A significant challenge modern businesses are facing is determining office space. The COVID-19 pandemic created turmoil for most companies, and if your business is like many others, you’re probably currently facing some tough decisions when it comes to strategically planning your company’s future.
As you make crucial decisions regarding your employees’ returning to office routines, there are many factors to consider. When weighing options, you’ll undoubtedly want to do what’s best for the continuity and longevity of your company.
Determine Your Current Business Needs
The pandemic created significant disruption and chaos, and businesses were forced to find new ways to forge ahead. Some found better solutions, others not so much. Before making a decision, it’s a good idea to carefully outline your current business requirements to ensure your office decision supports the company’s future needs.
Important considerations include, but are not limited to, how many in-person employees you’ll retain in the next few years, whether your current configuration supports your IT needs, if you rely on foot traffic, and/or ease of accessibility for customers or clients.
Examine Your Opportunities
When thinking about your return-to-work decisions, the best place to start is to examine current opportunities. For most businesses, the choices are as follows:
Stay in Your Current Space
If you already have a great space that remains efficient and financially feasible, you might simply want to keep it. You have the option to make modifications to ensure it meets your needs while continuing to promote productivity.
Relocate to a New Office
You may find your current space no longer meets your needs. For instance, your lease is about to expire, and your rent is a bit higher than you want to pay. Or, your space no longer meets your company’s needs because you’ve added or subtracted employees during the pandemic. In these cases, relocation is possibly your best option.
Fully Transition to Remote Status
Another option is to shift to a permanent remote work structure. Many businesses have been able to continue operations remotely and save on overhead while still maintaining productivity and profitability. As a result, they close their physical offices, employ office decommissioning services, and permanently transition to remote status.
Relocating vs. Staying in the Same Location
After identifying your business requirements, perform a cost analysis for relocating vs. staying in the same location. Your lease may still offer favorable terms and if the decision is to stay put, you can renew it and pursue office renovation services to transform your space. Alternatively, it may make more sense to expand or downsize, making a new office more cost-effective. In this case you will want to have a thorough review of the lease to understand if you will be responsible for any move-out repairs such as patch and paint or final cleaning services.
Benefits of Relocation
Investing in an office relocation offers numerous strategic opportunities. These benefits include:
- Upgrading the aesthetic of your company, enhancing the look of your brand, and injecting new energy.
- Starting fresh by creating an inspiring environment for your teams to work and grow.
- Providing yourself scalability to expand since you aren’t locked into your current space.
- Expanding to reach additional markets while retaining your customer base.
- Improving safety, ventilation, comfort levels, and other important considerations employees think about when deciding whether to work for or stay with a company.
- Experiencing no disruption since renovations can be done prior to the move.
A new office provides the ability to start fresh and position your company to help get you to where you want to be in a few years. Working with a professional office moving services specialist can help ensure the process goes smoothly.
Advantages of Staying in the Same Location
In some cases, it’s not feasible to relocate, but you can still get many of the same benefits of relocating by investing in a refresh of your current space.
- Keeping familiarity and routine for your employees.
- Continuing to showcase your brand in its existing location, growing on existing awareness.
- Enjoying the ability to invest in space planning and design, making what’s old brand new again.
- Reimagining your current space to fit the vision of where you see your company in the next five to 10 years.
- Giving all stakeholders a morale boost by investing in the workspace (e.g., new office furniture installation) without the upheaval associated with full relocations.
Regardless of your decision, there will be costs involved. However, renovation empowers you to transform your office space in stages, removing many cost challenges.
Create the Office Space You Need with Meyer
Know you need a change but aren’t sure which direction is your best option? If you’re ready to start evaluating your options, Meyer can help you from A to Z. Our professionals can perform planning and consultation before, during, and after your move or renovation using the latest tech and efficiency processes to help you prepare. We’ll help you enjoy a seamless transition. To learn more about our broad range of services when returning to office, we invite you to contact us today.
