Refurbishing your Office Premises doesn’t have to cause huge disruption to your business + team… especially in an era where so many of us have experienced working from home.
Not keen on having everyone “camping out” in a meeting room?
What are the options?
Here are the most common ways I’ve seen, or helped, clients manage this process.
A temporary relocation
Years ago, when I worked on much larger projects in Auckland, it was common for businesses to relocate all their staff into temporary premises for 3 months or so, while their normal premises were refurbished. This often mean relocating (or leasing) workstations, and having all their IT (often including large servers) relocated to the temporary premises, and then back again once the refurb was complete. Also taking into consideration a much more paper heavy era… this was often a logistical nightmare.
Nowadays this process is a lot easier with evolving technology, cloud storage, and a move to a more paperless office. For some businesses, some or most staff are able to just work from home for the duration of the refurbishment.
But for those that can’t, or when businesses still need a physical presence within proximity; a popular option now is to move into co-working or shared space for a flexible period. Many of these spaces are set up for teams, with easily accessible copy/print facilities and meeting spaces. So even if some of the team are working from home, the meeting facilities are still available when necessary.
Staged Works
A more popular option when businesses have a lot of visitors, is to stage works to keep operations running in the same place. We’ve done this multiple times…
With Colliers Tauranga, the guys did camp out in the front meeting rooms while the builders demo’d and opened up the rear office space. Once their new work area was finished they were able to settle into their new workstations, and directed any visitors up the rear access stair while the front of house got its makeover. Plastic sheets were hung to divide the space and keep dust out of the working areas. And while there was some noise, there were open lines of communication between the builders + the team so that it didn’t disrupt them too much.
Having two points of entry did make this a lot easier, but we have also done staged works with only one entry. With First Mortgage Trust, the works were staged so that the upstairs area was refurbished with some of the team working from a co-working space down the road, and others from home. Then when it came time to rennovate downstairs where the main reception was, because they had so many visitors, we had some temporary cabins placed in the front carpark to serve as the reception + a meeting room; while the builders worked on these spaces inside. Plywood hoarding was used to separate the building works from the main entry so staff could still come in and access their new workspace upstairs.
Extending the Christmas Office Closure Period
For some businesses who typically close for a good 3 weeks over the Christmas and New Year holidays, this is the best time for them to carry out refurb work. We have done this for both Ingham Mora and Eastpack.
The issue with this though is that I’m seeing less building or fit-out companies who are willing to work over this period; mostly because (especially since Covid) they are so much busier, burnout is so much more prevalent, and they just need (and deserve!) the break.
And if you’ve read some of my other posts, you’ll know that a typical fit-out will take 6 weeks once you take into consideration the overlapping of all the different trades. So that’s a pretty long time to stay closed; but with both of these businesses, they had some staff who extended their leave for the duration of the school holidays, and others who worked remotely or in other areas that weren’t being renovated. For Ingham Mora, they only refurbished the front of house reception and meeting spaces, so staff could still work in the office space out back. And for Eastpack, they have multiple buildings + sites, so staff could work from other team’s spaces.
At the end of the day, like anything, there is no best practice solution.
Every business will have different functions + operations that need to be considered. And often times it’s actually a mix of the above.
But with a clear plan, and good communication between all parties (including clients!) an office refurbishment can be done with minimal disruption!
Are you planning an office refurbishment sometime soon?
Let me know in the comments… What are your main concerns or hesitations?