Designing an Office for Future Growth
When you’re planning an office renovation, one of the most important things to consider is whether or not your new space will meet your company’s needs both today and in the coming years. Nobody wants to go through the time, effort, and expense of renovating an office, only to quickly outgrow it or find out that it otherwise no longer supports a company’s needs. But, at the same time, you also don’t want to have a space that is bigger than what your company actually needs.
It’s not always easy to tell what the future holds for a company. A small company might start to take off faster than expected or an established company might find a new opportunity to expand their operations and suddenly need to bring on more people. Or, in the case of many companies post-COVID, they’re not necessarily downsizing their workforce, but a transition to hybrid work means they no longer need as much physical space. So what can companies do to make sure their spaces can change along with them?
Stay Flexible
Keeping some flexibility in your office design can be a great way to ensure that a space is able to adapt to the evolving needs of your company. One reason why open plan offices have become so common is that companies like being able to reconfigure their spaces as they grow without having to be limited by permanent walls. If a completely open layout isn’t right for you, portable partitions and demountable walls are two great ways to create space division and add privacy without losing the ability to reconfigure down the line.
Look to the Past
Where do you expect your company to be in the next few years? We know it’s not an easy question to answer, but looking to the past can help. How much has your company grown, on average, over the past few years? If your company has recently gone through a period of growth, is that rate of growth sustainable or do you expect to continue growing at a slower rate?
While looking back, don’t forget to factor in the things you know are ahead for your company in the immediate future. For instance, if you’re on the verge of bringing on a major new client, will you need to hire more people to handle the extra work?
Don’t Forget About Infrastructure
Planning for future growth isn’t necessarily limited to expanding your team. It’s also important to think about the infrastructure your company will need to facilitate that growth. For example, will company growth also require an expanded IT center? If you’re considering branching into new types of services, will those new services require anything new in terms of technology or equipment that will need to be supported and stored?
If you need help creating an office space that will meet your company’s needs both today and in the future, contact Premier Construction & Design. We have experience working with a wide range of companies in the Metro Detroit area to help them create their ideal work environments. Take a look through our portfolio and case studies to see examples of a selection of projects we’ve worked on.
