In this final installment of our series on the office space questions you should ask, we turn to the physical space itself. While some of these questions might seem a bit redundant, the idea is to attempt to combine the real-world information that you have gleaned from talking with your team with a more theoretical view gained from thinking about the space from your perspective as an expert (or from the perspective of the experts you are dealing with). Combining what your field people tell you they want with what an expert would see and recommend will arm you with the best possible strategy as you move into locating and negotiating your new office space.
In case you missed them, here is Part 1 & Part 2.
10. How are you using your space right now? What could you improve? What's perfect? Why?
While you can do a blue sky theoretical analysis of your space, this is also the time to do some metrics-based analysis. How many spaces do you have vacant? What is the efficiency of your office space from a square foot per employee or sales per square foot perspective? How much time is wasted on intra-office travel? And how does the space compare to others in your company? That data can help you to understand what is working and what isn't.
11. What types of spaces do your workforce need, and how have those needs changed over time?
The idea here is to look at the trend line in your company's relationship to its office space. If you are on a trend towards closing off previously overly open offices, is that a continuing trend? Are you going too far? Identifying that trend helps you to better spec out future office space.
12. How do you meet? Does your team meet in formal spaces, informal spaces like break rooms, on the run in hallways, or in a combination of all of them? What frequency and size of meetings are common?
For better or for worse, office time means meeting time. Having the right facilities in your space to accommodate the meetings that you actually have lets you maximize productivity while not wasting space on unneeded or improperly configured meeting spaces. Paying attention to informal meetings can also help you to better design spaces that might otherwise seem wasted.
13. Where do your employees eat? If they eat at work, is it at their desks, in break rooms or in an amenity space like a cafe?
For many companies, playing a more active role in their employee's eating habits has multiple benefits. It can be a desirable perk, it can be a tool to help positively influence employee health and it can be a boost to both productivity and to collaboration. Designing office space that either reflects good habits or that forces workers to change bad ones can be a wise investment.
14. Do you have files to store? How many? And how many need to be on-site?
While this may seem mundane, knowing what your file storage needs are can help you to build out the right amount of space.
15. What does my space need to do for me? Is it a retention tool, a recruiting tool or both?
Finally, we come to the biggest question: what does the space really do? Recruiting and retention spaces aren't always the same -- elaborate lobbies typically don't have the same impact on the twentieth visit as they do on the first. Understanding the difference can have a profound effect on both the spaces you build and the buildings you choose.
Here are a few other office articles to check out:
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