change correctly could be the key to saving money on your fit out in the long run.
Conclusion:
To conclude, achieving a cost-effective interior fit out doesn’t necessarily mean compromising on quality or style. Furthermore, you should not only look to save money in the short term by utilising more cost-effective materials but also think about how choices affect long term or on-going costs.