Return on Investment

ior = roi

Alongside design, timescale, location and project management, investment in office facilities must achieve a benefit for the business. Return on Investment, value engineering and creative ways to improve the value for money should be as much a part of an office refurbishment as any of the design elements.

here are some examples of an improved ROI in the office....

  

  

 

  

Return on Investment from an office interior refurbishment or office relocation fit-out.

There are several practical ROIs that a new, or refurbished, office should deliver...

Staff Retention and Recruitment. Increasingly people are the greatest asset of a business. An office plays a role in keeping staff, and in attracting the best new recruits. The mechanism does vary but in general people prefer a workplace to be efficient...helping to get the day job achieved, open and transparent in conjunction with a communicative policy internally, progressive (in design) as people identify this as a positive organisational facet, and a high standard of fit-out supports a high standard within the company.

Improved Communication. Just as a data network is vital for computer systems, so a human network makes a business better. An office interior that fosters and frees up communication can significantly benefit a company. Glass partitioning, low furniture heights, and office 'nodes' that are given consideration and importance all contribute to internal communication. IOR Group have developed Visualspirit ...another technique to promote non-verbal communication within the office.

Creativity & Innovation. Offices are regularly including space to create alternative environments away from desks and cellular rooms. These alternative spaces support people to work in different ways. Typical is a space where staff can think and interact. Its known that people respond to bright, open spaces with more expansive thought processes, whereas structured and more enclosed areas are best for concentrating on tasks.

Best place for the task. Most jobs have a variety of tasks. A desk is good for clerical activities, but when concentration is needed a quiet space might be better. Similarly interaction within a small team isn't always practical with a few desks in the way. To get the best productivity at work...give staff the best setting for the task. This is the same principle as a factory floor, just applied to the office.

Collaborative Working.  Increasingly office work involves groups of people combining to deliver a task. Flexible workspace removes the practical constraints on collaborative working. When its easier to form up, and then re-form, collaborative working will happen more quickly and responsively and sap less time, energy or company resources...and since resources = cost, ingrained flexibility reduces costs.

Absenteeism. Back problems, RSi, sick building syndrome, respiratory illness due to poor air condition...all examples of how an office can have a negative impact. A well designed office will mitigate the problems of absenteeism.

Nomadic Working. As work becomes more remote, staff working in other offices is more common. An office designed to accommodate mobile workers makes life easier to touch-down and be effective straight away, wasting less time.

Within any one office, there is often a demand to be able to work alongside a colleague for a few hours, so rather than use a whole meeting room provide space within a department for short-term adjacency.

Occupancy Increases. Good office design is recognising the trend for offices to be occupied by, for example, just 7 out of 10 staff on an average basis. Multi-user furniture with owned elements limited to storage mean that an office no longer needs to have 10 desks for 10 people. Careful research can reduce the investment in dedicated FF&E, without leaving the office to become a game of musical chairs....the last one in unable to find a desk.

Reduced non-billable hours. A good office will encourage clients to travel to meet at your location, rather than travelling to theirs. This reduces unproductive travel time, reinforces your company image and adds to the 'buzz' that good offices have.

Task Rationalisation. The daily tasks of filing and retrieval, accessing company information and knowledge , and printing+copying should all be as streamlined and productive as possible. Poorly designed offices can often sap hours from a working week through inefficient storage, inadeqaute provision of services and spaces for report collation etc. A good office will underpin any design scheme with the practical facilities everyone needs in a working week, saving time.

These factors all have an impact on the ROI for an office. Infamously difficult to measure, the ROI from an office enhancement can be quantified in broad terms, but is still recognised as being of value.