Office Space - Millennium Storage and Interiors Blog | Millennium Storage and Interiors

Tag: Office Space (page 2 of 2)

Is It Time You Had An Office Refurb?

In business you’re either growing or you’re shrinking so it’s important to always be moving forward and that includes the design of your office.

Taking care of the office, however, often ends up low on the priority list during busy periods or when a lot of effort is being put into growing a business. Yet appearances should never be ignored and your office will provide prospective clients and customers with their first impression of your business when they walk through the door.

If your office is looking a bit tired and dated, then refurbishing your office can freshen things up and inspire confidence. It is often the smaller details that contribute to business growth and a well maintained modern office can create the kind of lasting impression that provides a good return on your investment.

Also with the holidays fast approaching staff are likely to have their minds on their next holiday and if their surroundings are dull and drab this will only hamper productivity. So there you have it. Refurbishing that tired old office might actually pay for itself with all the benefits it provides.

If you would like to find out more about our office refurbishment services, give us a call today.

When To Use Cantilever Racking

January 20, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments

Cantilever racking is a type of storage system which is used for all sorts of purposes and typically appears in builder’s merchant yards and factories. Like any racking system, cantilever racking is very versatile as well as being strong.

Cantilever racking is at its most useful when used to store longer lengths of materials and items, which typically consist of sheets of wood, steel, tubes, pipes and so on. A cantilever system can also be used to effectively store odd shaped items which might otherwise take up a lot of space in a warehouse or other storage facility.

The typical cantilever systems we see in use today are used to store items that can be up to 10 metres long and up to a 30,000kg in weight. The arms used are usually around 2 ½ metres with adjustment possible depending on the size of materials stored.

The other great thing about using cantilever lever racking is the ability to add to it over time as storage requirements increase. You can simple add to the bays as time goes on to massively increase your storage capacity.

Cantilever racking can be used indoors and outdoors (as long as it is galvanised). Please get in touch if you would like to know about the racking systems we have available.

3 Ways To Impress Millennials With Your Office Design

June 10, 2017 / admin / 0 Comments

As time moves on so does the age of your employees and most office chairs will now be filled by a generation of people collectively known as millennials or those born between the early 1980s and just after the year 2000. As millennials are now so essential to businesses, how do you go about attracting them and keeping them in your office rather than those of the competition?

Most millennials don’t like conventional offices
If you want to retain your younger staff members it’s time to ditch the traditional office layout and go for something less conventional. Millennials despite their reputation are hard working on the whole as well as being career focused. They can be trusted to work in collaborative spaces with flexible furniture.

Millennials Want To See Up-To-Date Technology
Some business owners are hopelessly out of touch with technology and these are the ones that tend to have a high staff turnover. No self-respecting millennial is going to want to work in an office and make do with poor outdated equipment when they have superior technology at home.

Flexibility
The days of travelling to work every day and going through the motions from 9 am until 5pm are coming to an end for many private firms. Flexible working is now demanded by many people as is a flexible approach working remotely. IT infrastructure should be set up to allow this and enable millennials to enjoy a better work life balance.

Should Workplace Design Reflect Your Branding?

March 26, 2017 / admin / 0 Comments

How many workplaces do you know that have interior spaces that reflect their branding?

Depending on how many you will have seen the answer is probably not many. Workplaces that reflect company branding are hard to find in most business sectors unless they appreciate just how important branding is to company culture as well as perceptions from the outside.

If you business is branding then there is a good chance you already appreciate how everything present in a business from its philosophy and culture to its furniture should reflect the brand.

It also shouldn’t be forgotten, that when customers and clients arrive at your workplace, their perception of your business can be greatly influenced by what they are seeing around them for the first time.

As everyone knows first impressions are important. If an office has a nice contemporary design that reflects the branding and colours of the business, then this will make those clients and customers feel more secure about doing business with your company.

For staff too, it’s important for them to buy into company culture and the work environment should encourage this by creating a clear sense of identity. Simply spreading a few brochures on meeting and coffee tables is not enough to make those employees feel part of an organisation that is going places.

Why Sound Acoustics Is Vital to Office Design

October 20, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments

Offices come in all sorts of layouts from sleek open plan, to period offices in city centres.

The challenge in both cases is to find a solution that not only creates a sense of space but also provides privacy and a quiet place to work for those employees who need it. So when designing an office layout, a delicate balancing act needs to be struck to ensure that everyone in the workplace will be happy.

Unlike visual distractions, which can simply be screened off or hidden by a simple re-arrangement of furniture and screens. Unfortunately, good acoustics will require a more complicated solution to reduce noise from phones, chatter and colleagues moving from one place to another.

All of this can become very frustrating for those who require peace and quiet to do their best work, which will in turn hinder productivity.

While the modern trend continues to lean towards the open plan spaces which have been seen as the best way to develop cooperation and creativity since the 1950s.

To improve acoustics in your office requires knowledge of how sound impacts on different surfaces and how it is absorbed by others.

This starts with the introduction of carpets, acoustic panels and acoustic screens which can help reduce noise dramatically. Then create separate spaces for collaborative work so as not to disturb those staff members who prefer to work in quiet isolation from time to time.

Is Your Office Layout Influencing Your Business Culture?

October 10, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments

The more you learn about architecture and the buildings we use everyday, the more you understand just how much they can influence us.

Do you ever find yourself sitting in a room at work wondering what might be going on in the office across the corridor or do you feel excluded from management who occupy a corner office hardly anyone ever goes into?

Despite open plan offices and glass partitions now being an established part of business culture, you can still be left feeling an unwanted sense of seclusion and separation.

As a business owner, having your office laid out in this traditional manner is more likely to put people off coming to work for your organisation.

The days when people coveted the big office in the corner are now numbered as collaboration is understood to be the key to effective working.

If everyone in your office is crammed into small rooms, then it can be little wonder that conflict between staff members can begin to develop and instead of working as a team, the organisation becomes fragmented.

This can all be changed by a re-imagining of your office layout to encourage rather than discourage collaboration and a more harmonious working environment.

Traditional Office Design Turned On its Head

August 21, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments

Swiss athletics firm, On, has turned traditional office design on its head according to architectural magazine Wallpaper with an office design that makes use of the concept of flow.

While most traditional offices have anything but flow, what On achieved with the help of an industrial design firm was to design an office space that seems to be inspired by the sports products they design and make.

Short distances between departments were scrapped in favour of a single 100 metre strip where staff are lined up at desks, cubicles and meeting spaces. This introduces a constant flow between apartments where the aim was to link everything together seamlessly.

The typical office layout will generally have closed off areas where various departments will be isolated so as to keep particular areas of expertise separate from others. Having a constant flow between spaces means that it is possible to incorporate isolated work stations but also introduce collaborative areas that flow from one end of the office to the other.

Standing meetings can be held at one end while staff can relax and take refreshment at an indoor garden incorporated at the other. Is this a more natural way to organise a natural office environment? Whatever your view it certainly makes you think about how the future of the modern office will develop.

Key Questions To Ask Before Designing A New Office Space

August 11, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments

You may be about to embark on planning your new office space. This can be both an exciting and stressful time for staff depending on how they react to change. So it’s important to consider what you do with the space you have carefully.

What’s good about our current office?
Sometimes in the desire to change everything around we overlook what might actually be good about our current office design. Some aspects of the current layout may be there for good reasons so asking this question will help avoid mistakes.

What’s bad about the current office layout?
After a long period of time stuck with the same office design, you naturally start to find things that are bad or annoying about your office. Listing these will help focus in on the changes that will bring immediate benefits.

Does my office need quiet spaces?
Most offices have departments where peace and quiet is a must. Not everyone likes to be disturbed by the constant ringing of telephones and conversations. It is vital to consider sound proofing for areas where people can go to get away from the noise or to take time out to relax.

Have I included plenty of space for collaboration?
There should always be space for staff to collaborate effectively. Not everyone likes to work in isolated small groups closed off from the rest of the office.