Make your current workspace more efficient with space rationalisation

If you’re considering making changes to your current office design to maximise productivity and/or to adopt new ways of working, space rationalisation can provide the right path to take.

Space rationalisation is the process of looking at your current office space requirements and aligning them with your overall strategy. What works, and what doesn’t? How can things be changed for the better? Is futureproofing and expansion part of your plans? All these questions and more can be answered with space rationalisation.

The bulk of the process involves reviewing how you operate; combining data on the use of space and occupant sentiment to identify inefficiencies in the way your space functions. With this information, plans can be put in place to create practices that would increase efficiency – helping to maximise productivity, creativity and ultimately, profit.

Why should I consider space rationalisation?

It's important to understand that space rationalisation is an ongoing process, not simply a 'build it and it will happen' scenario. It should be considered a core aspect of your operating model going forwards; a platform to use as and when time and trends dictate new ways of working. Therefore, it is vital to constantly monitor the performance of your office to ensure you're seeing the maximum return on productivity, innovation, and investment.

Reasons why you should consider space rationalisation in your office design, include:

Improve your outdated workplace design.
Adopt new ways of working.
Reduce fixed costs and overheads.
Make more efficient use of space you pay for, but don't use.

With the Coronavirus pandemic highlighting the trend of flexible working (and hastening its implementation), it's likely that most businesses will move towards having some degree of flexibility going forwards. Using space rationalisation techniques now will stand you in good stead going forwards – placing you in the perfect position to react to any changes as and when they happen. Such organisation can only help to make the process of change quicker, smoother and more economical.

To streamline the process, we have broken down the main steps of space rationalisation – from concept to carrying out the refurbishment and monitoring of its performance. Here is how a typical space rationalisation process works:

1. Identify your objectives. It's vital to identify exactly what your business needs to succeed. These objectives should be outlined by the way you want your workspace to support them.

2. Data collection. To understand how your existing space works and what inefficiencies there are in the overall office design, you should gather and analyse data that reflects space use.

3. Identifying the inefficiencies. With the collected data, you'll be able to identify any inefficiencies in your workspace. As your business's most valuable asset (second only to your employees), identifying workspace issues will give you the ability to support your preferred operating model, driving business success.

4. Planning the changes. Changing the workspace is an opportunity to introduce culture changes or to shift to new ways of working, so it needs to be planned for. These are things that, if done right, will support your employees; providing them with everything they need, making the workplace somewhere people want to work.

5. Conceptualising the new space. Space plans and designs are a vital part of the whole space rationalisation process. Aside from helping you to understand your new space, the plans can be used as a tool to test out several layouts and scenarios.

6. Design and build. Your office design specialist will use all the gathered information to finalise the design and delivery of the new space. Whether you're refurbishing your existing space, updating certain aspects of it or are moving to a new one entirely, they will work with you to create a programme and timeline that puts your needs at the forefront.

7. Monitoring progress. Once the project is carried out, delivered and opened for use, the KPIs that were outlined in the identifying objectives stage will be monitored to see if their performance is as you envisaged.

Sound good? If you believe that your company will benefit from space rationalisation or would simply like to learn more about the process, please consider getting in touch with the professional office design team here at Oaktree Interiors.

Build a strong workplace for the future, with Oaktree

Our experienced team, with more than 30 years of expertise in the industry, have been at the forefront of workplace design and refurbishment innovation. We are focused on improving employee productivity and workplace wellbeing in all our projects, as well as reflecting the unique identity of the company behind the office.

We tap into the benefits of the latest office trends; creating unique working environments to support any business. Please feel free to visit our case studies section to see our work for yourself; each page contains specific information about the job we did, as well as the technicalities involved.

For more information, our office design experts are on hand to offer all the advice you need. Give them a call on 0345 21 86955 or send an e-mail to hello@oaktreeoffice.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Make Your Current Workspace More Efficient With Space Rationalisation

Why should I consider space rationalisation?

Build a strong workplace for the future, with Oaktree

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