Your office is the hub of your business, and there’s no way around that. It’s going to be filled with people day in and day out, with plenty of equipment to keep them all on task, and a lot of noise to accompany the productivity that the space churns out. And these are all signs of a good and functioning business!
But sometimes, the traffic in your office can get a little heavy, and that’s when health and safety hazards start to come in. After all, you can’t cram too many people into a one-floor block – there are quite a few fire officials out there who’d take issue with it. So let’s think about reworking that space.
Think About Your Footfall
How many people, on average, come in and out of your office day by day? How many of these people stick around for longer than five to ten minutes? How often are you saying ‘excuse me’ to people who weren’t standing around outside your office door just a few moments ago? Well, if the answer to all of these questions is ‘far too often’, it’s time to focus on how your office copes with its regular footfall.
How could you redirect the number of people coming in and out of your working space? Could you close off parts of the office, to make sure people doing crucial work are never disturbed during your most busy hours? What are the times of the day when your output is at an all-time high? It’s these periods you need some calm around, after all.
Get the Clutter Out of the Way
There’s a good chance the clutter in your office is making sure the traffic gets backed up around the space you work in. That means you’ve got to have a good clear out and think about the parts of the office that need a clear way in and out at all times. The main door to the office needs to be able to open and shut easily, and there needs to be a clear emergency exit at all times. But what other parts of the office are equally as important?
You need clear desk areas, to make sure chairs are never rolling over wires and pulling them out, or ripping coats and causing arguments between your employees. You need a clear break room, to make sure litter is always cleared away and no perishable messes are being left underneath a pile of otherwise normal clutter.
You might even want to institute some new clean rules around the office, just to make sure the traffic can get in and out easily. Hire out some storage units if you can’t safely put all the clutter away, and then you’ll have a lot more storage space available to you in case any of that kind of clutter builds up all over again.
The traffic in your office could do with some improvement, so let’s make sure you know how to clear some more space around you.
