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WORKSPACE EVALUATION
—WORKBOOK—
Answer these 9 questions to identify where your office is performing well — and where it can work harder for you.
Your workspace is one of your most critical assets. It sets the
tone for everything that happens in your business, so getting
it right is critical to your success. When designed well, your
office will:
+ Contribute to your productivity
+ Inspire your employees to perform at their best
+ Help support your company culture
+ Impress clients and prospects
+ Attract new talent — which is especially important
in today’s tight employment market
Well-designed workspaces have been proven to boost
productivity and increase the happiness and satisfaction of
a workforce. With careful planning and the Power of Design,
we believe every office can be a great place to work.Cox Insurance —
Falcoln Heights, MN
Broadway Ridge — Minneapolis, MN
Is Your Office Pulling Its Weight?The average person spends as much time at the office as
anywhere else — and sometimes a lot more! So it’s no surprise
that nearly 50% of American employees rank their work
environment as the most critical element of job satisfaction,
according to a recent survey. Many times, however, space
planning is overlooked, leading to disengaged workers,
inefficient workflows, and less-than-stellar productivity.
HOW TO USE THIS WORKBOOK
This workbook will help you evaluate the state of your office
— and provide some ideas for how you can make it work
as hard as you do. Note: this is not just a guide to read on
your computer. To make the most of it, we encourage you
to print the workbook out and go through the questions
with your management team. By doing so, you’ll get a better
understanding of how your company works — and how your
space can contribute to the success of your business.
Spire Credit Union —
Pine City, MN
Tricam Industries — Eden Prairie, MN
Your workspace has to be rightsized for your staff.
Is your company growing exponentially? Are new
efficiencies helping you reduce headcount in some
departments? While the future is never certain, the first
step towards evaluating the effectiveness of your space
is to know who will be using it — today and in the years
to come.
1. How many employees will you have over the next five years?
Quantum Graphics —
Eden Prairie, MN
PROJECTED STAFFING LEVELS, NEXT FIVE YEARS
Current:
Year 1:
Year 2:
Year 3:
Year 4:
Year 5:
811 Glenwood —
Minneapolis, MN
Estimate the percentage of time your staff spends on each
of these activities. If needed, add your own categories.
It’s not enough to ask if you and your staff prefer
traditional closed offices versus open office plans. To
be useful, you need a variety of spaces that can promote
the type of work your staff is doing. Heads-down
work is best performed in areas with more privacy,
while casual breakout areas can support small-group
brainstorming sessions.
________% Individual heads-down or technical work
________% Small group collaborative work
________% Writing and reading memos, reports, etc.
________% Sending and receiving emails
________% Filing/retrieving files
________% Larger group meetings
________% Talking on the telephone
________% Socializing or playing games
________% Managing health/wellness (gym, nursing, etc.)
________% Other—describe
2.How does your staff spend their day?
Case Building —
St. Paul, MN
10400 Viking Drive — Eden Prairie, MN
While some pioneers of remote work, like IBM and
Google, have begun calling their employees back to
the office, many companies continue to expand options
for staff to work from home or the local coffee shop.
Traditional square-foot-per-employee calculations don’t
take this “new normal” into consideration. At an average
asking rent of more than $25 per square foot in the
3. What percentage of the average employee day is spent working in the office vs. remotely?
Twin Cities, even a modest decrease in your floor plan can save
you big. Before you lease more space than you need, learn how
often your staff are actually around to use it. If a significant
portion spend two or more days per week working remotely,
you’ll want to plan ways for them to share work stations. Trust
us: it’s better than seeing lots of empty desk space that eats
away at your bottom line.
AprÈs Party & Tent Rental — Minnetonka, MN
Arcserve —
Eden Prairie, MN
New technologies have a nasty habit of dramatically
changing how we work, from fax machines and email
to video conferencing and AI. Will virtual reality be
impacting your organization? Need space for 3D
printers in your R&D department? Maybe it’s smart
boards or a new large-format plotter? Whatever
technology is making waves in your industry, be
prepared for what’s coming next as you think about
your office space needs.
4.What new technology will your team be using in the next year, and what will be utilized two, three, and five years from now?
The Broadway —
Minneapolis, MN
RE/MAX Results — Edina, MN
Do employees eat meals in the office, or do they go out
to restaurants? If they’re eating in the office, where are
they eating? At their desks? In a common space or café?
More and more companies are upgrading their corporate
dining rooms to attract and retain employees. Cafeterias
that feel more like restaurants — bright and welcoming,
with different types of seating for individuals and groups
— can help employees feel more comfortable. Likewise,
rather than shoving a break room into a spare corner
with a moldy fridge and crusty coffee pots, create a
space that feels like their favorite coffee shop. Give your
staff someplace they want to use — a space that can
serve as a breakout area or “remote work” spot when
they want to get away from their desks.
5.Where do employees eat their meals?
MN Board of Cosmetology — St. Paul, MN
Arcserve —
Eden Prairie, MN
6. How many people attend a typical meeting in your office?Large team meetings are different than small working
groups, and where you hold meetings will often
determine their outcome. Typically, larger groups work
well in traditional conference rooms. For smaller teams,
breakout areas are becoming increasingly popular. Not
quite a room, breakout areas provide space for small
a. ______ Two or three
b. ______ A half dozen
c. ______ Eight to ten
d. ______ A dozen or more
team meetings without hogging a conference room.
These free-standing enclosures, elevated platforms, and
“wall-free” spaces are quickly replacing cubicles and
closed doors in many modern offices. Note that if you
hold lots of virtual meetings, you’ll need to plan for the
right equipment and sound control.
MN Board of Cosmetology — St. Paul, MN Spire Credit Union —
Pine City, MN
Tricam Industries —
Eden Prairie, MN
7. How many phone calls do your employees take in a day?
With today’s email and messaging platforms, workers in
many companies take fewer and fewer calls each day than
their predecessors of decades past. This may help explain
the rise in popularity of open office layouts.
But if your team spends a good part of each day on the
phone, you’ll need to think twice about half-height cubicles
or benching systems. The increased noise will dramatically
reduce your staff’s productivity. While some sales teams like
the noise to help boost their energy levels, you may want to
invest in acoustic panels and headsets that cancel out ambient
noise — or a white noise generator for offices that are too quiet.
a. ______ None
b. ______ One to five
c. ______ Six to ten
d. ______ Eleven to 20
e. ______ 21–30
f. ______ More than 30
MN Board of Cosmetology — St. Paul, MN
8. How often do clients come to the office?
If you run a remote call center focused on inbound
sales, you probably don’t have to worry about customers
stopping by on a regular basis. You still want your office
to provide a great employee experience (or they’ll find a
new employer that does), but it can be more casual than
“buttoned up.” If, on the other hand, you regularly give
tours to show off your next-generation technology or
have clients over for working meetings, then you need
to make sure you’re putting on a good show.
a. ______ Every day
b. ______ A few times a week
c. ______ A few times a month
d. ______ Once or twice a year
e. ______ Never
RE/MAX Results, Loring Park — Minneapolis, MN
Spire Credit Union —
Pine City, MN
9.Is your office hurting your recruitment and retention efforts?As noted above, even the most casual offices need to be
someplace your employees actually want to spend time
— one that supports the company culture you’ve worked
so hard to build. Few but the most dedicated of staff will
endure years of torment in a workspace that feels like
they made poor life choices. To attract and retain the
talent that will take your company to the next level, you
need to make sure your office demonstrates that you
value them and their contributions.
As Brandywine Realty Trust’s Executive Vice President
and Senior Managing Director Jeff DeVuono says, “If
you can get a better employee by paying $10 per square
foot more in a building, it’s the same as paying them
$2K more per year.” That’s a pretty cheap way overall to
help you attract and keep top performers.
Cox Insurance — Falcon Heights, MN
DirecTV —
Eden Prairie, MN
Next StepsLike any other business asset, your workspace represents
an opportunity to help move your business forward. With the
answers to this workspace evaluation in hand, you should now
have a good idea of where your office is performing well — and
where it can work harder for you.
Perhaps you need to add new workstations to facilitate
different types of more collaborative work. Or perhaps your
office could do a better job of telling your brand story to
visiting clients. Or maybe you need an entirely new space
to leverage emerging technologies. Whatever needs you
uncovered, they are not simply the cost of doing business.
They’re an investment in your business that affects the talent
you can attract and results you can achieve.
At PlanForce, we can help you transform your answers to this
evaluation — along with your overall business goals —into
functional, cost-effective, and wow-inspiring reality. Contact
us today at 952.541.9969 or [email protected] to get
started. Together, we can design a workspace that inspires
your team and reflects your unique business objectives.
Zimmer Medical — Edina, MN
RE/MAX Results, Loring Park —
Minneapolis, MN
ABOUT PLANFORCE GROUP
At PlanForce, we are guided by the belief that design can
powerfully influence the function of a workspace and the
success of a business. When designing a workspace, we look
at the overall objectives for that space, including:
+ Improving efficiency by more properly utilizing the
workspace
+ Improving employee morale and wellbeing
+ Recruiting the best talent and reducing turnover
+ Telling each company’s unique brand story
A collaborative team of architects, interior designers, and
technical experts, we are three-dimensional problem solvers
and passionate designers of extraordinary spaces, focused
PlanForce HQ —
St. Louis Park, MN
Tricam Industries — Eden Prairie, MN
on results. Through an integrated design process, we offer
innovative solutions that create real value. We are committed
to a contemporary approach to commercial interiors, with
plans that are uniquely appropriate for each client, carefully
detailed, and designed to work.
With more than 35 years in business, we’ve pretty much
done it all. From corporate offices and industrial spaces to
healthcare and restaurants to hospitality and retail stores,
we have a depth of experience that can’t be ignored. And we’ve
developed long-term relationships with business owners,
property managers, developers, and brokers, resulting in
more than 80% of our business coming from repeat clients.
We look forward to using the Power of Design to create a space
that works as hard as you do!
RE/MAX Results, Loring Park — Minneapolis, MN
10400 Viking Drive —
Eden Prairie, MN
