Like just about anything else complex in life, a business needs a strategy — a specialized plan tailored to get the most out of your workplace’s unique dynamics and interpersonal relationships.
If you’ve set up a value system and a vision for your business to adhere to, it’s not just helpful but necessary to lay out just how you’ll be capable of meeting those goals. That might seem like an intimidating undertaking for early-stage entrepreneurs — and sometimes for more experienced business owners — but as long as you make sure that your plan is perceptive, comprehensive, and adaptable, it can do wonders to put your business into efficient focus.
A fine-tuned workplace strategy can do wonders for your business, especially when it factors in many of the most important plans for anticipating growth, dealing with adversity, and handling the unknown — building around productivity, efficiency, employee satisfaction and business growth. Here are some of the most crucial steps to keep in mind:
Audit your workplace. In other words, figure out what’s going on in the workplace before you get your plan put together. Taking inventory of how things are done in the office is often necessary to figure out workflow problems and unnecessary expenditures along with other efficiency-driven changes, but it also helps in just getting a concrete sense of how certain areas of the workplace operate. The kind of work people do, where they do it, who they collaborate with (or whether they go solo), how many hours are needed to get it done, and which kinds of activities and meetings are necessary to finish it are key elements in understanding where to take your strategy from there.
Rework your current strategy. It’s typically easier to account for what’s going on in the strategy your business currently holds so you can highlight what already works alongside the parts that need to be revised. Changes to strategy can sometimes run up against objections or skepticism from other employees or business departments, so make sure to emphasize the ways in which your new strategy is compatible with your previous one, and maintain open communication to help with training and habit-changing transitions. Think less in terms of radical change and more in a sense of improving from strength to strength.
Build your strategy around employee needs. A strong workforce requires accommodation, whether it’s of employees’ preferred work styles, space requirements, project budgets, benefit needs, or any number of other policies. With the information from your audit, you should be able to assemble a plan that factors in a number of different scenarios and situations to best fit your current approach, and the feedback from your employees should also help give you a better sense of how to provide them the most efficient ways to work.
Take stock of technological requirements. The one constant about tech is that it’s always changing; what seemed state-of-the-art less than ten years ago might be seriously showing its age by the time you develop your new workplace strategy. But updating tech isn’t just a matter of finding what you’ve already got, but faster and shinier. There are a number of questions to ask yourself when it comes to undergoing a new gameplan for deploying tech in the office: does it make sense for the kind of workplace you plan on setting up? Are there any other options outside of the conventional thinking that might be more cost-effective and/or more efficient? Will it make work more productive? Does it provide a good return on investment, so that its future-proofing and durability outweigh the costs?
Account for changes to your office space. If you’re making the leap to a new business strategy, there’s a good chance some of the other aspects of your business are subject to change, too — including the actual usage of space in the office itself. This is one of the most underrated yet important aspects of strategizing: office design can create one of the biggest and most lasting impressions of your business’s philosophy, approach, and personality to employees and customers alike.
Design is where it can all come together: the integration of adaptable tech, workspace construction and layout, visual identity, safety measures, eco-friendly money savings, and employee socializing and wellbeing are all integrally tied in to the look and feel of your office environment. Does an open plan suit your strategy best, or are more partitioned and personalized spaces more efficient? How should meeting rooms and collaborative areas be laid out? Can certain architectural and design touches — bigger windows, whiteboard walls, outdoor break areas — promote creativity and enthusiasm? All these questions and more can be addressed in your strategy.
This is another place where employee feedback is helpful, as environmental, design, and comfort concerns are crucial to the equation. By finding out just how workers use and adapt to office spaces, as well as how that usage might change or develop during times of growth and expansion, you can incorporate that information into a strategy that can make things easier and more efficient for your employees as well as the business itself.
Aura’s team of workplace design experts are here to help you help your business thrive and expand with a unique, personalized strategy. Just contact us to learn more!
