When designing your perfect office space, you want to get it right. Whilst you know your business, some experts know how to alter an office to make it the most effective place it can be and help your people reach their full potential. These professionals are called workplace consultants.
Workplace consultants are a cost-effective investment for your business and can establish how your existing space can be optimised, or assist you with a ‘stay vs. go’ dilemma, outlining your ideal new requirements. This allows you to make suitable changes going forward with confidence.
If you are looking for help defining your business’s own ideal space, DeVono’s Workplace Consultancy team can be the right place to start, before engaging designers or agents. As further support, we have Occupier Advisory services to advise on your existing and new lease and negotiate on your behalf.
What is a Workplace Consultant?
Workplace consultancy is nearly always a bespoke service, due to each business’s unique challenges, however in the most basic form, undertaking this service involves an experienced professional to understand the culture, people and drivers of your business and advise how you should be using your current or future space, based on how your people are most efficient, whilst aligning with your business needs and goals.
Office space consultancy involves planning changes based on the criteria set in a series of briefs. When someone embarks on a consultancy journey, it is to create a great workplace and support the staff that will use it. It can also reduce a variety of overheads, from the amount of space to reduced turnover.
Potential benefits of undertaking workplace consultancy
1) Reduced Rental Costs
Depending on your business growth projections and priorities around cost-savings, you may find that by discovering a more efficient way of working you can downsize to a more efficient floorplate.
This is a possible benefit if you are looking to move spaces, or have the opportunity to sublease current space. How you reallocate those savings are then up to you – it may be that you reinvest some of the savings into a smaller, but higher quality location and fit-out or to improve other processes within your business.
2) Improved Employee Performance and Retention
By understanding how people are most productive, an application of the strategy report can mean improved performance. Introducing design-based solutions such as Activity-based Working, where people have access to a variety of settings to work on a variety of tasks for their day, to higher consideration of the lighting and noise within the office. Improving the environment your colleagues work in, there may be a significant impact on their performance within the business.
Employee well-being is also key – including them in the process and communicating their contribution to the project, can boost general engagement, reduce attrition and ensure they feel that their involvement is valued. Setting expectations and following through with important aspects is essential to gaining the most out of this process.
3) Heightened Client Engagement
Having an appealing and effective workspace doesn’t just benefit the people who work within the business. It can also improve the reputation of the company with clients too.
When you have an office space that encapsulates your brand and what it entails, including the organisation’s values, it can be seen by clients and visitors when they step through the door. Also, if a client can see a buzzing workplace full of happy people, it can improve the impression of your business, and therefore impact how they engage with the brand.
4) A Workplace that Enables Teamwork
A workplace project can reveal the importance that a well-designed space can make to encourage and enable collaboration. By understanding the type of work your teams are most often carrying out in the office, you can ensure the experience and Activity-based-work settings deliver the tools they need to be productive as a team.
Whilst effective collaboration has many benefits to the business, promoting the flow of communication will both improve relationships, and create a more effective workplace.
Workplace consultants are there to help you make the most of your office space and enable your business to reach its full potential. If you are looking for workplace consultancy, DeVono offers this service for you to take advantage of in your office, and you can contact us for more information. Alternatively, if you are looking for office space in London, take a look and see how we can help you find the ideal work environment for you and your business.
