January 15, 2018 
Closing your business so you can refurbish your office space can be costly. Especially if you have to shut down your business for two weeks or longer. Here are some tips on how to refurbish your office without having to close your business.
1) Organise a refurbishment plan
Depending on the layout fo your office space, you might be able to get your refubishment completed in sections. Start from one side of the office. When each room is completed you can move your employees into the completed areas.
For this to be successful, you need to consider how any refurbishment work will affect your staff’s work performance. Drilling and repetitive banging can be very disruptive. If your employees are talking to clients on the phone, background noise can make it difficult for your staff to work effectively. During an office refurb, the worst thing you can do is upset your employees.
Talk to the office refurbishment company you’re working with and they’ll be able to organise their work plan. If they know what times they need to be more careful with what noise they make, you can reduce the chance of staff being disrupted.
Before any refurbishment work takes place, you need to talk to your staff and listen to any concerns they have. So you can avoid anyone being upset or irritated by the disruptions.
2) Refurbish in evenings
Doing work on your office space in the evenings is perhaps one of the best solutions. Once your employees have finished work, you’ll have the space to do any joinery or noisy refurbishment work.
Without any staff in the office, you don’t have to worry about any potential health and safety hazards that could be harmful to your employees.
After your work team has completed their work in the evening, it’s important they tidy up as your staff will be in the next morning. Tools, equipment and machinery can be a potential hazard if they are left out.
3) Refurbish on the weekends
Getting refurbishment work done on the weekends is another possible solution to avoid closing your office.
Unlike evenings, the weekend offers two full days for uninterrupted building work to commence. For this option to work, you need to talk to your office design team. Some companies may have higher rates for weekend work. Either way, getting your office fitted out on a weekend may be better than closing your office for two days.
4) Ask employees to work from home
Depending on your business, it may be possible to ask employees to work from home whilst the office is getting fitted out. This way, your business stays open but your office is empty of staff.
Before any work starts on your office refurbishment, talk to your employees. If you want them to work from home, ask them what they think about it and if they have any concerns. Most people will be able to work happily from home but some employees may be unable to work in their own house. Take the opportunity to talk to your staff and consider the possibilities of asking them to work from home whilst the office fit out takes place.
Get an office refurbishment from an experienced company
As an office refurb is an expensive financial step for businesses, it’s important you hire the services of a company who specialises in office refurbishments. At Elm Workspace we’ve worked with JustEat and Clarks, along with many commercial and education businesses.
