This Covid-19 pandemic has ignited global conversations like the most notable being social distancing. This pandemic indeed demonstrated that a considerable amount of work can be done even when offices are closed and also people can work from anywhere and enjoy the freedom of a more relaxed schedule. But, what will the shared office of the future, and how much office space will companies want?

To understand how much space you’ll need per employee, you need to visualize the future office space and ask yourself the following questions.

• What kind of growth is the company expecting?
• How many people are going to work from office and how many are going to work from home?
• What type of space does each department need to have to work efficiently?
• How many people are going to be in meetings daily? How many people will be heads down in focused work?
• What is the functional & operational goal the company wants to achieve with the office space?

In order to determine the office can categorize in to three types:

• High Density (80 – 100 square feet per employee): Majority open seating with rows of small desks. May have fewer private offices. Usually seen in companies that have many different teams within the same space, as well as for sales, marketing, technology, co-working, and customer support offices.
• Average Density (90-150 square feet per employee): Mix of open cube or desk space and private offices. It’s more like a traditional office layout.
• Spacious (60-110 square feet per employee): The majority of the space consisting of large private offices.

Common Areas And Meeting Rooms

Not all 250 Sq. feet will be dedicated to the employees’ workspace, but rather some percentage of space will be separated into common areas, break areas, and conference rooms. When it comes to proactive common area design is key, because it will impact the sense of teamwork and unity and even can affect productivity as well.

For spacious office – One conference room for every ten employees.

For a traditional office with 300 sq. ft. per employee, you will need fewer communal workspaces. Typically it needs one conference room for every 20 employees.

In the new normal post-pandemic, it is mandated to de-densify offices, businesses need to ensure employees can connect frequently and more seamlessly. Therefore, more smaller conference rooms can ensure employee safety and also working efficiently.

Estimated the Size Of Office Elements

Areas like reception area, conference rooms, dining, common rooms, break rooms, etc are important for companies that will be highly efficient.

The following numbers should give you a view of the standard sizes for several types of work areas within your overall office space:

• Large Private or Shared Office: 100 – 150 sq. ft.
• Medium Private or Shared Office: 90 – 120 sq. ft.
• Small Private Office: 60-110 sq. ft.
• Work Group Areas: 80 – 100 sq. ft. per employee

Hereabouts some determined numbers to assist you get a view of how much space some features of an office environment consume, and to help you calculate how much space you need:

• Conference Room: 50 sq. ft. + 25 sq. ft. per person seated
• Reception Area: 100 – 200 sq. ft. per person waiting
• Lunch/Break Room: 75 sq. ft. + 25 sq. ft. per person seated
• Halls/Corridors within the space: 20% to 30% of the total usable area
• Mail Room: 125 sq. ft.
• File Room: 200 sq. ft.

Six-Feet Concept

Globally, in order to ensure employee safety during this pandemic COVID-19 crisis, most of the corporate introduced the concept called “Six feet office space”. 

The main objectives of the concepts are:

• Be welcome at work with precautionary measures like sanitizer, masks, etc.
• Strict to the rules and follow the signs.
• Stay safe at six feet each other when employee interaction.
• Walking the office clock-wise, always & everywhere you go.
• Enter and leave the meeting rooms as indicated.
• Replace your desk pad daily and leave a clean desk.

We also consider some other points to what the future holds in our new normal and rethink office spaces through both forward-thinking, simple, inexpensive ways to protect your employees and help them feel safe when coming back to the office.

• Workstation prioritizes physical distancing that creates a safe distance between your employees and redesigns the tables to accommodate the new guidelines.
• Open space floor plans are recommended that will be easier to clean and limit the surface areas like door handles, arms of chairs, and most touched objects.
• Equip the office space with adaptable furniture and appliances that will limit touching and make the workspace more efficient.
• Businesses need to communicate clearly & transparently with employees like road markings, social distancing stickers, and floor stickers are the best way to keeping the employee’s proper social distance and reduce density.
• Unconventional models like unique office spaces, floor plans can help & encourage employees to be efficient, productive, and keep them safer & healthier.

There will be a lot of focus on the future of work and how employees working styles are evolving, especially during this pandemic time. Flexibility and forward-thinking are the key areas to determine the office space and environment you build.

The world still deals with the Covid-19 pandemic and looking forward to a new normal & keeping hygiene is a high priority.  Chennai One IT Park is ready to equip with modern, flexible office space, and new office layouts to ensure employees feel safe & comfortable.