The Pros and Cons of an Office Relocation
Office relocation comes with both significant benefits and challenging disruptions.
Businesses that include employees in the office relocation process keep employees excited, engaged, and happy. However, a company that fails to consider how a big move impacts employees’ daily lives may face a workforce disgruntled by its decisions. If you are considering an office move, here are the pros and cons of relocation with some advice on how to manage this change effectively.
Pros: Boost Productivity in a Well-Designed Office Space
Moving into a brand-new office presents your business with a golden opportunity to create a space that enhances overall productivity. Open floor plans, huddle rooms, cubicles, conference spaces, and private offices — there are no limits on how you arrange your new office. First, consider how seating impacts the workday. Choosing the right office setup will significantly impact how employees work and collaborate throughout the day. Proximity to shops, restaurants, and doctors’ offices can also provide conveniences throughout the day, as employees complete occasional errands during break time.
These small perks can cut down on stress and help employees feel refreshed and ready to focus.
Cons: You Can’t Make Everyone Happy
Despite the many benefits of office relocation, there are also challenges involved. Each employee brings different needs and preferences to the table, and each decision means taking another option away. It’s also possible that your business will receive a short-term dip as customers adjust to your new location.
One of the most hotly debated issues is how office relocation impacts employees’ commutes. After all, a location that’s closer to one employee might be further for another. Choosing an office that’s disconnected from public transportation could strand employees without a way to work or even force them to consider getting a new job.
Managers should also follow up with individual employees who will be significantly impacted by the new commute to make sure they feel supported and heard. Be sure to allow extra flexibility as employees adjust to new timing and traffic patterns in the morning.
Finally, remember that the process of office relocation doesn’t end when the final moving van pulls away. Because most companies can’t afford to lease two offices simultaneously, there could be up to a year of remodeling after your staff has settled into place.
Being organized, setting realistic expectations, and inviting feedback from employees will all help your business endure these bumps in the road.
More from Work Webb: Instagram – Twitter – Facebook – The Water Cooler
10 REASONS TO USE A SHARED OFFICE SPACE
Shared office space is a perfect alternative to working from home or at your own office. This type of workplace offers many perks and an environment full of hardworking and dedicated professionals across all industries. The decision to work alongside strangers can be intimidating but so rewarding.
Below are ten reasons why you should work from a shared office space.
Find Meaning
A person’s work identity becomes stronger when people doing all types and kinds of work are around them. A work facade is no longer needed, due to the lack of competition in a traditional office. Shared office spaces are created to have a sense of community, collaboration, learning, and sustainability.
Perks with a Shared Office Space
Not only do shared office spaces provide a place to work, but they also offer many perks. These include anything from food services, conference rooms, and many more amenities.
More Job Control & Flexibility
Let’s say today you want to work during the day, but tomorrow during the night. At a shared office space, you enjoy this power and flexibility. As a professional, you decide when and where you work. Because memberships at desk chair are month-to-month, you decide if you want to work at a desk or in a private suite. Work Webb has lots of options to choose from.
More Sense of Community, Less sense of Loneliness
Working from home sometimes creates a sense of isolation. Shared office spaces end this feeling of disconnection. During the day, you work alongside an entire room of other coworkers, and even though the place is full of people, you chose when and how to interact with other members.
Networking Opportunities
Having a shared space and creating a sense of community is another reason why people chose shared office spaces. Officing in this type of environment lets you surround yourself with goal-oriented and high-achieving professionals. Having so many professionals in one room means your networking opportunities are endless. You never know who you will meet to help you move your business forward.
Central Location for Clients
Client meetings just became stress-free because members have a central location. Outside your door, a variety of options for transportation, restaurants, and shopping beckon.
Increase in Productivity
Everyone loves their sleep, so it can be a real challenge to get out of bed some mornings. The social atmosphere of a shared office environment encourages you to crawl out of bed in the morning and get into work. Using a temp office space can increase productivity by decreasing at-home distractions and being surrounded by committed professionals each day is a great motivator.
Cost-Efficient
Office space on a per-square-foot basis can sometimes be crazy expensive. Officing at a shared office space is not only affordable; it also offers the flexibility to grow with your business without having to sink money into lease-breaking fees.
Learn something new
A shared office space gives you the chance to be working across the desk from someone with a completely different skill set than yours. You may even catch yourself working in a new mindset as well. Inspiration from coworkers can help break through the roadblocks and that project you have been working on for months is solved, just like that!
Happiness!
Working at a shared office space, like Work Webb, you surround yourself with motivated and enthusiastic professionals like yourself. You have the opportunity to socialize, enjoy all of the amenities, and work the way you live. The shared office space atmosphere can boost morale and passion, which results in a more cheerful workday!
Staying Motivated and Sane while being Self-Employed
Being self-employed sounds like The American Dream, but believe it or not, it isn’t for everyone! When you are responsible for your accountability, it takes the right amount of focus, dedication, and adhering to schedule to keep your attention span in check. While the benefits of YOU being the man (or the woman) is plentiful, here are some tips to keep you productive and on track.
Use Cloud Services
If you lose your backpack, or your computer dies on you, you need to reboot from another device and still access all of your work. There are so many cloud-based tools that let you access your documents, images, project management platforms, CRM, invoices, and more. Some of the most commonly-used cloud-based tools are Google Suite, which includes Gmail, Drive for documents and spreadsheets, Slides, and more; Dropbox for storing and sharing images and materials; and Evernote. It is crucial to find which tools work for you, use them, and rest easy knowing you can access your work from wherever you are and whatever device you’re on.
Use a Timer and a System that works for you
One of our favorite productivity systems includes the Pomodoro Technique, where you work in 25-minute bursts. This popular time-management method can help you power through distractions, hyper-focus, and get things done in short bursts while taking frequent breaks to come up for air and relax.
Find a Coworking Space
One of the best productivity tips we can give is to find a coworking space as your “home office.” You are prone to discover that you’re more productive in this environment than a coffee shop because you can put your head down and get some dedicated work done.
What is Emotional Culture?
Whether you work together with your staff at the same location, have multiple offices across the country or have the ability to work solo from a remote location, creating the culture that enables your team to perform at its highest may not be as easy as just hiring good quality employees.
Emotional Culture is a lesser known piece of today’s work culture, and it is getting more attention these days. Emotional Culture is defined as the culture centered around the effective values of an organization—i.e., feelings, moods, and attitudes—in contrast to the intellectual values that typically make up the traditional corporate culture.
Although technology may be able to cross physical and time-based gaps, the cultural and social gaps — differences in social habits and communication styles — are problems that have yet to be solved. If not addressed, these gaps open can pose significant performance issues for teams.
When working virtually, ways to be a communicative team member is an even harder nut to crack. Teams must make a point not only to be clear about how they will interact with one another and shift modes when needed but also address the role that their desired mode(s) of communication with each player as this will play in facilitating their way of working.
When working remotely, you aren’t at the luxury of popping in to your coworkers office, or having the insight as to whether “now is a good time”…keeping your status or schedule on your shared calendar (and messaging platform) updated is an easy way to let people easily see when it is OK to break in and “say hello”. We should make space for these moments, because if we were in an office, we would likely be spending 8 percent of our time socializing, according to a workplace study by Gensler (pdf).
If an effort is made to develop empathy among team members, experience random moments of connection, this will build the discipline that is necessary to a successful team.
New Location – Historic Downtown Melbourne Florida
If you are following us on social media, you may have seen some posts about our new location in Historic Downtown Melbourne, Florida. This location officially opens this Friday, February 1st, and we are incredibly excited about this new venture for several reasons.
We are a Family Business.
One of our own will be running the day to day of Work Webb Melbourne. Our eldest daughter, Kady Webb is moving to Melbourne and joining the Work Webb team as the office manager of the Melbourne location. She recently graduated from college and is very excited about being a part of the family business, and so are we!
Another Historic Downtown
We love the historic feel of our Daytona Beach office, and that environment continues to our new location. Historic Downtown Melbourne is a charming part of the city with a history that dates to the 1800s. In recent years it has become the destination for locals and travelers, alike, who are looking for a quaint and historic town for shopping, dining, and entertainment. The downtown has a packed event calendar, and we are excited to feature them in our What’s Happening Around Work Webb blog series. Sign up to learn about these events hosted in Melbourne on our website blog.
A Great Building
We love our Kress Building, and our new location is just as charming. Work Webb Melbourne is located in a fully renovated 120-year-old former hardware and farm supply store. The office décor has an industrial feel and is very welcoming. Here are some photos:
Surrounded by Great Food
There are some fantastic restaurants new our Melbourne office. Hell n Blazes is a place that we have frequently visited. They are a family-and-friends microbrewery known for traditional brews as well as the adventurous spirit that defines craft beer. Their website boasts, “Consistently pouring 12-18 unique house beers, with a 25-bottle wine list, the taproom pairs the old Florida lifestyle with the comfort of your own living room!”
There is also a wine and art gallery, The Living Room and Pan-Asian eatery called Mangetsu located in Historic Downtown Melbourne. As we try out more of the restaurants, we will post about them on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest) as well as our blog. The Facebook page for Melbourne Main Street is a good source of information too, follow them here to learn more.
2019 has started with a bang of excitement!
Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Co-Working Space
If you work from home, you are aware of the lonely feelings that can overcome the home office employee. The coffee shop may seem a great way to get out of the house, but there is another option that can offer you more than just a different view. Co-working spaces usually charge a daily, weekly, or monthly fee for workspaces and amenities and finding the right one for you and your business can be a challenge.
To make sure you choose the right one, ask yourself these questions while shopping for a co-working space to suit your needs:
- Can I Visit? – Just like any office environment, each has their own vibe, and you need to make sure you find the right one for you and your business. Visit the space before you commit to it, and if they do not allow visits – cross them off your list.
- Who are the current tenants? – If you are looking for a space that has tenants that can help you in your business and career you need to see the tenant list to pick the right place.
- Is there a Trial period? – Ask if you can work in the space for a day to see if it fits your needs. If you need quiet time to work, you want to make sure the area you choose can accommodate your needs.
- What Amenities are offered? Most spaces provide Wi-Fi, kitchens, snacks, etc. Ask what the office offers and be honest with yourself if paying for your own coffee will eventually drive you nuts.
- What are the working hours? This is an essential question to ask, if not the most important. If you do not hold regular 8 – 5 hours, you need to know what type of access you will have to this space. If it does not fit your needs, the area is not for you.
- How Long Is the Commute? You are used to working from home and let’s face it the commute from the kitchen to your office is a short one. Before you commit to a co-working space, make sure the drive from your home to the office is not one you will come to despise.
- How long is the contract? Find out how flexible this contract is for the space you are considering. Most co-working spaces offer lots of options. Make sure they have an option to fit your needs.
- How much space do you need? Depending on how long you have worked from home, alone, being right next to someone might be a bit much for you to be productive. Be honest with yourself about the type of space you need to stay productive and make sure the co-working space you choose has an option to fit this need.
Work Webb is a co-working or shared office solution located in Historic Downtown Daytona Beach, Florida and has lots of options to choose from for its tenants. If you live in the area and are considering utilizing a shared office solution, call us for a tour and feel free to ask all the questions you need. We like our tenants happy.
