8 ways to know when you've outgrown your office

Your office space is you, and your employees second home. As your business decides to expand the space will get smaller, and smaller, until eventually, it will end up over-cluttered, and unworkable in! Here are 8 signs that indicate that your office space has become too small, and it’s probably time to search for a new one to accommodate your growth.

‘You have about 5 times more employees than 3 years ago’

As obvious as it may sound, the more people you hire, the bigger space you will need. It is important that you plan ahead, whereby you do not hire more staff until you have a longer term plan sorted to provide a comfortable space for every single employee. A successful business will more than likely need to expand by at least 2 new employees every 2 years. So the longer you stay at one place and the more people you hire, the less space you will have to accommodate them comfortably.

No relaxation place for your employees

If the office space looks like a school canteen, it’s a big sign to change office spaces! Your employees need their ‘own time’ and space during breaks to re-energize. If you’re noticing that it takes an entire lunch time for people to use the microwave, the coffee machine, or the hot water dispenser, then you know it's time to find a new serviced office space with a bigger kitchen space and more facilities.

Not enough space in conference rooms

Do you need an extra chair during meetings? Do you have to squeeze your employees between each other? Well, if that’s the case you should probably need to move to a building that offers larger conference rooms. There are serviced offices which offer various sizes of conference rooms to suit companies with the need to hold larger meetings.

Complaining Employees

It is likely that an overcrowded office space will have complaining employees. Watch out for them. It may not be direct complaining to you, but it could be comments such as “there’s no space available to book a meeting room”, or having to cut meetings short because of overbooking. Whatever comments you may hear related to ‘space’, just know that employees are not happy, and this is suggesting it is time to look for a new office space.

No private space?

If your employees are forced to share desk space because there isn’t enough space, it’s definitely time to change offices. Everyone needs their own desk space to be able to feel more productive. Hearing clicking keyboards about 50 cm away could make some people feel annoyed, and in that scenario, feel very unproductive.

Client targets are not met

One way you’ll know that you have outgrown your office by not meeting clients requirements and targets. Deliverables are late, and the work is not up to standards. This may not be because your staff doesn't know what they are doing, but simply because they have lost the motivation to do certain things. A bigger office space will drive your stuff towards success as they will feel more untroubled to work.

‘Working from home’ excuse

You’ll often hear your employees asking to work from home because of certain reasons such as “doctor's appointment” or “there’s a parcel coming which has to be signed” whatever excuse it might be, it may be because your employees do not enjoy staying in the crowded office, and find more peace working from home.

Stuck for storage (the paperwork mountain)

When you’ve outgrown your office, you will often find a pile of untouched paperwork mountain. Having several paper mountains indicates that your office got small, and your business’ growth hasn’t been accommodated adequately. Sometimes storing documents in filing cabinets could make the situation worse as you do not want to shower the office with cabinets to the extent that there is hardly any breathing space for your employees.

These are the signs that you should look out for when thinking about whether or not you have outgrown your office. A smaller office space, despite having lesser overhead costs, can seriously affect your employees - making them feel tired, annoyed and even stressed. This will impact your quality of work, client happiness, and bottom line profits.

Flexioffices allows you to search by number of desks, by location and filter by office facilities to find the perfect office space for your business.

Check out our moving office checklist infographic to prepare you for the big day, good luck!