Top Tips for Downsizing Your Office Space

In the modern business world, many jobs can be carried out remotely, which means large office spaces are no longer an absolute necessity for countless organisations. Renting office spaces is expensive, particularly in international business hubs like London, so downsizing your work space often saves money.

While many of us would associate downsizing an office space with a business not doing so well, there are in fact several benefits in choosing to opt for smaller offices. Moving to a smaller work space can help improve employee communication, collaboration and morale, thus creating a happier, more productive workforce.

Once you’ve made the decision to downsize your work space, there are several things you can do to get the most out of it.

Remote working

Provided you operate in an industry in which your employees can reliably work from home, then encouraging remote working and virtual offices will reduce your need for physical office space. This is particularly useful if you are planning on hiring more employees as your business grows, but still want to keep your smaller office.

Moreover, employees will appreciate the opportunity to work from home from time-to-time, allowing for flexibility and better work-life balance, which many will view as a work perk, helping you to attract and retain key staff.

Storage

Renting the best storage space tends to be much less expensive than renting office space, so consider making room for things you do not immediately need by placing them in storage. If it’s just paperwork you need to file away, there are many companies around who offer reasonably priced document storage, which is handy for temporarily storing important documents away from the office.

Meeting room

When downsizing, it is a good idea to think about how often you use your meeting room. Are you a business that only has in-house client meetings every couple of weeks? Do your employees prefer to meet in other areas of the office?

If the answer is yes, then perhaps consider renting a small conference room only when it is actually needed. Additionally, encourage employees to embrace alternative work spaces, such as breakout areas, to hold catch-up meetings or scrum sessions.

Go electronic

By now we’ve all heard of the benefits of using the cloud for data storage and most large companies have embraced it with open arms. However, there are certain industries that tend to cling to the idea of traditional paperwork and physical servers, which often results in the accumulation of large amounts of documentation and wasted space.

If this sounds like your company, then consider hiring an expert to come in and make that transfer to the cloud a reality – as a business, it’s one of the smartest things you can do.

Photo Credits: eOffice