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Making the decision to change and upgrade your office space is no doubt a big and overwhelming task. While you want to make sure that you are making the right choices, you also want to ensure that you feel confident in the options you take.
Read on to find 8 questions you can answer to create the perfect brief, so that you can feel certain about the success of your office fit-out.
1) What does success look like?
When investing in such a costly expenditure, it’s important to evaluate what success looks like to ensure that the end result matches what you initially had in mind. Whether your goal is to improve the in-office client experience, or the company’s wellbeing and culture, knowing what success looks like for you from the outset will help us tailor the best office solution. Our skilled team at Officeinsight work tirelessly to ensure that each company we deal with achieves the most successful outcome, both by the company’s standards and requirements, and ours too.
2) Define the why? What is the driving force behind exploring an office-fit out?
Try to consider what it is that you want to gain from the office fit-out. What’s the why? The reason, the challenge or problem we seek to address? Is it employee retention? Improved culture and wellbeing or maybe a combination of them all? Your why is personal and by defining it, this will help our talented team to transfer your goals into a tangible inspiring space.
3) What do you want the space to say?
An office space can say a lot about a business, whether it be the messy desks and cabinets with hordes of files, or the sleek and streamlined space that’s adapting to new working trends in the workplace. The latter option certainly seems better when it comes to the culture of the company, the employee wellbeing and getting the most out of your office space.
Our skilled design team can help your office say what you want, whether it be incorporating your brand identity or core values, or maybe how well you look after your employees and listen to what they want. Our 15 years of experience helps us to add the subtle touches which make all the difference in highlighting your company values in your space. Not only will you feel proud of the space, but it will also impress clients and make working in your company more enjoyable for the entire workforce.
4) What will the effect be on the bottom-line?
The bottom line refers to the bottom line of the income statement, essentially the company’s net income. While going ahead with an office fit-out can have a short-term negative effect on the bottom line, due to ongoing expenses, ultimately it balances out. As your workforce enjoy coming to work, experience less stress and the productivity soars, your company will enjoy seeing an increase in revenue as your business goes from strength to strength.
5) What do you want new recruits to think about the company when they see the space?
This is an important aspect, especially if one of your main drivers is recruitment and retention of talent. There is no doubt that the recruitment process is expensive. Finding new staff and training takes valuable time and resources.
An increasingly popular driver for a new office fit-out is often for the attraction and retention of talent. Therefore, by analysing what and how you want new recruits to think of your company, we can help you turn your ideas into reality – thus boosting the culture of your company, the wellbeing of the staff while getting the greatest return on investment and helping to retain your top talent.
6) What other office spaces inspire you?
It may be as a result of viewing other office space that has made you consider an office fit-out yourself. Either way a good place to start is to research what other spaces there are and what other companies have done. This will help you gain inspiration for your office space and could give ideas for what you want included in your fit-out. Whether it be certain features, such as bespoke joinery or furniture, or simply how we integrated a company’s branding throughout the office, by picking out key elements that you’d like incorporating in the final design all helps in creating the perfect brief.
Click here {https://www.officeinsight.co.uk/projects} to see our other projects and gain some inspiration!
7) What is the stretch budget?
To work out your stretch budget, you need to firstly set a budget on the project and look at how you are planning on financing it. Then by looking at the budget, you can estimate expenses at the target to ensure that all costs are thought out properly for the fit-out. Essentially, a project of this calibre may go over your budget so it’s important that you do have that stretch budget in place. However, it’s also important that you remember that this is a long-term investment, so spending that extra bit of money on the features that you need is important.
8) How am I funding this office fit-out?
There are three main options to finance the fit out. These include:
● Paying from capital funds
● Loaning from the bank
● Leasing the fit out
Companies of all sizes are favouring more flexible methods of financing their fit-outs, such as leasing the fit-out or loaning from the bank. This avoids having to pay the cost in one large sum. Leasing has long been a popular way to finance other high-expense business investments and is continuing to be popular for financing office fit-outs.
In conclusion, there is a lot to consider when it comes to creating your perfect brief to ensure that your office fit-out is what you want it to be. By answering the questions covered here, it will help you get closer to your goals and help us specify your particular needs. Taking this time up front will ensure that we can come up with the most adequate solution that works for you and essentially, maximise your return on investment as productivity will be boosted, improved wellbeing and better morale in the office.
