When it comes to your office design and layout, there certainly isn’t one single design that will be suitable for every industry. Although companies in the same industry can differ from the way that they set out their office, we often see the biggest office design differences in those that are in completely separate industries.
Whether it’s designed in a way that affects privacy levels or the amount of space offered, we’re looking into three different types of industries to see how design can easily change from company to company.
Digital Marketing / Services Offices
The digital marketing and online service industry is certainly a booming one. With startups rising up in all corners of the country, we’re seeing more and more individuals turn their ideas and lifelong dreams into realities.
Some may work from home and continue to do so for the lifespan of their business, but often we see these companies turn their offices into creative hubs for their employees. Most of the time, the offices we see in this particular sector are open plan, which leaves plenty of opportunities for collaboration and teamwork with desks often being in teams so that the strands of the business are clear.
When it comes to meetings, we see that these types of business usually have two options; One being completely private meeting rooms which are often used for client/professional meetings and the other being comfortable settings such as ‘pods’ that are used for more informal chats.
Social/common areas are highly prevalent in this industry, giving off the vibe that it is ‘the’ place to work because of all of the social bonus’. There has been everything arise from beanbags and Playstations to breakfast bars and nap pods – all to create an employee environment that promotes work/life balance.
Customer Service Offices
Whether it’s a fully-fledged customer-facing company or a smaller department within a business, there are common themes that we see associated with customer service offices.
From huge call centres that can deal with thousands of enquires a day, to a smaller two-person team of a growing business, privacy is always a huge element that must come into consideration with customer service teams.
Customer service is something that must be efficient within any business so, in terms of office design, we often see employees in single-use booths that are set out in straight lines and repeated across the workspace.
By having personal workspaces, although this doesn’t influence conversation between employees, it does influence high performance when dealing with customer service calls.
Retail Offices
The retail industry has been a changing one over the past several decades. What once used to be quite private teams that were segregated from everyone else, we’re now seeing a shift to more collaborative and open spaces, fairly similar to that of the online services sector.
We’ve seen the retail sector implement free-flowing offices where employees can essentially ‘hot desk’ to suit their day or purpose of work. Having an office design like this is fantastic in encouraging new innovations within the business as it encourages the employees to interact more often than they would have in a traditional environment.
Although they keep the traditional elements of meeting rooms with long desks, they also have private rooms where groups can go to discuss potential future ideas, without having the noise of the open office.
There are several things that must be considered when designing your office and a factor to look at is the type of industry you are in and what your business needs are. Do you need ultimate privacy for your employees? Or do you want to give them the opportunity to collaborate? Whatever your needs, we can work with you to create an office design to heighten productivity, see our full services for more information.
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