Tag Archives: contemporary office furniture

Your Office Remodeling Checklist

Modern Office Furniture Systems, , ,

The time has finally come for that major office remodel you’ve been considering for ages. As the time comes to get down to the actual work of redesigning your workspace, you may find yourself a little daunted by the process that’s ahead of you. Where do you start? In what order should everything be done? What do I do with my old furniture? Here is our handy office remodeling procedure checklist to help you organize everything into manageable steps and get the job done as quickly and efficiently possible:

  • Establish your office remodeling objectives and make sure the entire team is clear and agreed on them.

Why are you remodeling? Chances are it’s about more than just wanting a change. Do you need more space? Do you want to harness new office designs to make your team more comfortable and efficient? Are you unhappy with your current available meeting space? Does your office space reflect poorly on your company and your company culture? It could be one or all of these and more. Whatever is motivating you to get into this undertaking, get clear on it and communicate it clearly to your employees, as well as your office designer/ renovators. This clarity will really help you to make all the necessary decisions going forward. It will also ensure that you have your team’s buy-in and that you are creating a space that furthers your business and personal objectives.

  • What Do You Need? 

With your objectives in mind, it’s time to devise a strategy to carry out the remodel, while also making a complete list of everything you will need in the process. Building on your overall goals, you can set measurable strategies that can break everything up into more easily accomplished steps. If it’s more space you need, decide how you can best rearrange or refurnish your area to maximize the available room. What needs to move where? What furniture can stay and what needs to go? What arrangements need to be made for the removal of the old furniture? What new furniture do you actually need, and in what quantities? Can you manage the remodel on your own or will you need the services of a professional office designer?

  • Get Input from Employees

Nobody understands the needs of your office space better than those who occupy it and work in it every day. Your staff probably have very strong ideas about what would make their working experience better and more efficient but they may not voice their opinions because they don’t feel it’s their place to do so or they may think their opinions are not needed. Open up the discussion to them. Not everyone will have something useful to say, but those who do may be able to offer some valuable ideas.

  • Budget 

Now match your objectives and strategies to your available resources. Speak to the finance department and get a detailed and specific budget for the project. You may have to prioritize some aspects over others: perhaps a new conference room is more important than a revamp of the open-plan working area. Then again, your office designers could work with your budget to help you do both – or create a cutting-edge, ultra-modern space that combines both into a single space. Don’t let your budget be a hindrance; rather let it work in tandem with your tastes and requirements to build the best possible space with the money you have to hand.

  • Find Your Team

You could buy the furniture you need and carry out the remodel yourself but you surely have all kinds of other priorities in your business. That is why a true office design partner who actively manages all elements of your build is so important. Bring in some experts who partner with your team but dedicate themselves to the job while you get on with your actual billable work. For the most painless, professional office build-out you should consider a team like BE furniture who will handle all aspects from culture and brand discussions, to color and furniture selection, layout and design of all spaces, supervision of construction and scheduling, and finally removal and disposition of your old furniture, even office cleaning. 

  • Coordinate your team and space for the remodel

Once all the decisions have been made, you’ve devised your strategies, you have a redesign team in place and the furniture has been ordered, you now need to coordinate the process to ensure that the remodel happens as efficiently as possible with minimum effect on your productivity. Work out a plan that divides the project into logically sequenced, bite-sized chunks. You can minimize downtime by working on a department-by-department or room-by-room plan, and always having a temporary workspace that your staff can go to while their primary spaces are being worked on. Your project coordinator will work in line with your priorities and procedures to ensure the smoothest possible transition. 

Unlike most office furniture distributors, BE is a full-service office design firm. With a highly experienced staff of both creative professionals and project management professionals, we can design and coordinate your office remodeling project and oversee it through to completion. Whether your project is large or small, you will be glad you put BE furniture on the shortlist of modern office design consultants and distributors to contact.

Please contact our Office Buildout Consultants today!

Co-Creation – The Future of Collaborative Working Spaces

Collaborate Furniture, ,

For a while now, there has been a big shift from segregated, cubicle type offices to open-plan, collaborative work spaces. This change has shown positive results, often leading to improved workplace culture, improved teamwork and, in many cases, increased productivity as a result of a free-flow of ideas and the increased likelihood of communicating better and more frequently with one’s co-workers.   

However, most open-plan office set-ups and modern office design principles are still based on old ideas of sorting staff into departmental boxes, keeping certain departments within a business together, and separating ‘unrelated’ departments away from one another. The persistence of this method prevents a true culture of co-creation, which we believe will be the future of work and office design. 

What Is Co-creation and Why Is it So Important?  

Co-creation is a way in which to foster unity within an organization. It is a way of bringing each and every employee onto ‘the same page’ when it comes to your vision, mission, and goals. It is a way in which to work together to generate ideas and solutions that benefit the company as a whole, rather than only taking certain departments into consideration. Essentially, it is about transforming your business into a living, breathing entity that thinks and acts as one, rather than a loose collective of individuals on their own mission. It is about bringing your employees together and fostering the same passion for success within each and every one of them and encouraging everybody to work in the same direction.   

How can you create a workspace that fosters co-creation? 

The first step in putting together a collaborative workspace is to throw out any of your existing preconceptions about what an office should look like. The old approach, with its partitions, compartments and wall-facing desks, is a thing of the past. Ultimately, in order to ensure co-creation, you will need the right collaborative furniture to assist you in building the perfect office set-up, along with an innovative layout design that will break through barriers and draw your staff together. In order to do so, you could use the skills of professional office designers – and constructive input from your employees would help too.

 Once the old furniture has been removed, the new, modernized version of your workspace will include a variety of open, welcoming spaces that encourage colleagues to face each other and interact. Where there were once tiny, pigeonhole-like workstations, separated by partitions that prevented workers even seeing each other – although they were sitting only a few feet apart – you could now have circles of comfortable seating, informally arranged, facilitating both discussion and productivity. Single desks give way to shared work tables on which colleagues can easily involve themselves in one another’s tasks, but also work on their own when necessary. The overall feel is one that your team will find more inviting and be happy spending their time in for several hours a day. In turn, happier, collaborative, more creatively stimulated staff will lead to better business results too. 

BE Furniture Can help you Design for Co-Creation

We can offer all the necessary furniture, as well the design know-how, to help you turn your office into a modern co-creation site. For information about collaborative furniture, contemporary office furniture, and co-creation workplaces in general, do not hesitate to get in touch with us at BE Furniture today!

Open Ceilings Vs. Drop Ceilings in the Workplace

Commercial Office Interiors,

Open ceilings have become increasingly popular in office design over the past decade or so. The taste for deconstructed, industrial spaces doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and open ceilings are an integral part of that aesthetic. However, before you decide on an open ceiling look for your office, you should consider its pros and cons versus those of drop ceilings. Take a look at these points as you weigh your options:

  • Cost

The general perception is that open ceilings must be cheaper, since they eliminate the need for any additional materials such as ceiling boards and joists, and the labor required to install them. This is only partially true. While it may be true that the initial cost of an open ceiling is somewhat cheaper – about 25 % – you may often find that, once you strip away the old ceiling boards or tiles, there is far more work and hidden problems underneath than you initially anticipated. One of the main features of open ceilings is the exposed ducts and wiring. If you are working with an existing building that has not been built with open ceilings in mind, you may very well find that the pipes and wiring are an absolute eyesore. You will then need to fix, replace and dress them up, doing a lot of work and construction to make your ceiling look casually deconstructed. That will cost more time and money.

  • Aesthetics

As mentioned above, the deconstructed look of an open ceiling is not always as simple as it appears. That ‘deconstructed’ look needs to be ‘constructed’. With a closed ceiling, at least you know what you’re getting: a neat grid of tiles which may look cold and clinical but, at least, they are presentable. 

If you are willing to take on the cost of open ceilings, then you need to consider whether it will really suit the culture and purpose of your business. You may find that a tidy drop ceiling suits you better. Don’t just follow the trends, go with what works for you.

Think carefully about the image you want to present to your external stakeholders too, especially in reception areas and meeting rooms. When planning a conference room with open ceilings, for example, consider your furniture options, and what would work best in that communal, often public-facing space.  

  • Sound

The tiles used in suspended ceilings are designed to absorb ambient sound and keep noise levels down in your office space. With an open ceiling, you lose that acoustic protection. Ambient noise comes through easily, which means that people then have to raise their voices to be heard. This could disrupt your work. It’s a problem that you can get around with adequate planning and a good structural designer. But, you need to take the higher costs into account.

We have all the great new office design ideas you need. Contact us for help in designing a beautiful and cost-effective office space.

Office Redesigns and How They Can Increase Staff Loyalty and Attract New Hires

Contemporary Office Design,

What would you think are the main factors that decide whether an employee stays at a particular job or leaves it? The obvious ones are work enjoyment and satisfaction, remuneration, and relationships with bosses and colleagues. However, there is another very important, though often unconscious factor – the work environment itself. Neither employers nor employees give it enough thought, but a worker’s level of satisfaction with his/her working environment has a powerful influence over whether he or she will stay or leave. It also affects the attractiveness of the company to prospective employees.

We are often so accustomed to thinking of our offices as purely functional spaces. We just have to go in, do our day’s work and then leave. This is hardly an attitude that is conducive to good work, however, and a drab or uncomfortable environment is not only going to make workers do the bare minimum, it will also encourage them to jump ship as soon as a nicer space becomes available.

What is more depressing than coming to a desk every day that faces a gray wall, is equipped with an uncomfortable chair that has your back throbbing by the end of the day, and keeps you isolated from your co-workers?

This is why any employer wanting to increase staff retention or attract good quality new recruits should consider refurbishing their offices. Not only would you benefit from creating a lighter, brighter, more collaborative space, but you would also do well to install new work stations that are ergonomically enhanced and built for comfort and safety.

We have all the great new office design ideas you need. Contact us for help in making your office a more pleasant and attractive space.

These Sustainable Design Features Improve Health, Productivity, and User Experience

Contemporary Office Design,

 Until about the last two decades, employers were not aware of how their businesses’ working environments affected workers’ health, comfort, productivity, and diligence. It’s now well-known that both office health and safety, as well as the overall attractiveness of the working area, are key factors in employee satisfaction and output. As an employer or a building owner, you may be wondering how you can create an office that is optimum for health, productivity and user experience. Here, gathered from our expert office designers are the main features you need to consider.

  • Natural Light and Views 

There are few things more likely to depress and demotivate office workers than an office environment that is lit only by artificial light sources and that has no windows or that has only limited views. It often doesn’t matter what the view is: nature is best, but even a cityscape or a carefully nurtured garden would be enough to keep people happy. Windows and skylights should be strategically positioned to allow the most natural light for as many hours in a day as possible. The arrangement of workstations must be planned accordingly too.

  • Good Quality and Quantity of Air

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is possibly the most important factor in the creation of a decent office space. Many offices are completely shut off from exterior air, except through air conditioning systems, which may carry high concentrations of dust, dirt, microbes, and other contaminants. New approaches to office design are changing that. The trend now is to increase the ventilation of exterior air. In addition to this, you should fill your office space with furniture and appliances created with materials that minimize toxic ingredients and off-gassing. Select your furniture, carpets, and mats with care, making sure that you use only high-quality non-toxic materials. The same goes for cleaning materials. At BE Furniture, we can put together the perfect, health-sustaining office space that completely excludes unhealthy elements.

  • Temperature Control 

An office space that veers between temperature extremes, or is consistently too hot or too cold, can have a disastrous effect on employee motivation and productivity. Make sure that you have a temperature control system that maintains a constant, comfortable temperature that can be adjusted with the change in seasons.

  • Opt for Collaborative Furniture 

The days of formal rows of box-shaped cubicles, which once made up the stereotypical view of office spaces, are gone. Employers are increasingly choosing to create collaborative workspaces that remove the air of formality, keep employees more relaxed and open to their colleagues and generally make them feel like they are working in a pleasant space for an appreciative company. This invariably results in a better flow of ideas and better output.

Contact us to discuss your office and how we can make it even better.

Lessons We Can Learn from Top-Performing Workplaces

Collaborate Furniture,

Leesman measures employee experience via the Leesman Index – a global business intelligence tool that captures employee feedback on how effectively the workplace supports their work. Last year, the company independently assessed the workplace experience of over 150.000 employees across 971 workplaces worldwide.

The results of the survey showed that many employers routinely overlook huge opportunities to improve their employees’ work experience. The toll that this can take on the health, well-being, and efficiency is greatly underestimated.

According to Leesman, the strategies behind the world’s best workplaces differ among clients, regions, and employee functions, but there are similarities in what these organizations are doing and how they approach the balancing act of ‘work’ not only being a thing you do, but also a place you actually want to be.

The average space a person has at their workplace is 13.2 m2, with the densest office environments giving workers only 5.1 m2 space per person. With businesses trying to squeeze as much space as possible out of their office design, many resort to open plan offices. Of the workplaces that Leesman surveyed, only 2% featured private offices.

Offices that boast green credentials generated an upswing in employee pride. These results highlight the growing belief that today’s workforce wants to work for companies who are eco-conscious, are serious about their ethical responsibilities, and want to make a difference.

Many of the workplaces that scored highly feature working areas that accommodate all sorts of tasks, but their results also suggest that greater variety comes at the expense of personalization. To help employees personalize their spaces, consider collaborative furniture where people can work together, as well as a cubicle system where they can have their own space.

Interested in contemporary office furniture? Then contact BE Furniture today at https://www.befurniture.com/.