Important Things To Consider When Evaluating Your Team's Workspace Needs

Whether you’re a small business owner or a part of a larger enterprise team, there’s a good chance that you’ve been tasked with evaluating your organization’s workspace needs over the past few years. During this time, many of us have gone from being expected to be in the office full time, to work from home full time and now that we’ve seen both sides, many of us have realized that a combination of the two is likely where we’ve landed.

We’ve forever changed the way we work and how we use the spaces where we do it. If you’re trying to evaluate what your unique workspace looks like for your team in the future and how to plan accordingly, there are more things to consider other than “where?” and “how often?”. Also, the answers to these questions likely vary between team members. Chances are every person’s ideal workspace/workstyle scenario and set up looks a bit different.

The good news, is that flexible and serviced workspaces like Workplace One, offer a “one size fits all” format, so regardless of your team’s needs, there’s a perfect solution for each individual.

There’s really so much to plan and consider when evaluating your team’s workspace, particularly if you are in a transition back to the office like so many and you’ve yet to determine what that looks like. So to help, we’ve put together our top tips on things to consider and how to approach what seems like a difficult task for your team but is actually quite simple when you’ve got workspace partners like us on your side.

1. Do not try and forecast 3-5 years out. Approach your workspace needs in shorter timelines. We suggest around 12 months depending on your organization. The last 3 years especially have taught us all how quickly things can change and that we might be expected to expand, contract or pivot without much notice. We keep our leasing terms to 12-24 months and even month to month for maximum flexibility. Think in bite size chunks rather than the whole pie.
2. Think beyond a traditional desk. A great desk and well-designed ergonomic office chair is a great place to put your head down to get some serious independent work done but not many of your team members would probably prefer to work in that mode all day, nor would they be the happiest or most productive! Also, let’s not forget that a large reason as to why we need workspaces, is to have room for collaboration and different types of tasks so your workspace should contain just as much variety in workstation style. These spaces should also feel more like experiences and be environments that your team look forward to being in! Think soft seating, phone booths, interactive meeting rooms; all of which are spaces that are available to all of our members and at all of our locations.
3. Location, Location, Location. It’s a cliché for a reason. Are there great places to take a client or team members for lunch or after-work drinks nearby? Is your workspace close to transit to make moving around the city and commuting easy for all your team members? The more vibrant and accessible the neighbourhood, the more your team will want to be at the office and be happy about getting there. And let’s not forget to factor in commute times. Perhaps there isn’t a one size fits all location for your team on a day to basis because people live over a larger span of the city or even outside of it, in which case your team members may need access to workspace across the entire Downtown core. We love that our members have that option with our workspaces that span from East to West and Uptown!
4. Don’t do work that you don’t have to. Finding the right location and space is hard enough and then you’re often left to deal with design, contractors, iT infrastructure and the rest of it once you’ve secured your space. Then you have your daily office needs that need to be managed from keeping the copier stocked to ensuring coffee is ordered and brewed. Trust Workplace professionals like our team at Workplace One to do all of this work for you from the early stages of setting up your space to running the daily operations.