Office Layout Mistakes
Planning an office relocation can feel like a high-stakes balancing act, with dozens of conflicting priorities. Many times, an office layout falls prey to common pitfalls that will have a damaging effect on your staff for years to come.
Many companies, even those that have invested significantly in their real estate, struggle to create a high-performance workspace. Maybe you spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on an office redesign, but the improvement in staff results was lacklustre. Perhaps you created what you thought was the perfect layout, but it produced no long-term impact. Sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone. The struggle to create a high-performance office layout is real, but that doesn't mean it’s impossible.
Over the last 16 years, we’ve worked with hundreds of companies across the UK such as Casio, Freightliner, and Alteryx to transform their bland offices into stunning high-performance workspaces. Today, we’ll go through the 5 most common mistakes we see with office layouts, and how to avoid them. By the end, you’ll understand the key office layout pitfalls and how to mitigate them during your office redesign.
1. Overcrowding
Many companies make the mistake of overcrowding their office design – trying too fit too many people into too small a space. This is especially common in areas with high real estate costs such as London. Driven by the desire to keep project costs down, you may be tempted to do this in your office.
However, this would be a mistake. Overcrowding can lead to discomfort, lower productivity, and employee dissatisfaction. A recent survey found that 40% of employees consider lack of space a top stressor in the workplace. Over time, the damage caused by overcrowding would far outweigh any saved project costs.
To resolve this situation, calculate how many staff will be in your space at any time. You can then ensure you have a minimum of 100 sq/ft per person – though this may need to be 150 sq/ft or even more, depending on your layout. It’s also important to work with an office layout expert who can optimise your space utilisation.
2. Neglecting Collaboration
A lot of office designs neglect collaboration space. Even in the post-COVID era, Companies often over-prioritise desk space, especially for teams that are in the office only part-time. Such an office design overlooks the importance of staff working and communicating together effectively in teams.
Without adequate spaces for teamwork, communication and collaboration will suffer. A Steelcase study revealed that workplaces with well-designed collaboration zones see up to a 20% improvement in team engagement. Such a level of engagement, will in turn have a huge impact on productivity and effectiveness.
It’s essential to not only allow enough space for collaboration but to design that space to facilitate effective teamwork. Every company is different, so it’s important that you understand how your staff work together in order to design effective collaboration spaces.
3. Ignoring Acoustics
Poor acoustics is the most common office design complaint we hear about offices. This is often due to the designer focussing on the aesthetic over the auditory. A noisy environment will make it difficult for your people to focus, lowering productivity and wellbeing.
If your office is distracting, your staff will be significantly less productive. Research by the British Council for Offices found that excessive noise reduces focus by up to 66%. It also takes staff 25 minutes to fully refocus after a distraction, which means they could be losing hours each day due to distractions.
You may think acoustic design is only relevant when it comes to specifying materials. However, it needs to be considered right from the layout stage. You need to ensure that your space includes sufficient focus spaces and is not overcrowded to minimise acoustic issues.
4. Not Future-Proofing
Another common mistake we encounter with offices is the failure to allow for future growth. While your current requirements are obviously important, it’s equally important to consider how those needs will change over time.
The average office lease term in the UK is 6.8 years. Over that time, the size of your workforce could change enormously, as well as the way they work. If your office becomes obsolete, you will either have to endure the consequences of overcrowding and low productivity, or refurbish your office – at significant cost.
To avoid this situation, consider your company strategy, and how your office will support that over the next 5 years. You should also design as much flexibility as possible into your space so that you can adapt it easily in the future. To learn more, read How to Future-Proof Your Office Design.
5. Overlooking Natural Light
Another factor that is often not considered until too late in the process is the use of natural light. Especially in large offices, there is often limited natural light. While you can’t increase the natural light available, it’s important to use it as effectively as possible.
Poor lighting can cause eye strain, headaches, and a 10-15% drop in productivity, according to studies from the World Green Building Council. Another study found natural light to be the most popular amenity for staff. Effective use of natural light will also help improve your staff wellbeing.
To make the best use of natural light in your office design, allocate the most used zones of your office (such as collaboration and breakout areas) to areas with window access. Private offices and meeting rooms are a very inefficient use of natural light, as they are only in use 20% of the time. You should also ensure that the artificial lighting within your space is daylight-balanced to replicate the effect of natural light.
6. Lack of Employee Input
Tight timelines or assumptions about staff needs can make it tempting for you not to include staff in your design process. While it’s important not to make the process more lengthy or complex, it’s also important to ensure that your office meets the needs of those who will be using it every day – your staff.
If your staff feel that they are being ignored or that the new design doesn’t meet their needs, they will be much more resistant to the change. Research by Gallup showed that workplaces designed with employee input experience a 25% boost in engagement.
There are many ways you can involve your people in your office design. Online surveys are a very effective way to get a wide variety of perspectives on what works, what doesn’t, and how they use the office. Focus groups can complement this with qualitative insight. This also gives you the ability to root your design on first-party data and insight, rather than generic best practices or assumptions.
Avoiding Office Design Mistakes
A workspace can be a powerful tool to drive culture, collaboration, and productivity, but it requires careful planning and execution to avoid the pitfalls that beset so many projects. It’s not about running the most efficient or cheapest project. It’s about creating a space that will unlock the potential of your people, driving tangible business performance.
By prioritising space, collaboration, privacy, scalability, lighting, and employee feedback in your office layout design process, you’ll create a workspace that drives business success. So, are you ready to transform your office from a necessary expense into a strategic asset?
To take the next step, download your Ultimate Guide to Office Design. Inside, you’ll learn everything you need to know about office design before reaching out to a design – from process to cost to common mistakes. To keep learning about effective office design, read 5 Ways to Unlock Performance With Office Design.
