As businesses continue to keep opening up after the pandemic lockdowns, there are a growing number of businesses looking at upscaling to find a new office. This is either to get a bigger office to allow more space for social distancing, or to open a second office to enable more separation between departments to reduce the risk of infections moving forward.

Whilst this might seems like an expense, it could in fact save time and money in terms of maintaining productivity through what is the ongoing concern of future outbreaks.  It will also boost much-needed morale by enabling more people to safely return to an office environment.  According to a survey by the Evening Standard, 80% of people said that they missed interacting with colleagues the most.  Getting your employees together again, whether it’s in a different office or divided between two offices, is going to make for a happier workplace.

Changing your office, or creating a secondary office?

If your office space isn’t meeting your needs, your options are changing your office location completely to open a new space designed to meet your needs, whether that’s more space for social distancing or a new layout for more hybrid or collaborative working, or creating a secondary office for different areas of your business to spread the risk and create more space.

Changing your office location

If you change your office location to a completely new one, you have the advantage of starting completely afresh, and in addition, you do get everyone in one place.  This might be essential if you have a business where all departments work in close contact on a regular basis.

The disadvantage is that it does mean a certain amount of disruption in terms of needed to move the whole business.  This can be reduced by doing a staggered move, making sure it’s at a location with good transport links and free parking, and ensuring there will be no hidden costs.

Opening a secondary location

This is a good solution if you have distinct departments within your business where they don’t need to be in one place.  It means that you need an additional smaller space instead of having to create a whole new space, and it means there are less people in one location, reducing risks of a company-wide infection risk.

This wouldn’t necessarily be a solution for smaller businesses where multiple locations wouldn’t be financially viable, or where there’s a lot of meetings needed and this would be more time spent travelling between locations than is practical.

Upscaling your business premises

If you’re looking at increasing the size of your workspace, get in touch with Tannery Studios, where there are a range of serviced office spaces available to rent with flexible contracts and no hidden costs.  Take the virtual tour.