Office Space Planning 101

Office space planning is the process of organising your office furniture, technology and functions for more efficient operations.

Effective office space design allows you to make the most of your available space. It can also increase productivity and morale and optimise performance. Planning office space brings together core aspects of any business environment: lighting, storage, acoustics, team requirements, communication needs and building regulations.

Whether you’re completing a small office interior refurbishment, relocating to new premises, or you’re looking to improve the efficiency of your current corporate office layout, this guide sets out the office space planning guidelines that matter most, from your first audit through to furniture, IT and hybrid working.

What is office space planning?

Office space planning is the practice of mapping out how a workspace will be used before anything is installed. It covers how many people the space needs to hold, where each team sits, how people and equipment move through the floor, and how furniture, storage, lighting, power and acoustics work together to support that. Planning office space properly means settling all of that on paper first.

It is far more than making a space look good. It’s about understanding how an area can work aesthetically and functionally in line with your business needs.

How do I get my office furniture fit out right?

There’s a lot more to office space design than meets the eye, especially when it comes to logistics. Having someone who understands how your business operates is vital, whether that’s a designated individual within your business or an interior designer you bring in.

Getting it right is worth the effort. A well-planned fit out can boost productivity, engagement and staff satisfaction levels, as well as refresh the image of the business. Office layout design is also more creative and versatile than it used to be, with a wide range of furniture, layouts and finishes to choose from.

That choice is part of why an effective layout is hard to achieve. Thorough planning is required before any interior refurbishment of your office.

How to audit your corporate office layout from start to finish

Planning office space always starts with the space you already have. Begin with an in-depth analysis of how it currently functions. This includes seating plans, as well as a map of any windows, doors, and required elements such as furniture, hardware and equipment. It’s also worth noting how your workforce moves through your office each day, and how that is likely to change over time.

From there, set out what you want the space to achieve. Alongside how the space is used and your overall objectives, factor in your budget, the duration of the office furniture fit out, and your design ideas. An office needs to flow naturally and be optimised for productivity, so think about the type of space each department needs and the operational goals you want to achieve within it.

Why a floor plan is essential

It’s not always easy to envisage how your workplace office furniture will fit into the space you have available. That’s particularly true if your office isn’t a uniform shape.

A floor plan is an essential part of any office layout design. It helps you maximise your workspace and improve employee productivity before you commit to buying anything. When you put one together, your considerations should include office desk type and shape, office storage, and office chair ergonomics.

Office space planning guidelines: six core considerations

Our fit out team works to six considerations on every project. Work through them in order and you’ll catch most of the problems that only become obvious once the furniture has arrived.

1. Space and desk sizes

The amount of square footage you have will impact what you can achieve and what workspace furniture you should go for. Start by working out how much desk space each member of staff needs. That is usually determined by the IT equipment required, coupled with any paperwork or reference materials the user needs.

As a guide:

Two-monitor workstation: minimum 1400mm wide x 700mm deep
Single-monitor workstation: usually 1200mm wide x 600mm deep
Occasional or laptop-only workspace: around 700mm wide x 600mm deep

Follow these guidelines and your office layout will be both efficient and fit for purpose. A good office layout design helps create a work environment that encourages better employee performance, collaboration and growth.

2. Light

Natural light in any office is crucial: it helps keep your workforce productive, motivated and healthy. Aim for a combination of natural and artificial light so the office stays pleasant throughout the working day. Whether it’s natural or artificial, your lighting is what largely sets the mood and atmosphere.

Large windows or skylights are an easy win, and impress visitors. If you have a small office, make the most of the windows you do have and avoid blocking light with commercial office furniture. Where natural light is scarce, LED lighting will brighten a dark space. Many modern lighting choices will cut energy costs at the same time.

3. Comfort and ergonomics

Comfort should never be ignored in an office furniture fit out. Workers spend much of the day sitting down, so prevent strain and loss of concentration by providing appropriate, ergonomically designed business office furniture.

Choose adjustable furniture that can be configured to the user rather than the other way round, an adjustable chair can be set higher for an employee of shorter stature, for instance. Healthy, comfortable employees produce their best work. At BT Office we stock height adjustable desks, ergonomic task seating and comfortable soft seating.

4. Storage

To keep an office organised and efficient, getting the right workplace storage solutions is essential. With so much paperwork, stationery, filing and equipment to house, storage should work around your team rather than the other way round.

Decide first whether every employee needs storage at their desk, or whether a central locker system would work better. Wall storage is usually worth considering too: making efficient use of wall space frees up floor space and desks that would otherwise become cluttered. A cluttered office costs you time as well as looking messy, because people spend valuable minutes trying to find things.

From office cabinets and filing systems to desks and shelving, we offer a full range of workplace storage solutions that keep workspaces clutter free.

5. Noise and acoustics

Office acoustics is one of the most important aspects of office space planning, and one of the most commonly skipped. Distracting noise, especially in open plan offices, is a major concern and should be addressed at the planning stage. If your office layout design doesn’t have the right acoustic measures in place, it leads to employee stress and lower productivity later on.

During the design process, build in spaces where individuals can focus without interfering with colleagues. Sound treatment such as acoustic panels can be installed around meeting or conference rooms to stop noise travelling. Choose materials for your workspace furniture that absorb sound well and don’t echo or amplify unnecessary noise.

6. Movement and flexibility

A good office furniture fit out should allow for movement. A flexible office naturally encourages collaboration, which in turn promotes creative thinking. Office booths and comfortable office sofas give people somewhere to move away from their desk for a change of environment; standing desks, collaboration tables and soft seating do the same job.

If you’re a growing business, it’s always best to avoid built-in desks, in case you need to rearrange your office to accommodate a bigger team later.

Choosing the right corporate office layout

All corporate office layouts should be functional, comfortable and inviting. An unattractive, disorganised office space is hardly going to inspire your workforce to be productive.

One of the first things to look at is the configuration and shape of your space, and whether it works with the layout you have in mind. Office space design helps you define distinct zones for each department, including where equipment, furniture and hardware are best placed. Creating dedicated areas throughout the workplace is what makes a corporate office layout pay off.

You will also need to decide what share of the floor goes to private offices, what goes to meeting spaces, and what goes to open workstations — which brings you to the open versus closed question.

Open vs closed office layouts

Advantages of an open office layout:

Promotes transparency
Encourages collaboration
Increases engagement and creates a sense of teamwork
Encourages creativity
More cost-effective
Improves accessibility

Drawbacks of an open office layout:

Illness spreads more easily
Personalities can clash with nowhere to retreat to
Noise, unless acoustics are planned in

Advantages of a closed office layout:

Optimum privacy
A defined hierarchy
Fewer distractions and improved focus

Drawbacks of a closed office layout:

Less communication between teams
Expensive to build
Easier for negative behaviour to go unnoticed
Harder to supervise

Most offices end up somewhere between the two. Floor standing office partitions are a practical middle ground: available in fabric, wood and glass, they can be linked to any required size, moved easily, and used to create flexible rooms you can adapt as the team changes.

Modern office layout design examples

Modern office layout designs focus on a flexible approach to working, which helps promote wellbeing and a healthy culture. Unlike traditional office designs, they generally embrace open floor plans: permanent walls are replaced with low-walled cubicles, office pods, collaborative working areas and glass walls.

The advantage of this approach is that you can modify the layout easily as the business changes, without a building project each time.

IT and AV considerations

When it comes to corporate office layouts, IT considerations are just as important as furniture, because you want the furniture to work harmoniously with everything else. Make sure there’s space allocated for light sources, electrical outlets and phone points at every workstation. Map out where desks will go first, then position sockets and outlets accordingly.

Video conferencing and AV deserve the same attention at the planning stage. These tools are now one of the main ways teams connect, whether colleagues are at home, in the office or off-site. Conference room media cabinets are a practical option: staff in the room can collaborate with remote colleagues using large screens and video conferencing, without cables run across the floor as an afterthought.

Health, hygiene and wellbeing

Your layout has a direct effect on how healthy the office is. Build these in at the planning stage rather than retrofitting them:

Choose corporate office furniture and building materials that can be easily cleaned and sanitised
Keep humidity levels between 40% and 60%
Increase ventilation and filtration, good ventilation improves air quality and makes for a cooler, more comfortable workspace
Keep hygiene products stocked and easy to reach, including hand sanitiser at workstations, paper towels and cleaning products
Make sure employees understand their individual responsibilities for a clean, safe and healthy workplace, and that health and safety training is current

If your office has been closed or barely used for a long period, a professional deep clean before people return is a sensible reset and a good opportunity to review whether your cleaning arrangements are up to scratch.

Planning for hybrid and remote working

With more people working remotely at least part of the week, many businesses have questioned whether they need as much office space as they have. Cutting back can deliver significant savings with little impact on productivity or service levels.

It cuts both ways. Some argue that remote working makes it harder to see who is contributing, and the effect of reduced interaction on mental health is a genuine consideration. The decision sits with the individual business but it needs to be made before you plan the space, not after.

Meeting rooms are the clearest example. If demand for your meeting and boardrooms has dropped, ask whether that much floor area still earns its place. Some of it may be better used spreading out your commercial office furniture or creating breakout spaces where employees can take video calls. Where rooms are in heavy use, a scheduling system and a displayed maximum occupancy keeps them workable and gives your cleaning team a slot between bookings.

Outdoor working is worth planning for too. Plenty of people got used to working outside and still value it. Comfortable outdoor furniture, plus heat lamps and canopies for changing weather, turns a courtyard or terrace into usable space for meetings, brainstorms and one-to-ones.

Office furniture

Last but not least, workplace furniture. Your team deserves a space to work in that is private, comfortable and flexible, so accommodating their needs should be a pillar of your office space design.

When arranging workstations during your office furniture fit out, think about creating different zones. Build a workflow that complements your day-to-day business operations rather than working against it.

Office décor

A corporate office layout isn’t only about the practical elements. Many companies brand their office space just as they brand their website, social channels and products, and with the range of furniture and finishes available it’s straightforward to carry your branding into your office space design.

Small touches make a big difference. Even a clean, minimalist look has room for finishing touches plant pots and prints that pull the design together.

Office space planning services and software

What your office layout design needs to answer

Office space planning might sound like a simple task, but there is a lot to establish before a plan is worth drawing. Your office layout design should take into account:

Which departments or teams will be working in the space?
How many employees will be working in the space?
Which employees need specific features?
How many people move through the space?
Which employees interact regularly and need to sit near each other to work effectively?
Which employees need to sit close to equipment such as printers and copiers?
Do you need additional spaces such as conference and meeting rooms, reception areas or storage?

A professional space planning service lets you visualise your office furniture fit out before you commit, understand how your workplace office furniture will actually fit, and test different layouts by moving furniture around on the plan rather than on the floor. BT Office has its own in-house design department with fully trained 2D space planners and 3D visual artists.

Office space planning software

If you are planning at scale, office space planning software gives you the workplace data to plan ahead. It allows you to:

Assess available capacity
Review employee-to-workstation ratios
Create new seating arrangements
Get real-time space data
Adjust cleaning schedules
See how your employees actually use the workplace

Ultimately, office layout design isn’t just about making sure your employees, technology and furniture physically fit into the space you have. It’s about creating a space that works for the people in it.

Office space planning FAQs

What is the minimum desk size for an office workstation?

As a guide, a two-monitor workstation needs a minimum of 1400mm wide x 700mm deep. A single-monitor workstation is usually 1200mm wide x 600mm deep, and an occasional or laptop-only workspace can work at around 700mm wide x 600mm deep. Confirm against the IT equipment and paperwork each role actually uses.

What are the main office space planning guidelines?

Space and desk sizes, light, comfort and ergonomics, storage, noise and acoustics, and movement. Work through those six in order, on a floor plan, before you buy anything.

Is an open plan office better than a closed layout?

Neither is better in the abstract. Open plan is more cost-effective and better for collaboration and transparency, but harder on noise and privacy. Closed layouts protect focus and privacy but cost more to build and reduce communication between teams. Most offices use partitions, pods and screens to get some of both.

Do I need a floor plan before buying office furniture?

Yes. It is the only reliable way to check that what you are about to order actually fits, and it lets you test alternative arrangements while changing them still costs nothing. Buying first and planning afterwards is the most common and most expensive mistake in this process.

Plan your office space with BT Office

BT Office has been a leading UK office furniture supplier since 1994. We offer comprehensive 2D and 3D office space planning and design services, and we use our own fleet of vehicles and our own team of specialist fitters, so your furniture arrives undamaged and is installed by people who know the products.

To discuss your office space planning, call 0800 298 7033, email [email protected] or fill in an online contact form and one of our experts will get back to you. You can also visit one of our showrooms across the UK.