Moving to new offices was always seen as an excellent way to shake up the workplace and adapt to some unexpected circumstances the company is currently facing. Тhe current state of the business world is dictated mainly by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that forced most companies to start telecommuting and move the portion of the workforce home.
According to a recent survey, as much as 74% of these enterprises plan to keep their workers at home post-COVID-19. This situation will create numerous vacancies in the large offices that are expensive to maintain and even more expensive to rent.
Here, we will take a look at a couple of ways to downsize your offices, make your company leaner, and create a more dynamic work environment.
Move your operations to the cloud
This step is not only preferable but also necessary since a portion of your staff will work remotely, and maintaining any semblance of collaboration will require a Cloud platform. Moving the infrastructure to the Cloud will also give you an opportunity to go paperless. This, in turn, will dramatically cut the space you will need for storage and help you find smaller, more economical office space.
Also, paper lying around the offices is one of the primary sources of clutter. Eliminating paper means building the foundations for a clean, efficient and harmonious office environment. Finally, we should remember that cutting the office material also produces very tangible financial benefits.
Rent storage for supplies that are not frequently used
This may sound like a waste of money, but keep in mind that you already pay for the same space within your offices. The big difference is that the price of square footage is far lower if you rent the dedicated storage area. The examples of this practice can be seen all around the world and are not limited only to the world of business.
If we take Australia as an example of a developed country, we can see that the self-storage market is on a constant rise over the last couple of years. No surprise since this is the most affordable way to store items that are not frequently in use.
Declutter before moving
Once again, the benefits of such a move are numerous. First and foremost, by cutting down the number of items you are going to move, you will save a lot of funds on transport when relocation finally starts. Second, you will perform the whole thing faster and be able to move into a more frugal office space. But, to properly assess the required size of new premises, you will need to perform decluttering beforehand.
The other thing to keep in mind is the way the junk will be disposed of. If we, once again, go to Australia, for example, we will see that professional rubbish removal in Brisbane and other metropolitan areas usually includes recycling services.
Embrace the open-floor concept
Cutting up your premises into small independent offices takes up a lot of space and leaves open vacancies whenever some portion of the workforce needs to switch to telecommuting. That is why we strongly advise that you consider introducing the open-floor concept and shared productivity areas. Keeping your offices open saves a lot of space, allows workers to switch to more comfortable hubs when they feel tired, encourages on-the-go brainstorming, promotes better communication, and if utilized correctly, has a positive impact on productivity.
Use alternative meeting spaces
Although this step is not directly related to office space, it will make your new premises more efficient and dynamic. Every company utilizes some sort of space for meeting the clients, presentations, meetings, and other business-related purposes. Due to their very specific nature, these activities are usually performed in dedicated rooms. Here is the opportunity to be innovative while saving a lot of square footage that can be used differently.
Breaking the traditional conventions (e.g., squared tables for meetings) will allow you to design a space that can serve multiple purposes. Ramping up the leisure can also turn this multipurpose meeting room into a very comfortable resting area.
Wrapping up
These few tips should give you some general idea about the ways you can downsize your offices without losing any productivity, comfort, or efficiency. The ongoing COVID-19 shook up the entire world and forced every one of us to adapt to this so-called “new reality.”
In the world of business, this new reality roughly translates to telecommuting. How successfully you are going to transition to this model and downsize your physical offices may determine the future of your company.
