7 Clear Signs that Tell You It’s Time to Expand Your Office

Author: Sahaana Jai

Most of the start-ups may experience this situation where they find themselves in a position of outgrowing their office space. Putting all the employees in a cramped office is not a solution for that. As a business owner, you should know when it is time to move out of the current location and look for a space that is more spacious. Your office atmosphere itself tells you when it’s time to think of expanding your office; you just have to discern the warning signs, before it’s too late.

Here are the 7 signs that warn you about office expansion:

  1. Congested workplace: It is really important for your employees to have enough desk space for them to work without any disturbance. The thing is that, nobody likes it when there’s somebody sitting very close to them and peeping at their desktop all the while. Especially when being on calls all the day is a part of their job, it can be very distracting to those who are sitting close to them.
  2. Break room becomes standing room: When the office gets cramped, it impacts the break rooms as well. Break room or the lunch rooms is a place where the employees spend their break time relaxing for a few minutes. But when break rooms are full, the employees will have to wait for a long time or go out for breaks which certainly will not make them happy. The business owners need to be aware that happy employees are the productive employees, so they need to make sure that they don’t scrimp when it comes to providing adequate space for the employees.
  3. Conference rooms turn work floor: It’s the clear sign that your office is getting crowded because of which you accommodate a few employees in the conference room as a temporary solution. It’s also a red alert indicating business owners to find a permanent solution failing which they will have to lose a few efficient employees.
  4. Overflowing cabinets: These days, computers have reduced paperwork to a great extent, but still some companies rely on documents and records. If yours is one such company and if you find the cabinet doors can’t be closed because of the loads of papers and records filled there, it makes it clear that there’s no enough space to store them which is why they are crammed into a single cabinet.
  5. Mass departure of employees: When your employees are leaving the company for no reason, it may be a wake-up call for you indicating that the office space is not so comfortable for them to work. Don’t lose efficient employees just for a reason that the office space is not good. Consider the input of employees and make the changes on the workplace accordingly; it would help you retain the employees.
  6. Hallway becomes the storage closet: This is yet another indication that your office space is getting cramped and you have no space left for storage. But using the main area of your office as a storage space doesn’t look good as it takes away the professional appearance of the office. This can impact the productivity of your employees making them feel messy.
  7. Parking becomes a challenge: Though parking is not a very serious issue, it certainly is a sign that your office space is getting filled up and you have no space left to accommodate new employees. This is the time you have to look for a space if you are planning to add new employees to the office.

These points are the clear indications for a business owner that it’s a high-time for them to think about making their move towards a spacious office space. Growing companies will always have increasing needs; new equipment, more employees and other resources to meet the business demands. If you are limiting all those just because of the lack of space, you are actually limiting the potential growth of your business which shouldn’t be the case.