The entrepreneurial world’s evolutionary pace has been accelerated to an exceptionally rapid rate during the COVID19 pandemic. Despite the uncertainty that most businesses are facing, the human capacity for progress and resilience of character has allowed us to overcome obstacles in a remarkable way.
Great commercial design is centred around accommodating clients, facilitating optimal workflow, and epitomising the company’s brand to communicate a sense of the company’s culture and ethos. The fundamentals of corporate design, though influenced by regulations, have not changed. Now more than ever, the call for businesses to focus on their employee’s wellness and productivity must be brought to the fore.
Here are the top seven elements to examine in your commercial space:
1. Analyse your daily operation, industry, and company culture to clarify your company’s mission and vision. Determining if staff working remotely is in line with your company’s core beliefs is important because values, such as inclusion and collaboration, are trickier to navigate in a remote working environment.
2. Start small. Cutting down on existing furniture, shuffling waiting areas and canteen areas around, modifying modular desks and introducing regulations like plastic screens will ensure compliance with limited spend.
3. Be creative with your design. Compliance does not have to be tedious. Ribbed, or coloured Perspex screens make for a unique and retro design feature in an office and popping a beautiful rental plant between desks on the left and right of individuals is a softer way to ensure social distancing.
4. Keep an eye out for a flexible landlord. Although, many have offered rental holidays or reductions to preserve their relationships with their tenant, if your landlord is not lenient, look for alternatives. Many landlords are offering flexible short-term leases of between 3- 6 months to offer companies a grace period to recuperate.
5. Co-working offices are not as treacherous as you may think. Many are designed to accommodate private offices which could offer short term relief to your team. Co-working spaces are especially handy because of the facilities they offer that we may not have at home. These include being professionally cleaned regularly, having access to high speed uncapped WIFI, conference areas for teams and being quiet for focused work.
6. Formally assess your health and safety protocols. A safety officer can compare your company’s perception of health and safety with the reality and find invaluable discrepancies to give you a good idea of where to start modifying your space.
7. Redesign your team’s office with your teams’ input. Your space can be effectively and economically redesigned by getting your teams opinions of its current and future purpose. Collaborating with your colleagues, design consultants, and landlords will ensure compliance and efficiency for your team that is sustainable for years to come.
Successful businesses during the COVID19 pandemic have shown how valuable the ability to read the industry climate and how effective making micro-adjustments can be. Fresh, sustainable, and productive spaces provide a sense of reenergisation and safety for you, your team, and your customers. Finding a space that balances people’s health, financial sustainability and beautiful design should not be underestimated in its power to help us settle into the “new normal”.