A Kent or London office refurbishment can be a valuable way of making your office space more efficient and improving office productivity. However planning an office refurbishment is no small thing. Given that an office refurbishment may be the biggest expenditure that any business incurs, it is something that can’t be undertaken lightly. It’s therefore vital that any fit out work undertaken is thoroughly planned and executed. Without proper planning an office refurbishment project is likely to fail.
An Office Refurbishment is Not Just …
However a refurbishment is not just about making changes, redecorating or updating your office or renovating, it’s about fulfilling the potential of the available space while ensuring your new office space meets and exceeds all of your business needs. Understandably when a business is going through an office refurbishment it can be an exciting time. Thinking about a fresh design, a potential new layout and perhaps new furniture can find a business jumping into an office refurbishment project too quickly and without the plans to see it through to its successful completion.
This is why having an office refurbishment project manager is essential to the smooth running and successful implementation of an office refurbishment. It therefore makes sense to find and work with the best company who will be able to assign a dedicated office refurbishment project manager.
The Role of the Office Refurbishment Project Manager
The project manager’s job is to act as the single point of responsibility. They will be involved in the project from inception and tender through to completion and handover and are responsible for ensuring that the project is completed to the highest standards, on time and on budget.
They will guide you through the planning and implementation phases of your fit-out, helping you to avoid the risks of getting it wrong which could prove disastrous, disruptive and could cost both time and money to put right!
The office refurbishment project manager is responsible for the whole of the project from liaising with the client and on-site team who will be carrying out the work to having an in-depth knowledge of the project and its requirements to knowing what can and can’t be done to understanding the “rules” such as health and safety, surveys, insurance etc. to communication and logistics.
Below is a list of some of the many responsibilities of an office refurbishment project manager:
Understanding the Ins and Outs of the Project
It’s vital a project manager has a good grasp of all aspects of the project. By making sure they are on top of the required project information at all times they can ensure a project is fully planned and implemented. This also enables them to tackle any issues before they become major problems thereby keeping the project on track and on time.
Ensuring Standards of Work
All office refurbishment projects are likely to need a variety of different trades including partitioning, flooring and ceiling specialists, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters and decorators. It’s the project manager’s job to ensure they are available when required, turn up on time and work to high standards. When those standards are not met the project manager needs to follow up on any issues and ensure they are corrected.
Complying With the Rules
Clearly when undertaking an office refurbishment it’s important to comply with the law. The office refurbishment project manager must make sure they know what is required by law and make sure that all rules are complied with. This includes knowledge of building regulations and environmental standards, planning permission, health and safety; surveys and insurance etc.:
Planning Permission
Depending on the work that needs to be undertaken for your office refurbishment e.g. if you want to make a major change to your building or you require structural modifications, it’s important to check what restrictions are in place regarding the modifications you can do and whether you require consent. It’s likely that you will need to obtain either planning permission from the council or permission from your landlord. A project manager can provide any advice and apply for permissions when required.
Surveys
Where work is required to remove or move walls, floors or ceilings a project manager will ensure a survey is carried out. This is especially important in older buildings where it’s not uncommon to find asbestos, as well as a variety of structural problems and old wiring. If a survey is not carried out and these types of issues are missed it can lead to significant delays in work being carried out which in turn can mean an increase in the cost of the project.
Healthy and Safety
Throughout any office refurbishment health and safety should be a prime consideration and is vitally important especially if any office refurbishment work is being carried out while the normal day to day office activities are still on-going.
The project manager must consider how work can be carried out safely while maintaining access to office space, break out areas and toilets. Making the decision as to whether some of the work needs to be carried out, out of office hours, if noise and dust cannot be managed and other similar decisions are all part and parcel of the projects managers responsibilities.
Insurance
Before starting an office refurbishment project it’s important to check who has insurance and what it covers. It’s likely that you, your landlord and/or office refurbishment company will have insurance that covers the work. However rather than assume that some or all of this insurance will cover you a project manager will ensure the check the right insurance is in place to cover the work to be carried out.
Minimising Disruption
Another of the project manager’s responsibilities is to minimise any disruptions that the office refurbishment work is likely to cause. Planning what work needs to be done and co-ordinating work will help keep the disruption to a minimum.
Clear Communication
Being a good communicator is clearly critical in all aspects of an office refurbishment. Without clear lines of communication many of the things a project manager needs to do and achieve would be difficult if not impossible.
It’s therefore a given that an office refurbishment project manager must be a good communicator. They need to be able to maintain open lines of communication with all stakeholders throughout the length of the project from being able to communicate the project vision to everyone involved in the project to giving regular updates on progress, to speaking to the team to ensure things are on track or to assist when there are issues in finding a solution, to communicating which areas of the office space will be impacted at what times to minimise disruptions.
Ultimately the project manager is there to make sure that your office refurbishment is running smoothly so that you can continue to focus on the rest of your business.
Professional Project Managers
JBH Refurbishments employs its own team of professional project managers with extensive experience. This way you can be sure that your project will be delivered to exacting specifications, on time and on budget.
We have the creativity and technical expertise to develop inspirational office refurbishments and commercial fit-outs that are destined to impress! For more information contact JBH Refurbishments on 0333 207 0339 or via our contact form.