Furniture replacement is one of the rarest yet worst nightmares for office managers. Whether you’re the long-standing custodian of your company, or you’re running a co-working space, replacing worn-out furniture or updating to more modern ones is always a hassle.
Sometimes, it boils down to predicting when you might need to replace or update your office fittings. This way, you can order new office furniture online before a customer gets to comment on old conference tables, or an employee gets hurt because of a chair with faulty wheels.
Here’s how to know it’s time to shop for furniture online:
When your office feels outdated
It’s not the 1980s anymore — you don’t need those beige floorings and straight-cut, uniform desk stations if they aren’t especially helpful. Ditch the drab by shifting to cleaner, symmetrical designs for your larger pieces of office furniture. Purchase pieces in earth tones to give a more therapeutic feel to your office’s appearance.
While office aesthetics might not be a good enough reason to request a budget to replace every piece of furniture, it’s enough reason if you welcome clients regularly. Try to reimagine the workspace every five to ten years to keep things fresh and modern.
When your workers aren’t productive
If your office appearance isn’t enough reason, then maybe your workers’ productivity is.
That extra time to achieve a small task or that extra turn to get to somewhere due to poor office design takes a lot out of your employees’ efficiency. Also, poor office furniture might be taking a toll on their health for a long time. Aching backs or carpal tunnel syndrome can adversely affect output.
Optimize work by investing in more ergonomic office furnishings like a desk with adjustable height or a chair with lumbar support.
When you’re wasting money on repairs
Repairs may seem more cost-effective than replacing worn-out pieces of furniture, but not when you sum up the total costs.
If it’s often broken, just buy a new one. Desks with faulty wheels or squeaking hinges, threadbare upholstery, and shelves that have been warped due to weight are just some examples. Treat office equipment as an investment — the more modern the pieces are, the less likely you’ll have to repair them.
When you need to move out
Moving out or expanding your employee base are both good reasons to give your office a due upgrade.
This also allows you to update your office’s floor plan and furniture layout. Seek help from a space planner to evaluate things, such as allotted workstation spaces, size of meeting rooms, the distance between desks, and others. This might be a good time to survey your long-time employees, too. If you’re accepting new employees, they have to see that they have ample private space to work in.
When you’re shifting to an open office
Open offices are all the craze nowadays because of their potential to drastically increase productivity through collaboration and communication.
But it’s not just about replacing your office cubicles with large work hubs and shifting to office chairs with ottomans. The key is to establish place identity, which is a concept focused on how employees feel about their workspace. How productive or how distracted they get through an open office layout depends on how they react to both the physical and psychological changes in the workplace.
Don’t underestimate the role that office furniture plays in delivering business success. Beyond determining its positive impact on productivity, paying attention to your furniture sends the message you do care about your employees, and that’s what ultimately counts.
