When we’re faced with a problem, particularly with something as important as your workspace, we often feel a sense of panic that we’ve done something terribly wrong, or that we need to throw away what we have and start again.
Well, worry no more! Often, you don’t need something as drastic as a ground-up rehash; sometimes a Toronto office will just need a quick reconfiguration.
These three problems often need just a little bit of shuffling to set things right.
Some jobs have absolute privacy needs. For example, you wouldn’t want your bookkeeper to have a payroll spreadsheet out in the open. However, beyond the obvious, a worker will often have privacy preferences as well. Some people require ambient noise to keep focused, while others would work in a sound-proof isolation booth if they could.
Privacy is often just a matter of layout. Making sure sensitive screens face a wall and not a window or door is the obvious example But you can also speak with your workers and managers about their personal preferences and cluster the ‘quiet workers’ in an area with less foot traffic and interruptions, while keeping more heavily trafficked areas for collaborative spaces, and areas with ambient noise (such as desks near air conditioning vents) for those who don’t mind a little white noise while they work.
The McDonald Brothers—originators of the McDonald’s restaurant and inventors of the fast food industry—famously spent an entire day with sidewalk chalk on a tennis court to generate the most efficient workflow layout possible, allowing them to fill orders “in 30 seconds, not 30 minutes”.
These principles of efficiency are just as true now as they were in 1948. The proper layout can make any workspace drastically more efficient, regardless of industry.
Strategically place resources where they would be most accessible to those who use them most, and make sure that any workers who need to collaborate or ‘hand-off’ work to one another are stationed as close together as possible.
Nobody wants to work in an ugly, ratty, broken, out-of-place, or worn-down workspace. Often a slowdown in efficiency is simply a subconscious reaction to a problem of morale. Introducing a new look that is better-looking, and more consistent with your brand, can often be more than enough to reinvigorate your more weary workers.
Sometimes this means replacing or upgrading their desk, but often it’s simply a matter of maintenance. A coat of paint or a reupholstery will often make older pieces look better-than-new.
Regardless of which problem your reconfigure is meant to solve, you want to make sure that your Toronto office reconfiguration doesn’t become a problem itself. To make sure that your shift goes smoothly, be sure to trust professional office furniture installers to keep the job as quick, efficient, and non-invasive as possible. Contact us today to get started!