_How can I find an office that adds tangible value to my business?

When it comes to finding the perfect office, there is a lot more to think about than the headline rent, location and how much space you need.

Each year, I work with hundreds of business owners, from companies of all sizes, who are looking for a new office. And, more-often-than-not, what they think they need - is not what they actually need. Following consultations with clients, I’ve seen many a business completely re-evaluate their check-list of requirements. 

A ‘nice place to house your team’ is the basic criteria but the devil is in the detail for the smart occupier because real estate can be a strategic tool for your business, and choosing the right property can: 

- Improve your bottom line by increasing productivity;

- Save you money by helping you recruit and retain the right people;

- Safeguard your business against the peaks and troughs of performance;

- Support the wellbeing of your employees;

- Boost your brand; and

- Ensure your business is more environmentally friendly.

The way offices are being used now has dramatically changed over the last three years, influenced by a number of factors in particular advances and increased use of technology and also the demands of the millennial workforce.

This has driven the marketplace away from ‘old standards’. Co-working, agile working, home working, activity-based working are all concepts that are fundamentally altering how occupiers think about their space. And – take note – it’s not just about taking less space, it’s about leasing or buying the right space.

When a business comes to us, I sit down with them and get a full understanding of their company, how it operates, the internal and external forces that may have an impact on its survival and how it wants to evolve and grow.

That way, I can give my best advice on what locations they should be considering, how much space they need, what kind of office they need and advise on a whole host of other areas. 

Here are some points to ponder before you start your new office search:

1. Which location? Where are your regular-visiting-clients, employees and potential employees based? Your new base should be within their reasonable reach and importantly well-served by public transport.

2. What does the location of your office say about your company and its brand? Don’t underestimate this bit. Aligning your office look and feel and location with your brand’s values is so important. Companies can also cleverly tie-in a re-launch, a new product/service launch or re-brand with their office move.

3. Talent attraction and retention: Employees are no longer as accepting of mediocre, bland, traditional offices spaces – especially in the tech and creative sectors, and lots of other sectors are following suit. Well-located, well-thought-out contemporary buildings help businesses to retain and attract the best employees. 

A savvy business owner will seriously consider how amenity rich, highly serviced spaces and quality fit-outs can impact on helping to recruit and keep talented employees. 

4. Your office’s impact on recruitment costs: When you consider that the cost of replacing a staff member is an average of 150% of that person’s salary – then scrimping on 50p or a pound a square foot on your offices might be a false economy if the space taken increases your staff churn rates. The financial deal obviously remains a key consideration in any office acquisition, but it needs to be considered against the wider business outlays and in particular staff costs. 

5. How much space do I need? So, you have 25 employees so you need 25 desks, right? Maybe wrong. How many of your team compulsorily require full-time space within an office? Do some work remotely? Could they work remotely? Think agile working. Think flexible working. Don’t stick in your ‘we’ve always done it this way’ comfort zone. Challenge your working practices so you are 100% sure on the size of the space you need. And look to the future – what are your growth projections?

6. What will happen if my company falls on hard times or grows rapidly? In this era of disruption it is important to have flexible solutions. However, that doesn’t always mean that occupiers need to try and seek break clauses at every turn. A ‘core and flex model’ is starting to gather ground, whereby an occupier might take say 70% of their space on a long term commitment and the additional 30% on flexible terms with hand back options etc. This works for the occupier as they move through their business peaks and troughs, but it is also attractive to the landlord by giving them underlying long term security.  

7. How can an office impact on productivity? Real estate has a critical role to play in the push for increased corporate productivity. Yet, this is not about increasing the density of occupation with the ultimate aim of savings at all costs. This approach has ultimately proven counter-productive. Instead, the aim is now to increase productivity by strengthening the interaction between people and property via investing in a positive, serviced and well-supported workplace experience. For example, have you considered staff welfare facilities you require? Space for employee bikes, on-site showers, break-out areas etc?

8. What connectivity do I need? It’s not just tech businesses that need to properly research their IT and connectivity requirements – they are an important factor to consider. IT rating indexes, such as WireScore, are becoming industry benchmarks for assessing an office building’s IT capabilities and ensuring the infrastructure is sufficient, to not only meet your day to day businesses needs but also the required resilience.  

9. How can my office help keep my team happy and healthy? The wellness agenda is something you need to be thinking about. This goes back to staff retention and attraction. Picking the right building which has been designed with wellness at its heart will reap benefits to a business when it comes to staff welfare. Modern employees give greater emphasis to health and fitness and the workplace needs to align with this.

The Well Certificate is now the clear benchmark to advance health and wellbeing in buildings through design. Things like making the stairs more obvious and accessible than the lifts to promote healthy choices and promoting clean air and minimizing the source of indoor air pollution are examples of how buildings can be better designed to interact with humans.

10. How will my office affect the environment? Climate change is one of the main challenges in today’s world and businesses have a significant role to play in tackling the issues. The office space a business operates from is a huge part of this. There are the physical elements of design and infrastructure and this can be judged and assessed through BREEAM and EPC ratings but it is also about the choices an occupier makes in their office fit-out and their overall operations, for example, paperless offices. 

11. Finally - do you know what you’re doing? Occupiers need to consider many aspects when looking at new offices. Getting the right advice is therefore incredibly important. Instructing an agent to search and acquire new offices is not just about driving the best financial deal, it is about many more factors. It is these factors which may have a far greater impact on your business than the headline rent and the incentives package. For example, in the article I haven’t even touched on leases - rent reviews, break clauses and the ability to sub-let which are very important elements that require the right advice to ensure they are agreed appropriately to your benefit. 

Patrick Matheson, Partner at Knight Frank, within the Office Agency team. He can be contacted on 0191 594 5015 or patrick.matheson@knightfrank.com