Open Plan Or Office Warren? Choosing Your Commercial Space
If you're starting a new company and need to find office space, you will find that most places are divided between those with mostly offices and those with mostly open space. While you can divide open space by installing cubicles, even those are relatively open, and the difference between working in a fully enclosed office and a cubicle/open desk environment can be stark. Take a look at how you really want your employees to work before you make your decision.
How Collaborative Do You Really Need Everyone to Be?
Sometimes you need co-workers to work together a lot, and it's more convenient to have them all at adjacent workstations. If this is the environment you need, desks arranged in an open space may be best because that allows them to have access to their work materials and each other without having to move around cubicle walls. For environments where you don't need that level of togetherness, but you do need easier access than knocking on closed doors, cubicles would work. But note in both of those cases, you'd be starting with a completely open floor plan.
Fully enclosed offices, though, are much better in environments where you need it quiet and you need to have your employees concentrate on their work. It is possible to rent an open space and have offices built, but it's much easier to just find a space that is ready to go with the number of offices you need, and to rent that space.
Office Hierarchy
Sometimes the way the office works requires that certain people be separated from the main group. Think of companies where you might have banks of data entry operators or customer service representatives, and the managers are in their own offices. Spaces where you have the walls ringed with offices and a large central space work best. It's easiest if you find a space where there are at least some offices, even if the space doesn't have the exact number you need, and then have contractors subdivide those offices. There's just less construction involved, and many times the modifications can be temporary, allowing you to further modify the space without trouble.
Introversion
Also look at your employees' personalities and personal working styles. Open office plans are noisy -- even quiet offices can seem noisy if the floor plan is open because everyone can hear phone calls and conversations from other desks. If you have a lot of introverted employees who need relative quiet, try to find a commercial space with as many full offices as you can. These employees are going to need some sort of barrier that keeps out energy-sapping influences from other conversations, rustling food wrappers, and so on.
Talk to commercial real estate managers about the office space rental supply in your area. Chances are there is something that is either perfect for you or almost perfect, and all you'd have to do is have a little work done on the place.
For more information, you will want to contact a company such as Hartman Income REIT.
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