Traffic flow or people flow, as used interchangeably, points to the movement of the employees in the office. Smoother people flow means employees or visitors walk around the space with greater ease and lesser waiting times. It is vital to note that even the slightest waiting time contributes to wasted and interrupted time that can tip the scale of employees' productivity by a significant amount. Space planning, therefore, is an essential approach to note when designing commercial spaces and is often an aspect that is overlooked by many.
Hence, without further ado, we have gathered some great renovating ideas for your office to help you achieve better control over people flow by creating a space that is less congested, more productive, and easier to manoeuvre around.
Minimise crossflows
Traffic congestions may happen in your office space should there be high-volume flows intersecting with one another. Hence, optimising your office layout with adequate space planning is critical during your office interior renovation.
Do so by making sure that the main pathways that you will expect the majority of your employees to take in order to move around the office do not intersect with one another. This will significantly ensure that people get to walk in a single direction without having to be clashing with others walking from the opposite direction.
Reduce furnishings' and partitions' heights
Besides making your office space seems larger, reducing the height of your furnishings and partitions between spaces increases accessibility and visibility. It allows your employees to get a clearer view of the office from wherever they are, hence, enabling them not to make unnecessary trips which increases the occurrence of blocked pathways and congested spaces.
Reduce travel times
While improving people flow does help to shorten travel times, there are additional measures you can adopt to improve the purpose too. For example, installing lifts during the renovation process allows your employees to switch between various levels of the office more efficiently. This also reduces the congestion and burden on escalators and staircases, thus improving traffic flow.
Keep common pathways away from employees' workstations
The last thing you want in your office is a focused staff at their workstations or cabins to be distracted or disturbed by their colleagues walking around. Creating a space and planning for proper pathways ensure that unnecessary trips are not made directly outside employees' workstations, creating an environment that encourages focus and productivity.
Plan for an efficient and easy-to-follow navigation route
The key factor that results in bad people flow and congestion is visitors or clients that go to your office for the first time and are not able to navigate their way around the office easily because of the layout. Therefore, whether you show a physical layout of the office or a digital version, make sure that efficient, obvious, and easy-to-understand signages are included so that they know where exactly they need to head.
Conclusion
Higher control of people flow in your office means that visitors and employees can make their way through the place efficiently, easily, and quickly. When that happens, congesting levels and travel times around the office are also greatly reduced, hence improving the well-being and happiness of the space. Using these ideas mentioned in this article, your office interior designer is able to target better traffic flow in their design plan.
Should you require office space planning as well as corporate office interior design, do not hesitate to contact OSCA Asia at +65 6336 1800 to get started on a productive space today!