Introduction
It’s always challenging to balance your organization’s needs with your financial realities. But, first, you must figure out what you need, where and how you can get it, and how much it will cost.
Your staff is constantly looking for ways to be more efficient, and those efforts often result in finding new uses for older spaces. Space management is essential for this process. It helps you understand how much space you have, what it costs, who uses it and why.
If you focus on improving the use of your real estate portfolio, then you’re likely to experience significant business benefits, including improved efficiency, productivity and profit.
In addition, a well-managed facility leads to better strategic decisions about when and where alternative space is required before the current environment becomes inefficient. Without which, it may lead to poor service delivery and unhappy employees or customers – not to mention unplanned capital expenditure (CapEx).
The Benefits of Space Management
Reduce Costs
Office space management can reduce your overall costs by reducing the amount of space you have. You can do this by removing unnecessary or unused areas or sharing space with other companies.
Sharing space with other organizations works well for small businesses as you only rent the amount of space you need at any given time. For example, if your company only has two employees working in your office, it doesn’t make sense to lease an entire floor. Especially when you consider that employees aren’t at their desks up to 60% of the time! Furthermore, employees are likely to be at desks even less due to the rise in remote working caused by COVID-19.
Additionally, share a location with another business that does not compete directly with yours but still provides similar services (i.e., law firms sharing an office building). Both companies get lower overhead costs because they’re sharing resources and equipment, facilities maintenance costs, and parking spaces (saving money on construction costs).
Increase Efficiency
Space management is a service that can help your business increase efficiency. So how do you increase efficiency?
- Audit your current floor plan configuration to establish a baseline for improvement. In addition, it may also reveal opportunities for other changes that could make things run more smoothly, such as updated technology or furniture choices.
- Another way is by implementing organizational systems that support efficient workflow processes within each department. Including putting paper files into cloud storage programmes like Sharepoint or Google Drive. Employees then have access at all times, which is essential for hybrid work models!
Reduction In Vacant Space
One of the most significant benefits of space management is reducing the amount of vacant space. Misused space is a waste of money and can be a safety hazard or security risk.
Effective space management involves using space utilization data to track your inventory to determine exactly how much money you are wasting on underperforming space. Utilization data can be in the form of smart building sensor data, building entry data or room booking data.
Improved Staff Productivity & Satisfaction
Space management is a critical element in the productivity of employees. It can help increase your employees’ productivity and improve their performance.
The issue is that many people do not realize how much space management affects their work environment until it is too late. For example, productivity is affected by lighting, temperature, air quality, noise control, facilities’ physical condition, and the size or configuration of space types.
An improved office design will increase staff productivity by making it easier for employees to focus on the tasks and avoid distractions. This will also boost morale and motivation, resulting in further productivity gains and cost savings.
Furthermore, when you have a layout that matches your business’ current needs and plans, you can make better decisions about where to allocate resources. Finally, you’ll stay ahead of competitors by continually improving upon what works best for your organization — whether it’s adding new equipment or updating existing technology. This constant improvement can help ensure long-term success!
Drive Innovation
Space planning and management can help you drive innovation. When you have the right space for your team members and their needs (activity-based working, ABW), it’s easier for them to work together and share ideas. Therefore, they’re more likely to come up with new ways of doing things, which helps your business stay competitive in the long term. In addition, providing the right space types has a number of employee benefits, such as increased job satisfaction.
Driving innovation is a feature of agile working. When done correctly, agile working focuses on changing the traditional company culture of valuing time.
Instead, new ways of working emphasise completing goals. Focusing on goal completion means businesses can create teams based on their skills and knowledge to complete the task. Evidence suggests that teams of differing skills and backgrounds are better problem solvers and decision-makers.
Innovation doesn’t mean you have to adopt the latest working trend; for example, hot-desking and hybrid teams may not apply to your business. However, what it does mean is don’t be afraid to change and adapt to the future of work.
The Benefits Of Facilities Management Are Tangible And Can Be Measured
Facilities management is a tangible and measurable service. You can gauge the performance of your facilities management provider, your facilities management team, your space management tools and processes, and your physical space’s performance!
You can even measure the efficiency of a maintenance request submitted by an employee to have his desk cleaned, or a light bulb replaced. This data helps you determine how well your business is using the space and whether there are areas that need improvement.
Energy Efficiency
Perhaps an undervalued benefit of space management is reducing energy costs. Space management helps you manage your inventory and use spaces more efficiently, reducing the power needed to run your facility.
Furthermore, space management helps reduce your carbon footprint by lowering underutilized and vacant space — which is excellent for the earth!
Conclusion
The benefits of space management are clear and tangible. By implementing effective space management strategies, businesses can right-size their space to match demand whilst lowering the company’s costs.
Furthermore, adequately designed spaces can increase staff productivity by creating the right environment for them to do their best work.
