While people struggle to find desk space when they get to the office, other team members are having to hold meetings in less-than-suitable spaces, such as corridors or coffee shops. The net effect of all this impacts morale and the quality of work produced under these conditions.

When all this gets too much, simply packing up and moving to a bigger office may seem like the logical next step. However, in these moments, it’s often worth establishing the root cause of the problem.

Is it that the amount of space available isn’t enough, or is it the way the space is being used? We’ll examine this question in today’s blog.

How small is your office, actually?

The number of bodies in an office across a typical week is a good way to determine its capacity, but there are other factors too. Workspaces packed with immovable banks of desks make a space feel crowded and also leave less room for other areas that employees use just as much, such as meeting rooms and shared spaces.

During a week, examine where people congregate, because meeting rooms that are constantly occupied will highlight a different problem from one in which teams have nowhere to have lunch. Days when most of the business is in the office can often reveal that the way the office is being used is, in fact, the main issue.

Another thing to note is how your business has grown since you last moved into your office. An increase in team members and the introduction of hybrid working arrangements can quickly turn what once looked like a sensible floor plan into something completely inadequate.

Future headcount matters, too. Redesigns that fail to consider this don’t resolve the core issue, but simply postpone it.

When an office refurbishment can give you the space you need

Refurbishment is often most suited to businesses who like the building they are in and, in particular, its location, but think the internal layout of the office no longer works for them.

Redesigning an office space can help to address situations where certain areas are too busy, and others are virtually empty for most of the day, all without forcing a workforce to move somewhere new.

Successful office designs aim to accommodate the business operations that are currently under pressure because of the existing layout. So if that means creating more usable meeting rooms or spaces, or giving teams more informal places to work and collaborate, then so be it.

Staying also preserves an established location that may have nearby shops and amenities that teams value being able to visit on their lunch break. It also prevents the many headaches associated with moving an entire team of people, and all because of an outdated layout that, very often, can be remedied.

While it is a potential solution, refurbishment becomes less convincing if committing to it would take up all the remaining space, leaving the business with no room to expand further.

When relocation becomes the more practical option

Relocating the business becomes a more compelling choice, often the only one, when the lack of space is down to the make-up of the building rather than its layout. Redesign can only go as far as redistributing the existing space. It can’t fundamentally alter the floor plans to create new space.

Future growth is often a factor in relocating, too. If significant headcount increases are on the horizon, owners and operations teams need to know whether a current workplace has enough capacity to accommodate new team members. Renovating an office might alleviate the short-term issues associated with increased headcount, but is rarely a long-term solution.

A move can also address more fundamental issues that interior office fit-outs cannot. Being located in a remote area, away from useful transport links and the hustle and bustle of a city centre, can be addressed by moving to a more suitable area.

Despite all this, office fit-outs can still be useful, even after a relocation. While moving to a new space allows a business to pick a place that will complement how they expect to operate, an office fit-out can turn it into a bespoke environment that’s suited to its people and brand.

Compare the whole decision, not just the cost of the works

Choosing whether to refurbish an office or to relocate requires a broader assessment, as simply comparing the costs of each option won’t provide the kind of clear insights such a big decision warrants.

Use workplace data to make the stay-or-go decision

Before choosing a solution to your property dilemma, first build a clear picture of how the existing office environment does, and does not, perform:

• Where does demand for space exceed supply?
• Which areas are underused?
• How will expected recruitment change the requirements?

Bringing in employees at this stage can help reveal problems that floor plans cannot show. They can identify where people struggle to find the right type of setting for meetings or collaborative work.

These findings can become the variables against which each option is tested, helping you decide whether the existing office has the potential to meet those needs through redesign, or whether a new office space needs to be found.

Choose the workplace that gives your business room to work and grow

Feeling short of space in your place of work isn’t, by default, evidence that the business needs to move. It could be that a refresh of your existing environment is needed instead.

Once the requirements are understood, a business can establish whether the existing office can realistically meet them. This can then guide an Office Insight refurbishment or the design and fit-out of a new workplace.

If you’re wondering what the right office could look like for your team, use our Budget Planner to calculate the approximate space and budget required for your new or refurbished workplace.

The post Should You Refurbish Your Existing Office or Relocate? appeared first on Office Insight.

The goal of downsizing is to remove the dead space that a business no longer needs while keeping all the parts that allow people to work efficiently, without losing what makes people come into the office in the first place.

The fact that more than a quarter (28%) of working adults in Great Britain hybrid worked in 2025 has brought the need to downsize further into the spotlight.

In our latest guide, we’ll show how successful downsizing begins by understanding demand and then using a combination of space planning and office refurbishment to save space without sacrificing function.

Think about how much office space you need

Focusing on square footage is a perfectly logical starting point, but not always the best one.

A better approach would be to look at how the workspace is used. A comprehensive review of attendance across a typical month, combined with demand for desks and meeting spaces, helps to distinguish between quiet and busy days.

Working out average occupancy can shine a light on the differences between days. A small office, for instance, may operate well on a Monday but struggle on a Wednesday or Thursday if that’s when employees choose to come in.

These types of workspace reviews that help to reassess age-old office assumptions are backed by the British Council for Offices, which found that post-pandemic office utilisation stabilised at around 66%, a 14% reduction from the 80% benchmark that’s often used.

Of course, this stat does not mean every business can simply remove a third of their office space, but it does mean many businesses should reassess whether the space they require reflects how they operate.

Services such as workplace consultancy can help to turn data points like attendance patterns and employee requirements into a clear brief before money is allocated to a move or refurbishment.

Decide what is still needed in a downsized office

Downsizing is done well when space remains for employees to do their jobs comfortably. An office, no matter the size, still needs to ensure that all key operations can happen without everyone treading on each other’s toes.

Pinpoint the activities that depend most heavily on being in a physical workplace. If most people’s office days are spent collaborating, then removing those areas, while keeping rows of unused desks, is counterintuitive and creates a downsized office that is less useful than before.

Keeping employees involved throughout the process not only keeps them bought into the plan, but also highlights qualitative issues that quantitative data cannot fully express. Spaces that may look unused by employees might actually be empty because they are just unsuitable for the type of work they need to do.

When all of the above is combined, it gives businesses a set of priorities to work through:

• First, protect the parts of the office people rely on.
• Redesign inefficient areas.
• Then, scrutinise spaces that exist just because they’ve always been there.

Reduce desk space without creating problems on peak days

Offering one desk per employee for businesses that operate with a hybrid pattern almost always means a large section of the office is unused for the majority of the week.

Opting for shared or unassigned desks (sometimes referred to as floating desks) allows the same hybrid workforce to operate as before, but from a smaller footprint, with the caveat that the number of desks should reflect attendance and weekly usage.

Putting in place a booking system or rota that informs teams when they need to be in the office can help ensure a shared-desk model runs smoothly, even when certain weekdays are busier than others.

Two ways office refurbishment makes smaller spaces work better

As may already be apparent, reducing an office footprint doesn’t always have to mean relocating. Existing spaces may still be able to support a business’ functions within a reconfigured footprint.

1. Creates environments that help teams work well

Opting to refurb a space creates a secondary opportunity to reconsider meeting rooms that don’t need to be as big as they are or desk layouts that were designed for a working pattern that’s now outdated. With new blueprints in place, furniture and spaces can be chosen around the requirements that matter most, which removes wasted square feet without sacrificing function.

2. Turns single-use spaces into multi-purpose ones

In a tightly packed office, rooms that perform a single function are often empty and consume valuable space. Turning a meeting room into a space that can host meetings but also support collaborative work means it can be used throughout the working day. By having several multi-purpose rooms, floor space isn’t unduly allocated to areas that serve an infrequent purpose.

Focus on areas that offer little value before cutting workspace

As well as the workforce, offices tend to be filled with storage units, furniture, and a range of equipment that occupies floor space without contributing to the daily running of the business. Scrutinise these areas before removing desks and meeting rooms, you might be surprised how much room can be saved.

Further space can be consolidated by digitising paper records if it’s appropriate and reviewing what needs to be on site, or what could be held elsewhere.

This same scrutiny can be applied to rooms or facilities that are not used or that are simply too big. Getting rid of low-value space gives a business a better chance of reducing costs without diminishing the parts of the office employees depend on.

Test your new smaller office against future scenarios

Businesses rarely stay static for a long period, so before a reduction in footprint goes ahead, test the new layout against potential changes in:

• Headcount
• Attendance
• Working patterns

Building adaptability into a new office layout can allow for departments to grow or shrink, or office attendance to change. It’s this adaptability that should form the cornerstone of any downsizing plan.

Finding a workable range as opposed to chasing the smallest possible square footage provides businesses with the necessary short-term cost savings without making another property decision in the near future inevitable.

Reduce costs without compromising

While some businesses may simply have to relocate, others may be able to achieve their efficiency targets by refurbishing or replanning their existing workplace.

A data-led brief for a new workplace gives designers, such as those at Office Insight, a stronger platform to decide where space can be saved.

Head to our Budget Planning tool to estimate your office fit-out costs and space requirements before you start making detailed plans.

The post How can you downsize an office without compromising how people work? appeared first on Office Insight.

What you’ll be doing

Part One: Furniture Coordination (approx. 30%)

This side of the role covers FF&E, furniture, fixtures, acoustics and feature lighting. You’ll get to know our suppliers and reps, keeping costing sheets, discount structures and our sample library up to date and easy to navigate. You’ll track lead times and price rises, flagging anything that could affect a live scheme before it becomes a problem, and support our designers in finding furniture that fits the brief, budget and building.

Quotations rarely stay still for long, so you’ll be creating, adjusting and reissuing them as designs develop, and bringing alternative ranges to the table so we’re never relying on a single supplier. There’s also a commercial side to it: presenting value-engineered options with the saving clearly stated, negotiating at order stage, and looking for opportunities to add value through fabric upgrades or extra pods.

On the delivery side, you’ll coordinate installations with the Project Manager, suppliers and site teams, support snagging at handover, chase remedials, and reconcile supplier invoices against purchase orders. Over time, you’ll build up towards accompanying clients at showrooms, writing up visits and minuting client meetings.

Part Two: Estimating Coordination (approx. 70%)

This is the measurable, chaseable, record-keeping backbone of pre-construction. You’ll assist with quantities and measurements taken from drawings, attend site surveys to record access constraints, and re-measure against every drawing revision as a project develops.

You’ll approach suppliers and subcontractors for rates, issue tender packs with clear return dates, and keep a returns tracker moving, chasing where needed and levelling returns onto a comparison sheet, flagging any exclusions or gaps along the way.

There’s a cost data and compliance element too: maintaining the project costing sheet and preliminaries schedules, version-controlling cost plans against drawing issues, and benchmarking final accounts against original estimates. You’ll complete vetting from our answer library, help assemble tender submissions, and support the onboarding of new subcontractors and suppliers, including chasing up compliance documents and renewals.

What we’re looking for

We’re not expecting you to arrive with years of experience in furniture or estimating, we’ll teach you that. What we are looking for is:

• Someone organised and comfortable chasing people, a lot of the value in this role is in the follow-up.
• Confidence with spreadsheets, and the ability to read and measure from drawings.
• A commercially curious mindset, able to spot where a specification change could save money without losing the design intent.
• Someone presentable and credible in front of clients, both at showrooms and on site.
• Eagerness, initiative, and a willingness to develop and get stuck in.
• A balance of design-mindedness and commercial awareness
• Patience, you may find yourself re-quoting the same job several times as things change, and that’s just part of the process.
• A full driving license and access to a car to attend supplier and client meetings.

The details

• Based at: Insight House, Pacific Road, Altrincham
• Working with: Design, pre-construction and delivery teams
• Level: Trainee,  no prior industry experience required
• Salary: Up to £30k
• Split: Roughly 30% furniture coordination / 70% estimating

What good looks like in this role

We measure success in the small, practical things that keep a project running smoothly: costing sheets and rates never more than a quarter out of date, no client quotation issued against an outdated drawing, subcontractor returns coming in on time and ready for the estimator, and furniture delivered to programme with snags closed within an agreed window.

If that sounds like the kind of role where you could grow, get involved in real projects from day one, and pick up a genuinely broad set of skills across furniture and estimating, we’d love to hear from you.

To apply please send your CV and cover letter to laura.slegg@officeinsight.co.uk

The post We’re Hiring: Furniture & Estimating Coordinator appeared first on Office Insight.