When you lease an office, do not just think in terms of the square feet of space you’ll require. Think in terms of the team who will work there, spend one-half of their lives there. The most important question is whether the office will be the right professional setting for inspiring and productive work that will help your business grow.
This will require not just a measuring tape! It will require a serious analysis of several parameters to determine whether the office measures up to your requirements –and not just in terms of square feet of space.
Here are some points to consider before making that all-important decision on which office to sign up with.
- Company culture
Even if you are just a start-up, you should consider the beliefs your organization stands for and the goals it seeks to achieve. This should be reflected in every aspect of your organization from its management structure to the interior design of the office. For instance, if your focus is on creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, you’ll have a different approach to the way the same space can be designed. As business centres in Kolkata exemplify, just entering an office designed to maximize creativity, can get the creative juices flowing. On the other hand, as we can see from some business centres in Bangalore if you need a more formal and structured set-up, a different office layout comes into play. - Space layout and amenities
Leased offices usually come with their own layout, furniture, and equipment. Do they fit the bill for your specific needs? If the focus in your organizational culture is on equal dissemination of ideas and inputs, make sure the office you choose has a ‘horizontal’ plan – that is, an open plan layout. Business centres in Chennai match this mantra, with large open office spaces where the team can actively work together. The boss is right there working with the team with his sleeves rolled up or her handbag kept on any workstation. He or she is working like “one of the guys” on an equal footing with the rest of the team.
Some organizations (and they don’t necessarily have to be the larger ones) prefer a more traditional set-up, with a greater emphasis on private offices, with roles and responsibilities clearly demarcated. This calls for a focus on a ‘vertical’ plan. Business centres in Fort, Mumbai, with a range of private offices of different capacities, show how this could be the preferred set-up. The design of the office matches the organization’s management structure. - The flexibility of shared offices
As is often the case, organizations may want a bit of both approaches –combining an informal working style with the traditional hierarchical structure. Shared office spaces in Hyderabad offer the flexibility of combining open-plan workstations with private offices. - Centralized identity
There’s an exponential increase in remote working and this is also a consideration when choosing office space. It is important for people working remotely to feel connected to the organization. The design of the office needs to reflect the unity of the entire team even when many of its members are spread in different locations. Shared office space in Hyderabad is designed with extra space allocated for video conferencing and virtual meetings so people can work as a team wherever they may be
The nature of the team (and not just its size) should determine the kind of office and organization selected. Picture your team working in the office before signing the lease.
The people. Their roles. Their connectivity to each other. And their overall adherence to the corporate culture. You need the right setting for your team to work at their best –and enjoy coming to work every morning– and that should be the prime criterion when selecting an office. Business centres like those in Bangalore, Fort, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai and shared office spaces or a coworking space in Kolkata, and Hyderabad, will customize office layout and design to a client’s specific requirements. It’s worth discussing these details with the center manager and making sure the office design is the way you want it, before moving in.