7 questions to consider when doing office space planning

Whether you’re relocating, expanding, or trying to squeeze more out your existing square footage, office space planning means arranging functions, features, and furniture in a way that helps your team perform at its best.

This goes hand in hand with smart office design, but before you can dive into aesthetics you need a structure you can feel confident about. Here are seven questions that will help you figure out the best steps forward.

1. What’s your main objective?

Your new office space plan is likely being driven by an overarching operational goal. What is it?

For example, you may need to:

• Come up with a plan as part of an office move.
• Make room for a quickly rising headcount.
• Save money with more efficient use of your existing space.
• Shift to a layout that helps energize your team’s culture, creativity, and collaboration.

Also define the underlying objectives — the ones that will help you measure whether you’ve succeeded or not. They’ll give you better clarity when making you’re making decisions and tracking progress.

2. What are you required to have?

Some things are non negotiable, a list shaped by operational requirements, employee needs, and government regulations. It might include:

• Features to make sure your space is accessible
• Fire and safety requirements
• A secure space for data and information storage
• Room for specific functions or equipment
• Private offices for particular positions
• Ancillary spaces, such as bathrooms, meeting rooms, storage, or common areas

You’ll also need an accurate headcount — both for today and a projection for the next few years. There are different ways to configure the layout, but an office space calculator can give you a ballpark estimate of the square footage you’ll need.

3. How will you prioritize wants and needs?

Wants aren’t always requirements, and it’s up to you to draw the line. The truth is that you won’t be able to meet every request — even ones you agree are important.

First, if a request doesn’t clearly fit on the requirements list, measure it against operational goal and space planning objectives.

Second, look for other ways to accommodate requests. You may not be able to deliver what everyone wants, but with creative solutions you might be able to find a compromise that works.

Finally, get input. It’s easier for people to compromise, or accept “No” for an answer, when they’ve been heard and understand the constraints you’re dealing with.

4. How does the layout support day-to-day activity?

Figuring out how people will use space can be complex and hard to anticipate. You’ll need to map out a floor plan that makes it easy to move through the space, while factoring in work relationships and interactions as well as equipment use.

How can you support team dynamics, work flow, and supervisory needs?

There are different ways to maximize productivity through office design. Depending on your company culture, there are also emerging trends that can help. For example:

• Many organizations have shifted — even decreased — their footprint thanks to people who work remotely or telecommute a few days a week.
• Companies increasingly augment project teams with freelancers, who may not need space in the office.
• Workplace dynamics are changing, putting more emphasis on teams than individual players, which makes open and flexible spaces a practical move.

5. What does your workplace culture look and feel like?

People experience your company as much more than its logo and color scheme. When an office helps bring your brand’s tone and values to life, it influences your workplace culture and becomes a daily reminder of what your organization does and what it stands for.

Doing this well means understanding your core values and finding ways to incorporate them into your workplace experience. Every detail helps shape how you work together, interact with visitors, and use your space. Every feature is a new opportunity to share your organization’s story.

That alignment may take a sustained effort, but it makes a potentially significant difference to employees, candidates, and customers alike.

6. Does your vision match your timeline and budget?

When setting your timeline, be as generous as possible; if you’re moving to a new office, for example, you should start at least a year ahead of time.

Consider what you want to achieve and map out key milestones and time estimates. Then look at your actual timeline, plot out the deadlines you need to meet, and see how both timelines match up.

Keeping your overall objectives in mind, every budget has fixed costs and others that can be more flexible. For example, open office and modular plans are typically more budget friendly and flexible if you need to follow a multi-stage plan.

7. How can you improve buy-in?

People don’t always embrace change, something that might be amplified if you’re reconfiguring an existing space: People often develop strong connections to their workspace, its location, and their neighbors.

Your best chance of success is to get them involved along the way.

A working group gives other people ownership and spreads the decision-making around. It also gives people a voice and adds transparency to the process; as mentioned, it can be easier to accept change and compromise when you know what’s happening behind the scenes.

Space planning isn’t easy, and its impact on culture and morale can be significant. You can increase your chance of success — and alleviate some of the stress — with an approach that keeps goals top-of-mind, considers how to prioritize, balances high-level impact with daily life, and actively looks for feedback. Good luck!