With today’s rapidly changing business objectives, work patterns, processes and staff needs, Kent and London offices are no longer just a place where a business is located or where staff come to fulfil their work commitments, instead they are the heart of a business, a dynamic space that supports learning and development, individual work, innovation and productivity as well as being the hub where employees come together to collaborate. In essence the office isn’t just a place or location, it’s a community and an environment where office design and refurbishment play a major role in enabling staff to be productive while ensuring their health and wellbeing.
A Well Designed and Refurbished Office Can Bring Numerous Benefits
It’s clear that how an office space is designed, and refurbished can have a major impact on a business and its employees and if done right can have far reaching benefits for everyone, some of which are outlined below:
Opportunity To Modernise
A redesign of your office space is the perfect time to modernise. Office design and refurbishment has come a long way since the earliest office designs from the 1900s. Today’s offices have changed to better reflect staff needs and to focus on the comfort, health and wellbeing of staff which in turn promotes a more healthy work environment leading to healthier, happier staff who are more productive.
Office design has moved away from rigid, regimented office layouts with desks in rows to hybrid, flexible, tech-enabled, collaborative environments with breakout areas which provide space for staff to come together, to hold informal meetings or where employees can relax. With the focus on health and wellbeing, breakout areas are becoming more prevalent, enabling staff to “get away” from their desk or workstation and unwind, allowing them to go back to work refreshed and ready to tackle their next big project.
Make the Right First Impression
It’s true what they say, the cliché definitely applies “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” This is also true when it comes to the impression your office makes (or breaks) within the first few seconds. First impression bias is real. In fact, we know from psychological research that first impressions can be reached within a tenth of a second purely based on visual cues!
New hires, potential new staff and clients are likely to judge what sort of company you are based on the first impression of your business premises. Office design, the way an office is laid out and organised, cleanliness, and how welcoming the space is can influence how people perceive a business. If their first impression is poor you are unlikely to get a second chance to impress. This could result in lost clients and business and be an issue when trying to recruit new staff or retain current staff.
Attract and Retain Staff
How your Kent or London office space is designed and refurbished can play a major role when it comes to retaining and attracting the right staff. This is especially true for the younger generation who place a premium on working in a well-designed office.
Research commissioned by Mindspace, and carried out by One Poll, of over 2000 UK office staff found that UK businesses were struggling to attract and retain younger workers. Over 21% of 18–24-year-olds say that they’ve walked away from a potential employer because of poor or uninspiring office design or where there was a lack of available amenities.16% of the same age group have left a job because of having to work in a poorly designed office space.
ScienceDirect’s paper in the Journal of Environmental Psychology “Saw the office, want the job: The effect of creative workspace design on organizational attractiveness” also found that workspace design positively influences applicants’ job choice intentions.
This is also backed up by a web-based survey of 1,006 Australian current and recent job seekers conducted by Empirica Research found that “workplace design significantly affects employee attraction… what makes an organisation attractive to an employee varies across gender, industry, experience level and even geography but that good workplace facilities, design and culture are consistent drawcards for potential employees.”
The cost of hiring and training new staff has been estimated to be above £10,000. The Telegraph reports that the cost could be even higher saying that “Replacing staff costs British businesses £4bn each year [with] the average fee for replacing a departing staff member is £30,614.” PayFit, an automated solution to manage your company’s payroll and HR processes say “the average cost of replacing an employee in the UK is around £25,000 per worker, which accounts for rehiring and lost productivity. For specialist and senior roles, this number can range higher, think £40,000 to £100,000 per head.”
Reflect Company Culture
An office refurbishment offers an excellent opportunity to align a physical workspace with a company’s culture and brand. It’s important for businesses to reflect and present a positive company culture which in turn can help to make a strong impression on staff. It can assist in fostering a sense of belonging and purpose leading to higher levels of engagement, better job satisfaction and enhanced health and wellbeing. Staff that feel valued are also likely to be more innovative, motivated and productive. A positive company culture can also play a role in attracting new staff as new hires often consider how a company present’s itself when they are looking for a new employer.
Where an office space reflects a strong company culture it can also positively impact clients and site visitors in how they perceive a company leading to strong brand recognition and enhanced reputation which can help to inspire confidence in customers which will keep them coming back.
Improve Space Utilisation
Office space utilisation is important given that office workspace is an expensive commodity, especially in prime locations like London. It’s therefore vital that office space is used efficiently.
In Q4 2023 workplace usage in the UK was just 53% and most offices had far more individual workstations than were needed to meet the number of staff going into the office with “28% of decks are never used, 51% are occupied for less than one hour per day and just 12% are used for more than 5 hours per day.”
According to the Utilisation of the office – Report by Advanced Workplace Associates office space utilisation varies with an average utilisation of 48% for occupied desks, ranging from 27% to 74%. AWA also found that space utilisation is higher in London, as opposed to the rest of the UK, most likely due to “the pressure in London to increase utilisation because of the higher level of rent.” The report also found that hot desk usage was low, on average only 16% and only “39% of meeting rooms were being used for the time they are available. When the degree to which the seats in meeting rooms (i.e. their total capacity) are used the number drops to 19% of meeting room capacity being used.” AWA found that businesses that adopt agile working practices see “an improvement in utilisation (occupied) on average of 7% based on a 12% reduction in workplaces.”
A new office design can help to identify current office areas which are under or overused so that businesses can make informed decisions on how to redesign office space to optimise layout for better usage. It can also be essential in determining the best office layout to use to help to streamline work flow and to ensure collaboration can take place. Building in flexibility and making spaces adaptable can also improve space utilisation.
Encourage Innovation
A well designed and refurbished office space can create a culture of innovation, creativity, and teamwork by incorporating spaces e.g. meeting rooms and breakout areas which foster a culture of sharing and allow staff from all levels to come together to share their different levels of expertise and experience to brainstorm, innovate, create and problem solve and to discuss and plan how ideas can be implemented.
Enable Collaboration
For many businesses teamwork and collaboration are a vital part of their work processes and enabling staff to come together when needed is a must.
HR Brew say employees want variety as employees changed mindsets from “me space” and “we space” after working remotely during the pandemic.
According to a Siemens white paper “The future office: Putting people at the core” “Office workers across all generations want more collaborative, user-centric work spaces to unleash their full potential. User-centric offices help increase employee productivity because employees are healthier, collaborate more easily, spend their office time effectively on value-add tasks, and feel more accomplished. Apart from productivity increases, user-centric offices can help secure future talent for companies, while non-movers risk losing in the war for talent.”
Where collaboration is key, it’s important to consider how this can be effectively achieved when designing and refurbishing an office space. Think about your business needs, your processes and the space available to you. Consider whether the work that your company does requires staff to be close to one another to collaborate. Essentially your office design should be tailored towards your business, your processes and your staff. In essence, the right office layout will depend on your business needs and goals.
Increase Productivity
An outdated, uninspiring office can leave staff feeling undervalued, unimpressed and weary. On the flip side a well redesigned and refurbished office space can dramatically enhance the workplace, remove distractions that hinder productivity, make staff feel valued and improve staff morale. By refurbishing an office, you can reinvigorate and bring life back to a space.
Research shows that an office design can tackle a number of areas that can lead to poor productivity. These include unsuitable office temperatures, high noise levels, old or out-dated technology, a lack of quiet working areas, poor Wi-Fi, poor lighting and poorly integrated technology. Ensuring these areas are addressed during a refurbishment can significantly improve overall performance.
It’s important that any new office design takes into account staff requirements. Producing a user-centric office design that incorporates staff feedback will ensure that the office will meet staff needs and help them to work more efficiently and effectively leading to a boost in employee morale, satisfaction and health and wellbeing which in turn is likely to increase employee productivity.
Make Long Term Cost Savings
While a new office design and refurbishment comes with an initial investment it can be used to make longer term cost savings. By considering the efficiency of your current office space, updating or upgrading outdated systems, implementing more energy efficient technologies, using high quality durable materials, reducing maintenance needs and optimising space utilisation you can redesign and refurbish to reduce the amount of energy your office uses.
Upgrading to new higher energy efficient systems like lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning can help to make significant energy savings. Today’s air conditioning systems are as much as 50% more energy efficient in terms of heating and cooling.
Smart building controls can be used to monitor, analyse, and manage energy consumption within an office. Energy efficiencies can be identified and usage fine-tuned ensuring that lighting, heating, and ventilation are only used when required e.g. they are turned off out of hours as well as in areas which are unoccupied or not being used. To achieve maximum energy efficiency Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) can be used to make automatic changes based on real-time data.
Choosing durable, high-quality materials for flooring and furniture during the design phase can maximise their longevity and minimise on-going maintenance needs.
A well-designed office space can maximise how space is utilised or identify where a reduction of office space would best suit business needs, thereby maximising efficiency and reducing costs.
Improve Sustainability
Sustainability has long been high on the list for London office refurbishments and continues to be a value driver for businesses. Refurbishing is considered more environmentally friendly than new builds. Redesigning and refurbishing an office provides an ideal opportunity to make the changes required to make your office space more sustainable.
There are a number of areas that can be addressed to minimise your company’s environmental footprint.
As part of the redesign and refurbishment consider the building materials that are being used within your current office and whether any of those materials could be reused or recycled. Enviromate who buy, sell & discover leftover building materials state that 120 million tonnes of construction materials are wasted, 32% of UK landfill is made up of construction materials costing £1.5 billion per year. The amount of CO2 released during manufacture can be reduced by reusing materials, breaking the cycle of materials going to waste. Sustainability can also be improved by using renewable sources for materials and furnishings. Consider using natural materials such as stone and products that have good sustainability credentials such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood in flooring, doors and office furniture. FSC certified wood products demonstrate they have been sustainably sourced and maintained.
When designing layouts utilise natural light in your office layout wherever possible. Using natural light makes an office more energy efficient as it reduces the amount of artificial light required. Wherever artificial light is required use low energy LED lighting systems.
Newer HVACs are far more energy efficient. An efficient HVAC system can instantly improve the energy performance of your office space. Updating your air conditioning units or installing alternative energy sources, such as air source heat pumps or solar panels, can help to improve the eco-credentials of your Kent or London office refurbishment.
Incorporate sustainable and smart technology to help decrease energy consumption including the use of smart sensors which can control and monitor office lighting and ensure heating, ventilation and air conditioning uses the minimum energy to achieve the maximum performance are just some of the areas savings can be made.
Address Health and Wellbeing
According to the UK Health and Safety Executive “stress, depression or anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders accounted for the majority of days lost due to work-related ill health in 2023/24, 16.4 million and 7.8 million respectively. On average, each person suffering took around 15.5 days off work as follows: 6.8 days for injuries, 17.7 days for ill health cases, 21.1 days for stress, depression or anxiety and 14.3 days for musculoskeletal disorders.” The HSE estimated the total costs to UK businesses, of workplace self-reported injuries and ill health in 2022/23 was £21.6 billion.
Research has shown that employers who invest in refurbishment and who provide their staff with a “healthy work environment and mentality” which addresses their health and wellbeing reap the benefits. These benefits include enhanced employee engagement and retention, reduced absenteeism and increased productivity.
To address health and wellbeing, when planning your office redesign and refurbishment, consider using natural light as much as possible. Natural light can significantly impact mood and physical and mental health. Natural light also “helps our bodies produce Vitamin D, helps us to focus, enables us to get more done, and even makes us happier.” Research has also shown that a lack of light can lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as well as “disturbed sleep patterns which in turn can result in persistent low mood, depression, irritability, bipolar disorder, diabetes and stress.”
Colour can play a major part in how we feel. In fact, colour has been shown to have psychological, emotional, and physical effects on mood on a subconscious level. There is a great deal of research and information detailing the “psychology” of colour on improving health and well-being. Some colours can have a calming effect and help you relax; other colours can be stimulating. Having the right colours around you can be an excellent way to reduce stress. It’s therefore important to think about the colour scheme being used in your office and how it might impact mood and stress levels.
Noise has been shown to be a major irritant within the workplace. Remark’s “Noise and Wellbeing at Work 2019” survey of 1,000 UK-based office workers said that noise stopped them from completing work accurately and on time. 44% said that noise negatively impacted their overall wellbeing, and 40% reported that noise at work caused them to be stressed.”
There are a number of ways that an office refurbishment can help to combat noise within an office space including moving meeting rooms, meeting areas, bathrooms, kitchens, and break areas away from other work areas will help cut down on office noise and minimise the impact on quieter office areas. Changing the placement and spacing of workstations can reduce sound from travelling in a direct path. Acoustic screens, partitioning, dividers and panels can also act as noise barriers which can absorb unwanted noise and prevent it from passing through rooms. Suspended or drop ceilings are also effective at absorbing noise. Using carpet on floors, rather than tiles can reduce ‘footfall’ noise as carpets soften and absorb sounds making for a quieter environment. It’s important to bear in mind that when it comes to tackling noise issues ceilings, walls and flooring should to be considered as a whole as mitigating one element is unlikely to work well in isolation.
Office breakout spaces play a vital role in office health and wellbeing. They provide a space which can be used to informal hold meetings, brainstorm or get away from the hustle and bustle of a busy office to take a break and relax. Being able to “switch off” from work and refresh the mind for a few moments is incredibly valuable.
A Harvard Business Review states that staff need to be able to detach psychologically from work. Research shows that “even thinking about work detracts from your ability to recover from it, and the mere presence of your mobile phone distracts you, leaving you unable to detach from “the office”. The review goes onto say that “recovery can only occur when our minds return to pre-stressor levels, we need to facilitate that process by cognitively withdrawing from thoughts of work, essentially giving our minds a break.”
These are just a few of the many benefits an office design and refurbishment can bring. A professional office design company will be able to advise on the office design that will work best for your business.
JBH Refurbishments, Experts In Office Design and Refurbishment
JBH Refurbishments are a cat a and cat b fit out contractor and have over 30+ years experience in Kent and London office design, office refurbishments and fit outs. We can provide the right expertise for your Kent or London office refurbishment. We understand what’s required to carry out an office refurbishment.
From your brief, to putting together a project plan, to developing your office design and layout to delivering your office fit out JBH Refurbishments will provide the right expertise for your project providing peace of mind. You can contact us on 0333 207 0339 or via our contact page or by calling us on 0333 207 0339 today for a free on-site consultation.
