You have hired employees and chosen a location and now it’s time to figure out the office furniture. Office furniture affects more than just aesthetics; it plays a role in workers’ productivity, morale, health, teamwork and more. According to a survey cited by Business News Daily, however, nearly 90% of workers are not happy with their current working space. Workers cited several reasons for this dissatisfaction, the most common being lack of privacy. With that in mind here is list of some things to consider when selecting office furniture.
Outline of Office Furniture Requirements
For example while the 20 thousand dollar reception area would be lovely, it would better spent on 20 workstations. Figure out what furniture is essential, what furniture makes you money and what is just nicety and make a list of what is needed organized by priority. Focus on the essential. However you need to make sure you choose furniture that allows people to work both efficiently and contently by considering these 3 things
Contentment
Contentment or maybe we should say the lack of malcontent is what you are shooting for.. they don’t need to be happy, but they can’t be unhappy. This something that is overlooked by many employers and granted its true you can’t ever please employees, you have to think about the space and say, would I sit there.. if the answer is no then reconsider the design.
Relationships
The interpersonal relationship between coworker must be analyzed. Shared desks are ideal for workplaces that thrive on collaboration, while other types of environments call for a bit more space and privacy. You need to understand how they may interact both with each other with their clients.
Noise
This sounds obvious but evidently, around 50 percent of my clients buy cubicle to address noise that they did not foresee when opted to buy cheap desks. In ideal world employees would just make money and emit minnimum sounds, but In reality people talk, they talk to their clients, they talk to each other and they talk to themselves. Cubicles definitely provide a solution to this problem whereas desking does not..
Office Furniture Budget
Ideally everyone would like new furniture just like everyone would want a personal yacht or jet . Unfortunately most business owners own businesses to make money so they can one day afford to buy the pre-owned boat or fly first class.,.. But we are not there yet, hence there is a budget on everything. Your budget is going to limit you in terms of how much furniture you can buy, the materials furniture is made of, and the quality of the furniture. Depending on what your budget allows for, it may be best to prioritize certain things over others. If your budget doesn’t allow you to buy everything you’d like to have, start by focusing on things that would most directly impact employees, like high-quality desk chairs and cubicles.
Additional Costs
If you’re upgrading your office with used office furniture or refurbished cubicles you will need to have them delivered and then you will need to have them installed. Office furniture installation cost varies, and is typically form 250-350 a cubicles assuming at least 6 cubicles. You should only purchase from a company that is willing to deliver and install themselves. Hiring third party installation is recipe for disaster as if there is anything missing or damaged. One group always points the finger to the other and at end of the day you are the one who has to suck it up and remedy the situation at your expense
You will need to have them tied into the electrical system of space meaning you will need and electrician, you will also need a data/ telecom vendor to run the lien throughout the system and terminate the ends. Again this cost varies but you want to hire someone who is familiar with working with the commercial environment and workstations. A residential vendor will most probably not cut it.
Repairs are another common cost associated with office furniture. By choosing high-quality office furniture that’s backed by the manufacturer and/or vendor you can minimize this cost, and this leads into another area price vs quality
New vs Refurbished Vs Used Office Furniture
The basic cost analysis for new vs refurbished vs used is 40% vs 25% vs 11% of list price. New is usually 4 times more expensive than used, and refurbished is roughly 2.5 times more expensive than used. So used is great option if you are a budget. If you find a reputable company selling refurbished and used office furniture, you can end up getting great product that looks like new at a fraction of cost.
When purchasing used or refurbished product, you need to make sure you understand what you are getting need to ensure warranty. Basically if it’s not new from major player, you are buying on trust and reputation of the used or refurbished vendor. Unfortunately many used furniture vendors are akin to used car salesman.,. Some use a bait-and-switch tactic where they promise to deliver an exceptional-quality piece of furniture, but once it arrives the customer realizes that it’s a lower quality piece. You can avoid this by reviewing the guidelines in the article on furniture vendor selection.
Price vs Quality
There’s nothing wrong with trying to get a good deal on your office furniture. After all, a full-sized laminate desk with a matching hutch can cost upwards of $2,000 – and that’s only a single piece. If you’re furnishing or renovating an entire office, you can easily burn through your available budget.
While saving money is great, though, you shouldn’t prioritize price over quality when buying office furniture.A cheap cubicle made of particle board, for instance, will likely wear down more quickly than a higher quality cubicle made of steel, so while it may cost less than its higher quality counterpart, you’ll end up spending more in the long run when you’re forced to repair or replace it. Always choose quality over cost-savings to avoid headaches such as this.
Unfortunately quality is not usually cheap. Still when you combine the duration of use along with satisfaction of use that comes from quality office furniture systems, you will see that its often worth the extra money. The adage, “you get what you pay for” applies to pretty much everything and office furniture is no different. Choosing a reputable supplier and installer who is well reviewed can alleviate some risk here
Ergonomics
When choosing office furniture, make sure it’s ergonomically designed to minimize stress and strain on workers who use it. This is arguably the single most important thing to consider when buying office furniture.If your furniture isn’t ergonomically designed with the end user in mind, workers will become less productive, experience a lower morale, and it will increase their risk of injury.
According to a study conducted by researchers at Washington State’s Department of Labor and Industries, office workers’ productivity increases by 15% when ergonomic chairs and furniture are introduced. The same study also found that money spent on an ergonomic redesign was paid back in less than a year. This begs the question: how does ergonomic furniture essentially pay for itself?According to a report published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the average worker who sustains a work-related musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) loses about seven days of work for every MSD incident. If a worker suffers from severe lower back pain caused by prolonged sitting on a non-ergonomic chair, for instance, he or she may take seven days off work. Or if a worker develops carpal tunnel syndrome (CPS) while using a poorly designed desk, he or she may also take a week off work.
This absenteeism places a heavy financial toll on employers. A separate study found that health-related absenteeism at work costs U.S. employers more than $260 billion every year. When a worker takes time off, the employer must exhaust additional time, energy and resources to find a replacement.
Furthermore, employers must cover worker’s compensation expenses when a worker is injured, and statistics show that $1 of every $3 spend on worker’s compensation goes towards MSD-related injuries like lower back pain and CPS