Deciding on Your New Office Space?

Deciding on Your New Office Space? Here are Four Things to Remember…

One of the best ways to form a lasting impression with your clients and staff is having an office space that reflects all the tenets of your brand. When choosing an office space, many internal and external factors arise, but in the case of a business that has outgrown its old home, the new space must be an obvious improvement. So, in addition to finalizing the moving contract and doing an assets inventory, the following points must also be hashed out to ensure the perfect fit.

Location, location, location

This may seem quite cliché, but location is one of the key deciding factors for businesses looking to move their operations. Depending on the nature of the business, the composition of its employee complement and its client demographic, certain locations are more ideal than others. In Barbados, for example, international call-centres are usually found within key industrial estates along major public transportation routes, providing convenient access to their employees without personal transportation. Moreover, tourism-related businesses such as hotels, information kiosks and destination management companies tend to set up in high-traffic tourist belts and capitalize locations with high visual impact such as gorgeous views.

Size

In this rapidly changing world of business, the size of your new space is possibly one of the most strategically underrated factors. In addition to ensuring that your existing staff complement has ample space for comfortable daily working conditions, there must be heavy consideration given to future staffing plans. Every business operates on a premise to grow business, and if this means hiring more staff to cope with a growing demand, then your decision on a space should mirror your growth projections. Moreover, if your business hires additional staff on a seasonal basis, such as taking on interns during the summer, there must be ample space to physically integrate them with as little disruption to existing workers as possible.

Amenities

The perfect combination of amenities may prove elusive, but certain basics must be accounted for when looking for a space that encourages optimum productivity. Conveniently located and spacious meeting and conference rooms outfitted with technological and other telecommunications tools (such as projection screens, conference calls systems) are necessary for varying types of meetings. Staff lunch rooms with the necessary appliances and other recreational areas are also important. Also of importance are provisions for differently-abled persons, including wheelchair ramps, elevators and specially equipped washrooms and other shared areas. On the outside, ample - and preferably delineated - parking for staff and clients is a necessity to ensure hassle-free access to your office.

Layout and Outfitting

Employees are the biggest asset of any business, and a strong, efficient team needs the right space to get the job done. So before hastily deciding on a space, elements such as the layout, furniture and provisions for any large apparatuses and equipment must be paramount. As mentioned before, the nature of your business will require special layout considerations. The typical blueprint for advertising and other creative agencies is to have open-plan formats to encourage collaboration and brainstorming amongst its employees. On the other hand, a more discrete layout with individual offices are ideal for medical and legal practitioners, since the nature of their business is more sensitive on a client-to-client basis. Bright, even lighting throughout the space is also a must, and for furnished office spaces, the inclusion of ergonomic-considerations in workstation design as well as the practical fluidity achieved moving between spaces is more than an added value.

Have we pointed you in the right direction on your search for a corporate space? Then, be sure to peruse our commercial sale and corporate rental property listings and contact one of our agents to find a home for your business!