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How to Calculate How Much Office Space You Will Need?
Use these estimations to figure out how much office space you'll need before signing a lease.
- Planning the amount of space you’ll need when buying or leasing office space is crucial to running an effective office space.
- When renting office space, there’s more to it than signing the lease: For each occupier, you’ll need to account for the amount of employees you intend to be in the area, as well as kitchen space, reception space, and cubicle/office space.
- It will be simpler to find an appropriate sized office space if you see an example of how many square feet you need per person. For example, each employee should have 120 square feet of workplace.
When calculating how much office space you require, you must be diligent. Too much or too little room might put a strain on a budget.
Calculating how much office space you'll need
One of the issues you may have if you are opening a new office space is how much room you will require. Although there is no final number to this issue, there is some basic information that might help you plan your workplace design layout or choose an office construction team. Workrooms with ample open space for individuals to move around and get to and from their work locations are essential. Every area must also have enough height, floor space, and vacant space for everyone’s health, safety, and well-being in the office.
Work spaces should be at least 120 square feet per employee on average. This means that the typical individual workstation should be around 50 square feet, with the remaining space being used for storage, conference rooms, a kitchen area, walking space, and office equipment. In most cases, an average size of 80-120 square feet per worker offers a pleasant work environment as well as ample walking room.
How do you figure out how much office space you'll need?
You must first examine your existing status before determining your goals for your company’s growth over the following few years. When looking for office space, you should ask yourself a few questions to figure out how much space you’ll need. Don’t forget to plan for your company’s future expansion as well. Consider how many employees you’ll hire, how many sections will be shared and how many will be private, how long your lease will last, and how fast you expect your business to develop.
If the space is already partitioned with reception rooms, kitchens, and management offices, you’ll simply need to factor in individual workstations, but remember to provide for future staff.
Ask yourself the following questions as well:
- How many employees do I currently have?
- Is it necessary for each employee to have their own workstation, or may they share?
- Do I plan to hire more people in the next few years?
- How long will I be adding people to the team?
- What types of employees will I hire — management, administrative, or sales?
Knowing how many people you employ currently, allows you to determine how much space you need now to conduct your business comfortably; factoring in your projected growth allows you to expand your firm without expensive disruptions.
In general, the quantity of office space required is assessed based on the number of employees and the industry. The standard range for office space is 150-350 square feet per person working. That range is narrowed down by the sort of space required to support your firm.
The open space concept, which has no private offices, is at the bottom end of the spectrum. This design is commonly used in call centres and sales offices, where desks or workstations are placed together. The typical hard-wall or private office arrangement is at the upper end of the spectrum. Private offices, big meeting rooms, and support facilities such as libraries, kitchens, and file rooms are nearly always present in law offices. You must decide which form of office layout is appropriate for your company: open space, private office, or a combination of the two. This will help you to correctly estimate how much room you will require during the course of your lease.
To get a preliminary idea of your office space requirements, you can estimate you will need roughly 250 square feet per employee during the early planning process. When you start limiting down your options and planning out your area, you may refine it. Aside from the sort of space you choose, many other factors influence the quantity of space you require, such as building floor size, loss factor, and property amenities.
When you’ve narrowed down your construction options, a space planner or an interior architect may be a valuable addition to your team of specialists to assist you in designing the ideal space for your company. However, for your initial office search, 250 square feet per person is a decent general estimate.
Example
Assuming you now manage ten employees, you may estimate that you require around 2,500 square feet of office space. However, you anticipate hiring two more staff each year and wish to sign a three-year lease. Do you require an additional 1,500 square feet right now to support your expansion plans?
The answer is no, not always. You must decide what kind of personnel you will hire. If they are top executives and vice presidents who want private offices, you will need to add around 1,800 square feet (300 square feet multiplied by 6 executives = 1,800 square feet). However, if they are clerical support personnel who would work in a “bullpen” or open office space, the requirement might be as low as 900 square feet (150 square feet x 6 people = 900 square feet).
Estimating your staff growth goals now might save you a lot of money later on. Changing offices in the middle of a contract because you don’t have enough space to hire more employees might be significantly more expensive than factoring in your predicted expansion demands before signing the lease.
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