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Trends Influencing Office Design In 2015

Workforces are becoming more mobile, the production process is speeding up and the demand for employees to think creatively to help companies survive has never been greater. To keep pace in all these areas requires thinking about the latest trends in office design.

The talent pool is shrinking
Demand for talent in some business sectors may reach crisis point in the years to come as the current generation reaches retirement. IT, sales and marketing and management are set to face the biggest skills shortage and people working in these areas will expect to work in environments that satisfy their needs. Collaborative office design will be a key area to focus on to create the kind of company top talent will be happy to work for.

Employee motivation
Keeping employees motivated not only helps staff retention it can also boost a company’s bottom line by 20% according to some studies. Negativity and hostility meanwhile only spreads to other members of staff threatening the business in some cases. The answer is to design the office as a communication tool that helps broadcast the goals of the company and the achievements of the team.

Remote working requires different thinking about the way offices are used
Working from home was virtually unheard of 20 years ago. Now more and more office workers are feeling the benefits of working from home. However this is never a permanent solution when team collaboration remains important. This requires flexible work spaces and areas of the office being designed to make room for technology and business processes to work even when staff are not present.
The one thing you can rely on in 2015 is that the top people will be more choosy about where they decide to work. A booming economy is set to make this the case for the foreseeable future.

5 Common Office Design Mistakes

April 27, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

Most of us spend years getting our homes to look right even if a large percentage of us spend only a small proportion of our time in them. With the majority of people employed in some kind of office job it’s sad to see so many mistakes made in office design when spending a bit of time with planning could make all the difference to those who work there.

With this in mind, here are 5 office design mistakes and how they can be avoided.

Not spending enough money
Let’s face it, making an office look pretty is often the last thing on the minds of stressed out business owners. Money is often allocated to more profitable areas. But there is in argument that says spending a bit of time on the office environment can help make staff more productive which can boost profits and ease those business worries in the long term.

Buying the wrong size furniture
It’s a common error to buy furniture that is not the right size for a room. It can be either too big and restrict your space or so small the office becomes a space of overwhelming emptiness.

Not bothering to plan the office layout
Another mistake is to not plan the layout of an office. With a new office it is important to find out where to put things like the photocopier or printer and find proper spaces for desks. Nobody will appreciate sitting in front of a baking hot window all day even if they are showered with natural light.

Not asking the opinion of your employees
There is nothing more demotivating than not being informed of important business decisions when you are a member of staff. Office design is one of those decisions, so it is worth asking their opnion before you go ahead, particularly if staff are the ones spending most of their time in the office.

Going ahead and choosing a design without talking to your staff can be a costly mistake. If you want a happy and productive workforce, your space needs to reflect your business needs. For example, open plan offices are a popular choice for creative industries that require a lot of collaboration, but they could be disastrous for jobs that need more privacy. With this in mind, make sure that you ask your employees about their preferred work style before you finalise your design.

Spending too much money on design
You’ll see lots of advice from office designers out there but really designing an office well me designing it so that it feels natural. Only the people who work there will know what works best for them so it is possible to get everyone together and come up with the best solution for your space without breaking the bank.

How To Design A Happy Office

April 20, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

A lot goes into designing an office space. There’s choosing the right fixtures and fittings, working to often tight budgets and of course making sure that all your employees are reasonably happy. The latter is possibly one of the bigger challenges.

Designing the perfect office doesn’t have to hurt. It is easy to design a space for you and your employees that not only looks good but also promotes productivity and happiness.

Designing a happy office is as much about art as it is science. The science comes in with things like measuring the space you have accurately and finding places to install equipment. The rest is largely down to art.

In the 1980s it was all about Feng Shui but now it’s more about the natural arrangement of your office. Many business owners actually fail with their office design because they focus too much on the artistic or practical side and don’t allow for the natural day to day elements that go into creating the ideal office environment.

Open space is vital and allowing natural light in will create a much happier workplace than one that feels more like a prison. Colour choice is also important.

If for example you want to impress clients with contemporary youthful energy then bright coloured furniture against a neutral white background can work well. It may also stimulate staff and give a boost to energy levels which is unlikely to be achieved in a dull grey office with vertical blinds hiding any light.

The thing to remember is that we spend the majority of our time sitting behind computers in the office and this can bring its own stresses. Investing in happy office design has the potential to pay off with happy more productive staff.

Interior Design for your Office

March 5, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

Designing your office space is an important and often overlooked task. The layout, acoustics and design of your office can have a profound effect on productivity, motivation and workplace atmosphere.

That is why it is so important to get it right and hiring a professional office interiors service can be so advantageous. Any professional, experienced interior design and storage solution company will take all of the following factors into consideration when designing your office space;

1. Design vs Fit – we appreciate that you may want an amazing looking workspace, something inspiring and unique to impress your clients. But don’t forget that the space needs to be practical and work with your everyday business, not impact upon it negatively. That is why it is so important to get the perfect balance. Taking a full brief that takes into account your need for communal spaces, creative spaces and workstations is a vital part of the whole design process.
2. Light it up! – Remember the days of strip-lighting that flickered and buzzed constantly driving you to distraction? Can you imagine the negative impact that sort of artificial lighting can have on your productivity? Pay special attention to how your office space is illuminated, ensuring that you get as much natural light as possible into your office. If this isn’t possible, our office interior specialists will always find the best possible lighting solution for your office space.
3. Inspiration – white walls, uniform desks and cluttered workspaces can suck the productivity out of any office. Consider brightening things up by adding colour. Or maybe just creating communal spaces for people to talk and interact in a less formal setting will inspire creative thinking and positive outcomes.
4. Air-flow – give a lot of consideration to the fresh ait flow in your office space. Air conditioning is great if used properly, but don’t forget those people who are sat directly underneath the ducts, or those stuck in hot corners. Adjust your air conditioning according to the seasons and the layout of your office.
5. Outside in! – You would be amazed at how much difference a few plants can make to any office. Low-maintenance, leafy green plants can help to cleanse the air and raise spirits in an otherwise industrial workspace.

This list is by no means exhaustive. Office design is a specialist service that requires a lot of different input and careful planning. It should not be taken lightly, but neither should it cause unnecessary stress.

Millennium Si provide the perfect Interior Solution service that will fit requirements, tastes, brands and budgets. Call us today on 01942 603 344 for a quote.

How To Plan Office Partitioning

February 21, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

Business operations are getting increasingly smaller as computers remove most of the administration department which once dealt with data inputting and other menial tasks.

With the number of staff needed by companies, the need for large office spaces is steadily shrinking. This leaves a problem for large commercial property owners who are left trying to hunt around for tenants willing to rent and pay the high fees that go along with it.

The solution to this problem is often partitioning the space to accommodate smaller businesses who will find smaller units more affordable.

That said planning to partition an office may not be easy. You will need to ensure that the partitionsare being put in the right place and that create environments people will want to work in. Not only will this mean considering the amount of natural light and access points but also levels of ambient noise.

To ensure that your office partitions are installed in correctly ensure that each space has a window where possible. If the office doesn’t include carpets then it may be a good idea to fit them and add soft furnishings where possible to help absorb noise. There are various materials to choose from in your partitioning, but it is probably worth choosing those that absorb noise rather than going for cheaper options. It is worth paying the extra in the long term to make sure your business tenants are happy.

What Does Your Office Design Say About Your Company?

February 20, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

The way an office is presented can say a lot about a business which is why keeping the space clean and tidy is a must if you expect to be welcoming new clients.

Businesses can spend large amounts of money developing a corporate image only to have it brought down by a poorly presented office that creates the wrong impression.

To avoid this it is important to pay attention to how much your current office reflects the corporate identity you are trying to create. Paying attention to this important area can even help you impress and win more clients.

How you present your office will be unique to your company. The needs of a tech or digital company will be different from those of a more formal public sector office. The former will probably be aiming for a more relaxed environment rather than one that is too corporate.

Clients will expect a digital company office to be as contemporary as the websites it creates. A public sector office meanwhile might wish to project a more formal image to show that public money isn’t being spent on expensive colourful furniture! If you are set to be welcoming clients into your office soon, then remember to use those first few minutes to create a good impression of your company because those first impressions last.

Google Creates Offices Inspired By Nature

January 17, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

Office furniture may not be high on the agenda for whoever is responsible at Google for creating workspaces for happy productive employees but wallpaper and light is according to recent news released by the search giant.

If you walk around a Google office today, you will find the usual coders and play areas but you might also notice light meters hanging from their necks as they go about their daily work. This is because the environmental team at Google thinks that natural light is a very important part of keeping the workforce happy and more importantly for this ambitious firm – productive.

Google is one of the more famous companies experimenting with biophilic design or the subtle changes that can make an office space seem more natural. Having a more natural space to work in while you sit at your office desk is said to better for you psychologically because it helps to reduce stress.

With this in mind Google has added extra skylights, and even solar tubes in its conference rooms to brighten things up. Employees of Google are reported to be more deeply focused on their work and more creative as well as productive.

What Makes Employees Happy With Their Office Interior Design?

January 15, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

It is often the case that office design is firmly at the back of employers’ minds. A desk, chair and acomputer are provided and that is often it.

What surrounds workers are often bare walls, blinds placed across windows to hide the sun and a ban on music just in case it doesn’t suit the tastes of the majority.

Studies have found that far from keeping workers focused, bare quiet offices are likely to result in reduced productivity and a moody workforce. So when it comes to office interior design it may be wise to at least consult workers on how they want the place where they spend most of their waking lives to look.

The new buzzword in office design is ‘biophilic’ design or the architecture of life. In other words workers want to see more of nature so that they can feel at home.

The survey of 3,600 office workers by Human Spaces found that the five things staff most wanted in their office interior design were Natural light (42%) Quiet work spaces (22%) A view of the sea (20%) Live indoor plants (18%) Bright and natural colours (15%).

So letting in natural light should be the number one priority followed by peace and quiet as anyone who has the misfortune to work next to a noisy co-worker will testify. A view of the sea may be a little tricky to achieve for most business owners but a potential solution is artwork or bringing focusing office interior design on more natural shapes and colours.

Modern Office Environment

June 15, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

Watching ‘Mad Men’ on television is a stark reminder of exactly how far the modern office environment has come.

Go back half century or so, and the office layout was very much a hierarchy of the social pecking order of each employee. Administrative work (by mostly female workers) was clustered together in a large group in the centre of the office environment. Desks were utilitarian, small and offered no privacy whatsoever.

When moving to the slightly elevated associate positions, there were very small, shared office in cramped quarters. However, the residents were allowed to ever-so-slightly personalize their space with a framed picture of the family. As we reach executive level personnel, we find large and lavish rooms with incredible views of the cityscape, full stocked wet bars, a settee and behemoth cherry wood desks with leather chairs that resembling a throne.

Fast forward to modern times, and we still see a hint of the old office ‘class structure’, although as a society we have embraced a slightly more balanced status for employees. However for practical reasons, there is still a need for corporate executives to have some privacy to wheel and deal.

Today we still want the room to be movers and shakers, and to allow our workers to be able to take a tea break in a room with a few tables and chairs. The problem we face is that real estate is on the rebound, and the cost of spacious offices simply isn’t a reality for most businesses. So the only solution is to make the most of the space you have.

Regardless of whether you have a hot-desk set up in mind for your team or a cubicle structure to provide a bit more privacy to allow team members to concentrate (and cut down on the chin-wagging that can take over in an open office plan), Millenium SI can create the perfect office plan to utilise your space for maximum efficiency. Wherever your office is located, get in touch with our team of experts for a consultation on what we can work out for you.

A Right Royal Refurb – Part II!

February 8, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

Having spent over £1million on refurbishing their Kensington Palace home, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are said to be embarking on another programme of decoration because Duchess Kate is now said to be unhappy with the colour scheme she planned for the royal residence whilst pregnant with Prince George.

It’s been reported that William and Kate have now entrusted the new decorative scheme for their 20-room apartment to urban designer and architect Ben Pentreath. Best known for his classical designs, Pentreath cites Sir Terence Conran and the late decorator/designer David Hicks as his inspiration. “[Hicks] was a traditionalist, but never boring. I love his crazy use of colour that underlies his classicism. We’re a bit timid with interiors today” Pentreath has said.

Counting the late Princess Diana as a former client, Pentreath has also been asked to help revamp the Cambridge’s country home, Anmer Hall, on the Queen’s Sandringham estate.

It’s said that Kate is blaming the first disastrous decorative scheme on her pregnancy hormones.

At Millennium SI we aim to get things right first time, every time! We’re experts in office refurbishment and new builds, creative office space planning and the sound design of office interiors. Our concept-to-completion service includes taking a detailed brief to fully understand and meet your requirements. Then we’ll work closely with you to enhance your workspace with the right flooring, décor and furniture [standard or bespoke] to make your office interior truly reflect your business and employee needs.

You might not have a right royal budget, but we’re dedicated to ensuring that your office space is a real crowning glory!