When Steve Andrews and about 100 fellow employees of the Town of Markham moved into their cubicles in a newly renovated office last November, he knew they would feel the squeeze on their personal work spaces.
In fact, Mr. Andrews planned it that way.
“There's nothing that catches people's attention more than their paycheque and their personal space,” says Mr. Andrews, director of asset management for Markham, Ont., who oversaw the redesign of 20,000 square feet of additional office space the town decided to lease. The goals were to ease crowding at its Civic Centre, and to bring together staff from some of its other offices.
Mr. Andrews had the additional office space redesigned to meet a long list of criteria, not the least of which were space efficiency and cost savings. The workstations in the new space measure 50 square feet, 33 per cent smaller than the 75-square-foot cubicles at the Civic Centre. “Our people were a little skeptical because they didn't want to lose what they had before,” he says.
Cubicle size became less of an issue once people realized how open the overall design is, Mr. Andrews says.
The project reflects the latest thinking in office design: an open floor plan with few private offices, compact workstations with low walls so that there is better air circulation and more natural light for the entire floor, and common areas where comfortable seating and wireless Internet access get people out of their cubicles and collaborating on projects.
“Now that we've moved into the space, they really love the openness,” Mr. Andrews says. “They feel very much that it's a real team environment. They don't miss the perceived privacy aspect and they love that it's so bright and lively in the office because of the light that comes through. It's a real kind of dynamic that's been created.”
Mr. Andrews is typical of managers who are asking office designers to help solve a myriad of challenges, from how to reduce capital and operating costs, to how to create pleasant workplaces that will attract and retain talented staff.
Those challenges are growing for companies that, in a shrinking economy, are paring back and looking for efficiencies within their operations.
“This is a pretty severe economic downturn, and we're going to see people reacting to that,” says Peter Icely, president of the Canadian region of CoreNet Global, an association representing corporate real estate executives and service providers.
“I think they're going to look at everything, including their space and their staff. Certainly, in an economic downturn, companies find they can use spaces more efficiently. It allows you to reduce your real estate costs.”
Organizations are also investing in workplace design to help staff work better and smarter, Mr. Icely adds. “Twenty years ago, they built spaces, and people had to fit into those spaces. Now, we design workspaces around the way people actually work. The workplace becomes an asset to enhance productivity, like a computer.”
Mr. Icely also says that landlords need to ensure any space they have on the market is desirable to potential tenants, and office design can help achieve that goal.
“I think landlords are looking at the space they've got and figuring out how they can make it more efficient and attractive to tenants. And that includes how the space is configured: Are there a lot of private offices in the space that most companies aren't looking for any more … and what kind of technology is in the space to support computers, telephones, telecommunications? Is my building configured to support the modern workplace?”
That modern workplace often means less, but more efficiently designed, square footage.
