You’ll often hear people chatting about office design and why it’s important to have a workplace that fosters happiness and productivity in your people. From these discussions, very often the term ‘workplace consultancy’ is mentioned, so we held a Q&A session with Andrew Hobson from Blueprint Interiors to help de-mystify some of the terminology.
WHAT IS WORKPLACE CONSULTANCY?
Because to design and build an office space that’ll help your organisation to fulfil its potential, you need to do the thinking first.
As with most terms relating to particular industries, workplace consultancy doesn’t mean much to anyone who doesn’t work in it.
A well-designed office should be a tangible narrative of a company’s goals, culture, branding, community, and the ways in which that company meets its employees’ needs and caters to their work ethics. However, it can be tricky to look at your business objectively to decide how to achieve this, so this is where a workplace consultancy comes in.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN IN PRACTICE?
It means beginning each project by reaching a full understanding of your company. This means looking at your activities, brand and culture before creating the perfect design for your space.
For the Blueprint Interiors team, this involves discovery workshops where we get to understand the ‘ins and outs’ of our clients’ businesses, their teams and how everything works together.
The information uncovered at this stage gives the basis for turning your business home into a beautifully-designed space that supports your organisation, impresses visitors and is somewhere your people love to work.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN WORKPLACE CONSULTANCY BENEFITS?
We’ve already touched on how it can help you create an optimised workspace that promotes wellbeing and happiness, but there are many other benefits.
CREATING A COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY
Collaboration fuels innovation — you can’t create good ideas without it. So, by considering every element of your business and how the pieces fit together, you can create a physical environment that supports and enhances this. We completely agree that collaboration can be the root of the best business innovations, and more importantly, it makes work an enjoyable place to be!
ATTRACTING AND RETAINING STAFF
Creating an inspiring design can enhance the experience of being in an office. If the experience your workplace provides is a positive one, it’s a massive plus for your people. It’s just one factor in attracting and retaining great staff, but it’s a pretty important one.
LIVING YOUR BRAND VALUES
There’s nothing more motivating than working in a business where every person lives and breathes their values on a daily basis. When you have a workplace designed to complement and enhance this, your staff and visitors will be able to see and feel what your organisation stands for from the very minute they walk through the door.
PROVIDING A SPACE THAT WORKS FOR EVERYONE
People are different, it’s a fact of life. So, understanding how to cater to a range of work preferences and behaviours in your space is essential. Giving staff more power to choose how they prefer to work throughout their day can be motivating, but it’s important that your company culture supports this too.
IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR CURRENT SPACE
Simple changes can have a huge impact on your working environment. Common problems that can be resolved through workplace consultancy include making better use of existing space, improving lighting and reducing noise. All issues that you may not have realised were affecting your people’s enjoyment at work.
BUILDING THE PERFECT WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Not only can you create a space that’ll perform now, but when you consider the future your space can be primed for a growing team too. If you’re moving into an empty space you can turn a blank canvas into a workplace built to suit your company and its unique needs and objectives.
LOOKING TO TRANSFORM YOUR WORKPLACE?
Andrew is always happy to have a no-obligation chat about what you’re looking to achieve with your own workplace. Email andrew@blueprintinteriors.com
