Watch your space

Considering Relocating? Cachet presents a simple pre-lease guide to help you in your assessment.

COVID-19 has flipped conventional working styles. However, there is no denying the increasing desire to ditch the home office and return to the commercial office as soon as we can.

Business leaders approaching end-of-lease tenancies now are at an invaluable advantage. You have an opportunity to focus your attention to the refresh of your company’s work style to get ahead of this trend. Selecting a space that aligns with the growing flexible work style, is the first step.

To do this successfully, you must define your leasing needs that fall beyond budget, looking at your optimal workplace in its entirety, before entering the leasing market or concluding a leasing transaction.

Cachet Group supports leaders and business owners in this process through our pre-leasing services. The formula is simple but draws on the vast experience our team holds, thereby revealing proven insights that benefit your company, giving you the tools to make the most of your future workplace.

Employees

The number of employees is the primary indicator for your leasing requirements but understanding the dynamics of your staff is the next step.

When entering a long-term lease, leaders must forward plan; consider your intentions to grow and the personas of your future employee pool. Although most fit into the traditional work style now, we must not disregard the steady growth of employees preferring flexible work and the influence this will have on your leasing decisions. This may for instance, result in reducing your current floorplan or increasing to accommodate for collaboration spaces and large breakout areas.

Experience

Often as leaders, you may not be conscious of the day-to-day experiences your team goes through. At Cachet Group, we have developed utilisation studies to fill this gap in knowledge. This involves analysing the activity of your staff throughout the week. The utilisation study is focused on staff behaviours and experiences; how staff use their desks, the flow of traffic between your teams, overused or underused areas, etc. We also partner with Meta5 Group where required, who offer detailed workplace strategy, involving leadership & team workshopping, staff surveys, and site assessments.

The findings that are uncovered may be surprising, but they reveal fundamentals that leaders can act on to redefine a workplace tailored to their business. Thereby, promoting positive work experiences which is a priority for employees in the current economy.

Company Culture

Culture is the driving force in your organisation and your workspace must support it. This means considering areas such as breakout and communal spaces that encourage collaboration and inclusivity. Through activities like our utilisation studies, you may find these areas lacking in your current footprint therefore moving to a new lease provides opportunity to alter your space to suit.

Functionality

Functionality ties into the factors previous, leaders must understand whether their workplace is traditional, activity-based or shifting. This influences your spatial requirements in storage, meeting rooms, security, IT and more.

The placement of your teams in the space is equally important in your pre-lease decision-making; consider how your teams work with each other. Downsizing your footprint and grouping incompatible teams together harms employee productivity and satisfaction whilst increasing your footprint more than what you require can create division and harm collaboration.

Cachet Group use proven methods to identify the balance between functionality and employee performance, providing an ideal footprint band (SqM) that you can provide your leasing agents and landlords.

What’s next?

A company is reliant on its people, and prioritising space selection beyond budget and headcount, greatly benefits your employee morale and therefore your business.

Selecting a lease can be both challenging and overwhelming for a business. By partnering with Cachet Group, who specialise in all disciplines of workplace design, from pre-leasing and space planning to design and construction, you will receive highly efficient outcomes that place your business strongly in the changing workplace.

In integrating all factors well, with our support, you can make a pivotal difference for your business, now and in the future.

Ready to chat?

Get in touch with us for your preleasing support.

Chloe Franklin-Hall
027 339 6292
chloefranklinhall@cachetgroup.com