Find Space For Rent and Keep Your Happy Employees
by YourFutureSelf
Finding an office space for rent or lease is typically a long term comittment for a business. As such, the due diligence required should be taken seriously and given as much consideration as possible. While searching commercial, retail, inductrial or warehouse property in general can be treacherous, there are a unique set of factors to help identify office spaces in particular, due to the significant impact on employee productivity. By being prepared, understanding the market, and having insight into the requirements, a business can succeed at moving to ideal office space, allowing the company to grow and propser. Failure to do so can mean the difference between profitability and financial ruin.
First off, a business needs to consider the significance of the impact to the employees. A poor choice of office space can leave employees unsatisfied and frustrated, leading to higher turnover and limiting productivity. In contrast, a healthy office space can motivate employees and offer them material reasons to note job satisfaction. Here are a few related questions:
How will the office space impact the commute of current and future employees? For example, in an urban environment, it's likely most employees will take public transportation to the office. Is the office near a major train station? Even a few blocks too far can turn a walk into a costly cab ride. This is particulary important in areas that sustain inclement weather. If the office space is located in a suburban environment, is it close to major highways? This would allow folks from neighboring areas to approach the office from any direction without an unusual amount of hassle.
While the technical details of the lease are often complicated and require legal counsel, there are some basic considerations that should be noted. In particular, what amenities are included in the lease? Attention should be paid to this because it can greatly impact secondary costs that might be required if they are not included. This needs to be carefully factored in when comparing lease options as many office buildings have very different facilities support. Here are a few basic questions:
Does the lease include parking? This may be a factor for employees that have no choice but to drive. Any parking they have to pay for is essentially a salary reduction and will be considered as such. Alternatively, free, covered parking will be considered a job perk.
Does the lease include Internet access? If so, what is the speed of the access? It's quite possible a building will offer wireless network access, however the quality of the network can varry greatly. If the wireless equipment is old and dated, it will likely be overloaded with even realtively few employees. In addition, a sub-standard network provider may encounter significant downtime or loss of connections periodically. This will result in lost productivity, frustrated employees and often a frustrating end user experience. Given the integration of voice and PCs with basic business practices, investing in a quality network provider will likely be considered money well spent.
Is access to the office available 24x7? Is electronic security provided and supported by the building at all hours? It's important to have a contact to deal with building access overnight and on weekends.
Is the building heated/cooled on weekends? Many buildings will disable HVAC during off hours and this may be an issue if employees are occasionally expected to work during those periods.
Are there vending machines and a kitchen area with a coffee maker? While these expenses may seem optional, they can mean the difference between an employee taking a 5 minute in-office break or taking a 25 minute break to go off-site for a snack or drink.
Is there easy access to bathrooms? Are they properly maintained? Typically, the maintenance of bathrooms scales with the number of occupants. If the building is well populated, chances are the bathrooms will see heavy use, subsequently requiring additional maintenance. The building should be aware of this and support it accordingly.
Lighting is a subtle, but important factor. Many employees may be sensitive to flourescent lighting due to the flickering nature. If an office has minimal natural light and heavily uses flourescent lighting, this may adversely affect employee mood, health and productivity. Conversely, a healthy amount of natural light and incandescent (or otherwise non-flickering source) can help keep employees healthy and motivated.
The long term commitment to an office space lease is one of the most important decisions a business can make. It will affect employee turnover, motivation, productivity and ultimately the company's bottom line in many ways that are difficult to quantify. These human factors however, carry a considerable amount of weight and, when searching through space for rent, should be carefully considered in addition to the lease's fundamental price-per-square-foot metric.