What is business growth?
Business growth is an organisation that is expanding in one or more ways typically for the purpose of generating more profit.
When businesses are going through a phase of growth, it is a great opportunity to invest in an office fit-out for many reasons. In this blog, we will be exploring 8 ways an office fit-out is important for business growth.
1. Staff engagement
For most businesses, investment in people equates to a staggering 80% of a company’s yearly investment. With this percentage of investment being so high, the need for an equally high return on investment is key which is where staff engagement comes into play. An article written by HR Cloud states that companies with a highly engaged workforce have 21% higher profitability. An important part of the process with any fit-out project is always the planning and research phase, gathering real data from the people within your company. Asking for feedback and ideas on what it is your people want from your office that they don’t get from it now is an integral part of staff engagement. Although you may not be able to provide all the wish list items from staff, feeling they have been a part of the decision-making process and have been able to influence the design of their office engenders greater staff engagement and loyalty to the business.
2. Productivity
Productivity is a two-dimensional word when it comes to office fit-out. There is the productivity of the space and the productivity of people – both of which are critical to business growth. Number one, the value of productivity to business growth is having an office that gives you the right amount of space and work settings for your requirements. And number two is increasing the productivity of your people by reducing absenteeism or lower output in work. This is all helped by creating the right work settings for the type of work your people do and making it a place people really want to go to, not just go because they must.
3. Space utilisation
With property prices and utility costs on the increase, the last thing a business wants when going through a growth phase is wasting investment on an office space that is underutilised. At Habit Action, one of the biggest focuses in our ABW+ process is to maximise space utilisation and make the space you have work harder. Pre-covid, office utilisation was on average around 70%, but now in a post-covid world, companies are experiencing a decrease to more like 30% office utilisation where people are choosing to work remotely instead of commuting to the office. Our holistic approach to office fit-out evaluates looks at work settings Vs activity before creating space plans to ensure that each square foot of office space is maximised to the full even with less staff in the office space.
4. Brand promotion
During a period of business growth or as a catalyst for business growth, brand promotion is paramount. An office fit-out is more than just creating a better environment for your people, it really makes a statement about your brand and creates a great story for your company. More than just creating content and adding something to the news agenda, an office fit-out is another opportunity to visually promote your brand within the space. See examples of this in these spaces created by Habit Action:
5. Environmental and sustainability
With increasing pressure on businesses to act responsibly and sustainably in relation to the environment, the people they serve, and the communities they support, an office fit-out can help fast-track your company’s sustainability. Having the chance to reassess your business assets and practices through a fit-out, opens up a pool of opportunities to make your office a more sustainable environment. This, in turn, aids business growth as you become a more trusted partner to your clients, suppliers, and staff by taking sustainability seriously.
6. Confidence
An office fit-out can have a bit impact on the confidence your staff, suppliers, and customers have in your business. Seeing that your organisation has the confidence to invest in a fit-out shows to those around you that your business is in a position where investment is sustainable and therefore makes people more confident about doing business with you or indeed working for you. Especially having come through a global pandemic where many businesses reduced their capital expenditure, a fit-out investment engenders confidence and surety that your business is in a position to invest.
7. Wellbeing
Wellbeing: the word we’ve all grown to appreciate and understand the importance of so much more since the impacts of the covid pandemic. On average people spend 40 hours a week working either remotely or in the office. Whether you’re full or part-time in the office, this accounts for a significantly long time in an environment. Much like the benefits of a fit-out on sustainability, an office fit-out gives businesses a chance to review the impact of an office, HR policies and working practices have on wellbeing. Improving staff wellbeing affects business growth by increasing productivity, motivation, and staff engagement and is a great way to promote your brand externally as an organisation that cares and looks after the wellbeing of its people.
8. A space for collaboration
Whilst no office space is ever going to be solely for collaboration, the post-covid office has highlighted the importance and need for spaces to facilitate and encourage better collaboration between colleagues. Whether this is by creating dedicated formal meeting rooms, or breakout spaces that encourage spontaneous collaboration while people make a coffee. With regard to business growth, collaboration is critical. For most people, being in a space where collaboration is encouraged and the environment facilitates it, means that creative ideas and problem-solving solutions can be made more quickly and easily.