The importance of communication and information during office redesign
An office redesign is an great opportunity to create a workspace that better meets the needs of employees and the organization. However, it can also be a source of frustration and anxiety if not managed well. One of the most common reasons office redesigns fail to deliver their full potential is poor communication. Employees often feel left out or ignored. Even small oversights in sharing information—like not addressing minor but important questions—can snowball into significant problems.
The 30-300-3000 rule: what it means and why it matters for office design
Ever heard about the 30-300-3000 rule? Designing an office that truly supports productivity starts with understanding the costs involved, and how these costs impact your employees’ performance. The 30-300-3000 rule offers a straightforward way to break down office-related expenses, helping organizations make better decisions about their spaces.
This principle estimates that for every square meter of office space, an organization spends approximately:
Survey - a guide to understanding your workplace today, and what you need tomorrow
Surveys are a practical tool for uncovering how employees experience the workplace, providing clear insights into what’s working, what isn’t, and what changes are needed to better support both people and the organization. More than just a way to collect data, surveys help organizations understand how the workplace operates today and what it needs to succeed in the future.
Understanding employee tasks through an occupancy study
Workspaces are more than desks and meeting rooms—they are tools employees use to accomplish specific tasks. Yet, many organizations overlook the connection between space and work activities. An occupancy study doesn’t just track how much of the office is being used; it uncovers what tasks employees are performing and how the workspace supports or hinders their productivity.
By diving deeper into the “what” and “why” of office use, organizations can make smarter decisions about how to design spaces that align with employee needs.
Why leadership matters in office design
When a company decides to redesign its office, it’s more than just a physical transformation—it’s a change that affects work culture, employee routines, and overall engagement. Office spaces shape how employees interact, collaborate, and perform daily tasks, and any significant change in layout or function can profoundly influence these dynamics. Leading a team through an office redesign is a change management process in its own right, requiring empathy, communication, and a commitment to creating a supportive environment.
What do an organization’s goals and objectives have to do with office design?
To make informed decisions about the future, we first need a clear understanding of how the organization operates today.
Creating an effective office design starts by gathering insights into how the company functions: understanding how employees work, how they use the space, and identifying their needs, as well as the broader goals and objectives of the organization. This understanding shapes targeted improvement goals and guides decisions to design an office that truly fits.
What today’s office reveals about the future workspace
To plan for the future, we first need to understand the present.
Just as a budget grounded in data leads to smarter financial decisions, an office plan based on real usage patterns ensures that every space serves a purpose and aligns with actual needs. When planning a new office, reviewing the current setup is essential. Skipping this step can lead to unnecessary costs—not only during the build-out but also in ongoing expenses like rent and maintenance throughout the lease term.
Designing a user-centric workspace
A significant part of our daily lives is spent in the workplace. But office spaces aren’t just places to get tasks done—they’re environments where people connect, collaborate, and find purpose. To make these spaces work well for employees, it’s important to design offices based on real needs - a true understanding of both spaces and the people.
When we look closely at how people interact with their environment, we can start to identify the types of spaces that encourage productivity, satisfaction and a healthy organizational culture.
Best practices on building a better meeting culture
Unproductive meetings are a common problem in many companies. With hybrid work becoming more popular, it’s easier than ever to add participants to meetings without much thought. This makes meetings longer and less focused. To fix this, organizations need a shift in meeting culture—one that encourages shorter, more effective meetings.
Developing a new meeting culture along with a new office is a powerful combination for organizational development.
5 ways to reduce time spent in meetings
Time spent in unnecessary meetings has become a growing problem for many, especially managers. The rise of hybrid meetings has made it even easier to add participants without them needing to show up physically. As a result, many people find themselves in meetings that aren’t always relevant.
If you feel that you’re wasting too much of your work hours in meetings, keep reading.
Here are five effective ways to reduce the time you spend in meetings and make them more productive.
5 strategies that can help you make the most of your meeting space
Always running out of meeting rooms? These 5 strategies can help you make the most of your meeting space.
Many organizations struggle with the feeling that there aren’t enough meeting rooms. However, this issue is often more about perception than reality. The truth is, in most cases, the space available is enough—it’s just not being used efficiently.
Before making the costly decision to rent more space or move to a new location, it’s important to consider a few key factors. By evaluating your current meeting room usage, you can likely uncover opportunities to make the most of what you already have.
6 strategies to reduce ghost meetings
You might not realize it, but your meeting rooms could be haunted. In fact, around 30% of the bookings in your office may be "ghost meetings" — booked rooms that no one ends up using.
These ghost meetings may cost your company much more than you think. In many cases, employees may feel like there’s not enough meeting rooms, when the real problem is that there are just too many ghost meetings taking place, which limits the number of available meeting rooms unnecessarily.
Meeting room planning myth vs reality
Planning meeting rooms without data as your foundation is a fast track to wasted money and dissatisfied employees.
There’s often a significant gap between how meeting rooms are planned and what is actually needed.
Do not fall in the trap of thinking that ‘1 per 15’ is the correct answer. When planning the number and size for your organization, it is not sufficient to simply decide on ‘1 meeting room per 15 employees’ - it’s important to find out what the correct number is to meet the needs. For one organization it can be 1 per 8 employees, while for another it is enough with 1 per 40 employees.
Why open plan offices are so bad - and what we can do to make them better
Open plan offices have become the standard choice for modern workplaces today, whether it’s with free or fixed seating arrangement.
Unfortunately. many open plan offices are actually poorly designed, resulting in widespread dissatisfaction and criticism around the world.
Open plan workspaces can vary dramatically in quality, and too often, they fail to consider basic productivity and comfort, which is why they’ve developed a notoriously bad reputation.
Let’s take a look at how you gan get the most out of your open plan office.
How many meeting rooms should you have?
When planning a new office or making changes to an existing one, one question always seems to spark debate: How many meeting rooms do we need?
Traditional guidelines suggest a certain number of meeting rooms per 100 employees. But how useful are these recommendations, really?
The number of meeting rooms a company needs can vary widely depending on work patterns, meeting culture and many other factors. Furthermore, these general rules of thumb often lack a solid foundation and fail to consider the unique needs of each organization, making them a poor starting point for effective office planning.
A data-driven approach to retain tenants
Tenants often move and choose not to renew their leases for various reasons.
Albert Einstein famously said, "We can’t solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used to create them!" This quote underscores the need for landlords to adopt a more customer-centric approach in today’s competitive office market.
Understanding why tenants leave and how to address their needs proactively can make a substantial difference in tenant retention.
Managing employee expectations in office planning
Workspace design is complex, as it involves not just arranging physical spaces but also balancing the different needs of employees who will use them.
Employees often have strong opinions and emotional investments in their workspaces since these environments directly impact not only their day-to-day work, but their enjoyment and social interactions at work as well.
Successfully navigating these expectations is crucial for success in any workspace development project - let’s take a look at how this can be done.
From Gut-feelings To Facts In Office Planning
Making well-informed decisions can mean the difference between a thriving workspace and an underutilized, inefficient space. But why do we so often rely on guesswork and gut-feelings rather than solid facts and data when designing our workplaces?
Using Occupancy Sensors for Strategic Office Planning
As technology continues to advance, so too does our ability to gather data. Occupancy sensors are a prime example of this. They are becoming increasingly popular in offices worldwide as a way to monitor space utilization and gather data on how people interact with their workspace. But, despite the abundance of data being collected, many people don't know how to use it effectively, particularly for strategic office planning.
Creating more sustainable office buildings
Large parts of the world's commercial real estate remain unused at all times. We build too many square meters, and we often build them incorrectly. Construction and real estate account for 40% of the world's total climate emissions. Empire AI aims to transform this unsustainable trajectory. Why do we continue constructing more than necessary when we know it's both costly and unsustainable?
Why do we continue constructing more than necessary when we know it's both costly and unsustainable?