Depending on the type of person you are, a large empty space to furnish will either make you inspired or overwhelmed. If you’re the first type of person you probably already have plenty of ideas and an overflowing Pinterest board. If you’re the second type, we’re here to give you some handy hints.
First, let’s discuss some open-plan office benefits. As you have no restrictions on layout, open-plan spaces need less square footage per member of staff, so your business saves on rent in the long run. It’s easier for your staff to move around an open-plan office which helps the general flow of business. It also helps create a sense of community and collaboration. When employees can easily reach each other’s workspaces and don’t feel like they’re disturbing the other person so much by knocking on an office door, they’re more likely to go and share ideas with them. This helps solve problems and forge new ideas, we don’t need to tell you that’s good for business.
Furnishing Open-Plan Workspaces in a Way That Works for Your Business
When it comes to an open office, dividers are your friend. They provide some boundaries and acoustic protection to help you designate areas without the hard lines of walls and doors. They’re also easy to move as your business needs change. Hired more staff and need a couple of extra desks? Shift that divider a few feet along. This is another one of the benefits of open-plan offices. Particularly good for young or growing businesses, they mean you can adjust as you go without having to knock down walls or cram into spaces. For your meetings, you can even get enclosed dividers to protect you from the office buzz and let you have a productive meeting. Investing in furniture on wheels or with light bases helps keep that flexibility going allowing for regular easy movement.
Closed-plan offices will have rooms that the average business uses but open-plan gives you flexibility. Instead of a small break area, maybe you would benefit from a larger combined space that’s a relaxation area one minute and a collaboration table the next. You don’t have to worry about fitting into a space because you’re creating it so you could invest in larger collapsible tables so when a group needs to iron out ideas, they can just drop the table top down and gather around it. If you don’t have regular meetings, you could even store the extra table up the corner of the office and just pull it out and set it up as needed.
With an open-plan office, you do need to consider acoustics. With nothing to stop it, the general noise of work chatter and phone calls could get loud. You can get acoustic panels for the ceilings which look fun and dampen some noise. Focusing on soft furnishings where you can and using rugs on the floor if appropriate can help too. If you have employees who need total quiet to focus, suggest noise-cancelling headphones or invest in an individual sound-proofed cubicle to help them work at their best.
How to Focus on Natural Light
Reliance on fluorescent lighting can disrupt circadian rhythms leading to tiredness and poor focus so it’s best for your business to let in as much natural light as possible to help your staff perform at their best. Staff morale and customer experience are also improved in a light airy environment. The dividers we mentioned above are a great choice for this as they don’t reach all the way to the ceiling allowing the light to reach around them. If you don’t need acoustic blocking, you could choose something like this plant wall instead of dividers. The gaps allow plenty of light through and the plants provide some extra oxygen to freshen the space and improve airflow. If you’re using collapsible furniture, make sure this isn’t stored against the windows blocking light.
Hopefully, we at Smart Office Furniture now given some useful tips so that empty space doesn’t feel so intimidating, and you can go and get started on making the ideal use of it for your business.