Trends In Office Furniture
The newest thing in office furniture is flexibility. Teams need to be able to work together and to regroup from day to day with a different worker makeup. The best way to do this is with workstations with flexible components that can be changed in a variety of ways to achieve different work environments. It must also be possible for workers to rearrange the office furniture with ease to suit the specific needs of the day.
Generating Ideas
Big in office furniture trends is consolidation. This is all about bringing workers together within a smaller space yet making it work without any sensation of crowding. For some companies that have many office spaces around the country, consolidation takes the form of moving employees from rented spaces in various areas and putting them together in one location. The idea is to enhance the process of generating ideas by easing communication.
Companies are catching on to this idea in a big way and many are now cutting back on rental spaces and bringing the workers together in an owned space. But this necessitates that the company evaluate what type of space their workers need as a work environment. Is the 8x 10 foot workstation ideal, or would the 6x 8-foot station work if the proper type of storage and work surface are provided? Is there a way for the company to downsize? Does the company really need its current number of levels?
Efficient Planning
Saving money in the workplace today depends in large part on the efficient planning and use of space. It's important to build in flexibility so that plans can be modified but this needs to be done without chopping up the office-space overmuch.
One way to get more done in a smaller space is by making use of video-conferencing. This popular trend in communications means that meetings can accommodate many more people than can fit within one space. There's also a feeling among employers, that the video-conference enables the company to save money on real estate, travel, and travel time.
Designing a room for video-conferencing is a costly endeavor, but the investment may yield great returns. There's no need to fly an employee over to headquarters for the day for just one meeting. Part of being flexible is the ease with which all workers can be brought together.
The new telecommunications rooms provide workers with the ability to make sophisticated presentations via video-conferencing. The employee hooks up his laptop and does a desktop presentation on a screen at the front of the room. This has become an attractive option for a great many companies.