All businesses strive to achieve the best productivity possible from their staff using all sorts of techniques and incentives and changing the design of your workplace is one way to streamline business operations. To achieve this, using office partitions can often be a simple and effective solution, as many London companies have discovered.
Outdated office layout can often put unnecessary daily obstacles in the way of people going about their business. Firms may fear that making changes to buildings will be prohibitively expensive, so they learn to live with the problems, rather than fixing them. However, it is not always necessary to build or remove permanent walls, since office partitioning can provide a relatively inexpensive alternative.
Thames Contracts has extensive experience of carrying out office design and build projects, including installing partitioning. Here we will look at some of the layout problems which can be addressed through use of office partitions. For London firms, frameless glass walls are the most popular choice overall, because of their inherent style and the way they allow maximum light. However, there are also other types of partition which have advantages in addressing some of these issues.
Lack of Private Space
The 90s fad for open-plan offices brought light and space to many workplaces. But in some cases the trend was taken too far, with managers losing private offices. Anybody working in a building designed in this way will find it a problem that work discussions or meetings with clients have to happen in the main office area. This means other workers are disturbed, affecting concentration, and results in low quality meetings, since it will be hard to discuss confidential issues.
Allocating a small amount of floor space for private meeting rooms and dividing these areas off can relieve the main office area. Creating private space will also improve the quality of meetings held, which can all be more focused and productive in a quiet environment. Switchable glass partitioning, which allows glass to be opaque or clear as required, may be the right choice in this context, giving privacy when needed. An alternative is solid wall partitions, providing both visual privacy and good soundproofing.
Lack of Social Space
Some older office buildings have no informal breakout areas suitable for a quick lunch or coffee. As with overemphasis on open-plan, this tends to be a result of the “space efficiency” of previous office designs. Where there are no breakout areas, this can result in socialising taking place in the main office area, causing disruption to work. Alternatively, it may mean employees are forced out of the building altogether at breaks or lunch times, which may reduce valuable in-house networking.
When carrying out an office refit, a solution to this problem could be to zone off areas for eating and drinking by using soundproof solid partitions. This means staff are able to relax and swap ideas during their breaks without disrupting the work of their colleagues.
Lack of Team or Department Cohesion
A strong team identity is often a boost to productivity, as a close-knit group of colleagues work together and spur one another on. But if everyone is in one large room, there is little physical signal to give a team that sense of cohesion. A solution might be glass partitions which subtly signal where different teams work, while still allowing visual connection with the rest of the workforce. Alternatively, you may wish to consider movable partitions, enabling the office layout to be adapted easily as teams change or grow.
Noise
Noise is often a bugbear for people working in open-plan offices, not just from meetings, but also from the general level of talking, phones ringing and machinery such as copiers and printers. Interruptions from all these sources can affect the ability to concentrate and focus. This can in turn impact on productivity and potentially contribute to high staff turnover. Soundproof office partitions offer a solution. In some areas of the workplace, it may also be a good option to choose double-glazed partitioning, which can incorporate Venetian blinds.
Inflexible Space
For some types of business, requirements within the office space can vary at different stages of a project or times of the year. A design which suits a phase where teams are collaborating over ideas may not be so well suited to intensive client meetings.
If your workspace has to cope with a succession of different demands, you may want to consider sliding wall partitions to enable the space to be transformed between one layout and another quickly and easily. This type of office partitioning could also be a good choice if your business has varying numbers of staff at different times, for instance taking on students for work experience or temporary staff to cater for seasonal demand.
Thames’ Office Partitions Service
Thames has a fine track record for installing office partitions in the London area, and previous clients often return to us, as well as recommending us to others. We will carry out the whole project from start to finish and provide manifestation for glass partitioning, as well as fitting blinds. Thames can install partitioning as a standalone task, or as part of a wider office fitout. A full office space planning exercise would also consider other aspects such as workstation design, storage and lighting.