Whilst we all know that the right fitout can make our businesses stand out from our competitors, it is getting this fitout right that is the real challenge. By familiarising yourself with some of the current office design trends, you can work towards a fitout that represents your business in the best possible light and is completely functional for your needs.

• Collaboration – If your business has a team, such as a research and development department that has to regularly work together in order to come up with ideas, why would you lock them away in their own private offices? They need collaborative spaces.

• Open Plan – It’s time to say goodbye to those big, private offices that you have become accustomed to and say hello to open plan design. If you arrange the workstations in a wagon formation, you could even fine that you can get rid of a conference room by putting it in the middle.
  
  
  

• Touchdown Spaces – It’s time to accept the notion that employees don’t necessarily have to be at their desks in order to be productive. All they really need these days is a place to ‘touchdown’; somewhere they can plug in their laptops and make a few phone calls.

  

• Technologies – It’s time for businesses to rethink the technologies that they use on a day-to-day basis. Laptops and cordless phones have meant that you don’t have to be in the one place all the time, so why not move less important files to long-term storage?

Whilst we do talk about each of the above points as being ‘trends’, it is important to recognize that they have already been in vogue for some time and that it is unlikely they will be out of fashion anytime soon. And even if they do fall out of favour, all that is important is that you have found an office design that works for your business and makes it look fantastic.