News

Soft Wiring and why it is an important consideration for your office fit-out

 

Soft wiring offers power, data, and USB solutions for any office space.

It is a key consideration for your office fit-out or refurbishment, whether it is a small office or a larger corporate environment.

Our soft wiring options make it easy to integrate your power, USB-device charging, and data needs with your workstations. This offers your team easy and safe access to power, data, and device charging options at their desk.

It is a modular wiring plug-and-play solution designed to power commercial and workspace environments.  There are solutions and products for many commercial spaces including desks, meeting rooms, and public and shared spaces.

 

Soft Wiring improves productivity, saves time, and gives your business maximum flexibility to expand it in the future with plug-and-play office power solutions.

A benefit of soft wiring is that it is so flexible, with the ability to be changed or reused for the purpose of power and data distribution within your workspace.

When thinking about soft-wiring for your desks or work pods, some questions to think about are:

• Where is the power/data feed coming from? This can be from the ceiling, floor boxes, nearby walls, or existing furniture.
• Does the power start with a wall socket or a 3-pin point?
• How many workstations will be clustered into pods?
• Will you need Power, data, and device charging for each workstation?
• How many GPOs (Power Boards) are required per desk?
• Will you require power under the desk or above the desk or both?
• Are the workstations static height or Sit to Stand?
• How will the power and data leads be kept neat, tidy, and free from tangling? Keeping it safe from trip hazards in the office.
• What solutions will be needed for meeting spaces and shared or break-out spaces?

 
At Workspace Direct, we stock the leading brands of OE Elsafe and CMS products and solutions. Below are just a few of our most popular products and units, but talk to our team about your requirements and a custom quote. 

 

Under Desk

A basic kit for a workstation/desk space is

SOFT WIRING UNDER DESK CABLE BASKET AND 4 WAY GPO BOARD

  

 

• 4 Way GPO (power delivery) Board
• Cable Basket (if required, as many of our desk ranges come with integrated cable tray/management)
• Starter Lead or an Interconnecting Lead. an Interconnecting lead is required to daisy chain power supply together when desks are in pods of 2 or more.

 

Above Desk

Desk Top Power and Device Charging.  

With a great range of stylish on-desk options available, there is no need for crawling and bumping heads under your desktop when needing to plug in your devices.

OE ELSAFE QIKSILVA POWER AND USB DESK TOP UNITS

 

 CMS NOVA AND VIVA POWER AND USB DESKTOP UNITS

   

OE ELSAFE PIXELTUF POWER AND USB UNIT

   

 

 OE ELSAFE PARTNER POWER USB HDMI/AV PORT POWER BOX UNIT

   

 

 OE ELSAFE PLUTO POWER AND USB UNIT - ON DESK OR MEETING TABLETOP 

 

 

What Is Resimercial Office Furniture In The Workplace?

The term “Resimercial” Design in the workplace has gained more popularity post-Covid, as NZ workers make the move to hybrid working between their homes and the office.

Resimercial office furniture and office design is a balance of elements from both home and the office with a focus on combatting the cold and the traditional commercial feel of an office space, but instead offering a home-like environment.

The elements of home and office have begun to merge, bringing living room inspired office lounges, café-style meeting places, more casual and comfortable collaborative spaces for teams to meet, office desk spaces with technology to suit the hybrid home/office worker, that is on the move, and a general sense of homely comfort.

For many, work is no longer a rigid separation from home and the office. Modern technology has further served to blur the lines of how and where we work.

Features of Resimercial Design

Work is such an important part of our lives. Why shouldn’t the time we spend there be more comfortable?

If you are thinking about bringing Resimercial design and office furniture into your workplace, keep these key design features in mind:

 

• Comfortable seating - Including armchair lounge chairs and modular soft seating
• Meeting booths, rather than meeting rooms
• Softer more ambient lighting
• Flexible spaces for different modes of working – Focused work, collaborative work, casual meeting space, and private or formal meeting spaces….
• Residential-inspired accessories like rugs, cushions and lamps
• Commercial upholstery with a more colourful and creative feel

    

 
So while flexibility and different spaces for different work activity is not a new concept in office design, the Resimercial workplace environments and technology is becoming top of mind as employees are moving away from individual workspaces in favor of more relaxed spaces — akin to what you might find at home.

View some of our soft seating options below, ideal for the Resimercial workplace HERE in our soft seating range

 

       

 

Tips and Challenges When Working From Home

No traffic and long soul-crushing commute, no managers or co-workers hanging over your shoulder, working from home is wonderful! But it does have it's challenges. 

 

Working Too Much

Some managers might worry that employees will slack off while working from home, but in reality the opposite may be true, with remote workers actually overworking.  When your personal and work life all happens under the same roof, it can be hard to switch off. 

How to avoid Overworking

• Set appointments in your calendar for the end of the day and when to take a break
• Be clear with your team when you are leaving
• Create physical boundaries between you and your workspace

How to get the important tasks done

• Eat the Frog - Do your hardest and most challenging tasks early and at the beginning of the day
• 1-3-5 Rule - Plan to do 1 really BIG thing, 3 Medium things and 5 small things every day

Create a comfortable, ergonomic, productive and inspiring work area

The first step is to establish a space for your work-from-home time. The space should be comfortable and enhance productivity and focus. As you would in the office, don’t forget the importance of ergonomics when you are working at home! Make sure you have a good ergonomic office chair for good posture throughout the day, the right amount of work surface to work comfortably and that your monitor is at eye level.
Many of us work off laptops when at home, but if you are settling in for a longer period of time to work from home, a laptop screen maybe too small and cause eye strain and poor posture.

Think about the following products that you might need to make your space ergonomic – Monitor, Monitor Riser, Footrest, Ergonomic Chair, Mouse pad, separate keyboard and mouse to your laptop, sit/stand desk…. Browse Workspace Direct for more ideas.

Get Dressed!

It might seem like a simple tip, but it’s a crucial one!

People love to work from home and stay in their PJ’s. This might work for some people but is it killing your productivity? To ‘dress for success’ does matter as well when you work from home.

You might not wear your usual work attire or wear your usual make up or spend quite so much time on your hair when working from home, but it is important to feel good and feel confident to do your best work. You also want to be ready for those online video meetings and chats!

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

If you don’t usually work from home, chances are there will be some bumps in the road. The key to steering through these bumps is communication.

Make sure you have a plan that lays out expectations for how often you should check in and keep in touch with your colleagues or manager. How will you convey any changes or new projects amongst your team?

Plan and schedule your online video meetings and catch ups. This plan is likely to change as you go and that’s ok, you will soon find what works best for everybody.

Step Away & Step Outside when you need to

With the usual hum and distractions of a physical office or work place, it might be too easy to become absorbed in your work when at home. Don’t forget to get up stretch those legs and get some fresh air every now and then.

Work out a few new routines and create some new good habits that suits your new work at home environment to keep you happy and productive.

Set an alarm for every hour or so, and take 2-5 minutes to stretch and walk around. Regularly stretching helps you maintain great posture. At a minimum, stretch throughout the day so you don’t get fatigued.
 
Keep Clearly Defined Working Hours

I know, hard to do for some workaholics! But just as you would designate and separate your physical workspace, you should be clear about when you’re working and when you’re not at home as well.

You’ll get your best work done and be most ready to transition back to the office if you stick with your regular hours.

Plus, if your role is collaborative, being on the same schedule as your co-workers makes everything much easier for your team.

If you are working from home over the COVID-19 period or setting up for the long term to work from home, visit us at www.workspacedirect.co.nz for all your Home Office Essentials.

Stay Safe, Stay Home and Be Kind!

Office Acoustics - An Essential Design Element for your Office Space

With the advent of open plan offices and open plan living, internal walls are disappearing off design plans. Hard surfaces such as concrete, wood and steel are in popular in modern interiors. This means that office acoustics are essential when considering your office design and layout.

How Sound Travels

 If we want to improve the acoustics in an office, we need to understand how sound waves travel. Sound waves are energy transfers from cell to cell within almost any medium. Sound is vibration, therefore when a sound strikes a hard surface it’s reflected back. Whereas when sound energy passes over a fibrous acoustic material the energy is absorbed and converted to kinetic energy. The more fibrous a material, the better the absorption of sound. In addition, the hard, dense surfaces in the modern office often reflect sound and make it appear louder. 
 

  

Business leaders realise the huge benefits that team collaboration has on productivity. However, a side effect of collaboration is the increased noise created. Colleagues who are trying to focus on work can be disrupted by nearby collaborative discussions. The two needs can be conflicting if taking place in an open place office space.
 
Good or bad acoustics have a significant impact on productivity, employee satisfaction, and health in your workspace.

The ways in which we work are more varied than ever before, but are you providing the right sound environment to ensure health, success and productivity?
Unwanted sound, or noise, is a major consideration in workplaces where employees function in close proximity, often with different expectations and needs regarding sound control in the work space.
 
The effects of poor acoustics in a work place can mean decreased productivity, errors, inefficient use of resources, and ultimately, worsened financial performance. From the perspective of the staff, uncontrolled noise can increase stress levels.

 

Noise is probably the most prevalent annoyance source in offices, and can lead to increased stress for workers

Why workplaces are becoming nosier?
A combination of factors has resulted in workplaces becoming noisier in the past decade including:

• Workplaces ‘opening up’ and encouraging greater mobility and communication between employees
• The focus on teams and groups collaborating in the workplace
• Workstation densities increasing and workstation areas decreasing
• Wireless technologies making it possible for employees to work in any location within the workplace
• Heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment (HVAC) becoming so quiet that it no longer provides enough white noise to adequately mask office conversation. 

 
The importance of reducing noise in the workplace
It is so important that work space design actively reduces the impact of noise for staff. In Australia, an important contribution to receiving the highest Green Star accreditation (six stars) is to manage the sound (or noise) within a workspace – both internal and external sounds. From an employee perspective, if we can reduce noise we can increase acoustic comfort and promote positive employee and work effectiveness outcomes (such as reducing stress and increasing concentration).

Research demonstrates that workplaces should aim to provide ‘non-intrusive privacy’ to minimise conversational distractions and increase conversation privacy.

The design of office interiors has changed considerably.  In the millennial age, private offices virtually disappeared and in their place open and collaborative spaces have been added. This new style of work environment is almost expected by graduating high school and university students because they were born during this shift and are conditioned to work in these spaces, but what about those who were not conditioned?

Most modern offices have spaces dedicated for collaborative work, with small huddle spaces dedicated for conferencing and more private work. These collaborative work areas, designed for group interaction and discussion, can often be a source of high levels of noise which can then travel to other parts of the work space and interrupt those doing more private work. Another issue to look at is if you have multi-generational office spaces, those accustom to higher partitions and quieter work spaces may not work as well in a more open spaces.
At workspacedirect we offer many acoustic solutions for various spaces in your business. There are endless possibilities for applying these acoustic products in your offices spaces.

Visually Acoustics product are now art pieces for your office that add more than acoustic benefits.

 

     

We encourage “energetic and lively” work places, in fact we love them! But sound control is major consideration when designing or modifying your offices.

View some of our Acoustics Range Here or Contact our team today to discuss Office Acoustic options specifically for your work space and issues.

Other Ways to say "I don't have time right now"

The working day can be hectic. Monday to Friday, our days are full with scheduled meetings, unexpected meetings, projects to complete with deadlines, co-workers to help, phone calls to take, phone calls to return, emails to deal with, files to organize, and whatever other emergencies that come our way. By Tuesday, you can already see your best laid plans and workload tumbling. That’s usually when a co-worker or your boss walks to your desk with a “Do you have a minute?”
 
What comes to mind is…. “I don’t have time for this right now,” while true, those words can feel rude. Yet, you are overloaded and must navigate the request. Here are three ways to do just that.
 
“I’m having an eventful day/week. Can we return to this [set a specific time]?”
 
You are achieving three things, you are acknowledging your busy workload to yourself as much as your co-worker, you are scheduling a time frame to come back to their request and you are acknowledging their needs also.
 
Setting a specific and realistic time is important; don’t say “later.” Later is too vague and may be taken as a brush off.
 
Or if it is a less urgent request, how about “I can’t make it a priority right now, but I’ll definitely help when things calm down.”
 
This is saying you want to help, but you can’t commit to any time sensitive projects
 
From there your co-worker may seek someone else’s help, yet you have still shown your willingness to help when you are able. 
 
“I’d be happy to help, but I’ll need a hand on [X] to fit it in my schedule.”
 
This is the trade-off approach. Not only will this help you, it is likely to make your co-worker feel better for asking as well.
 
Ensure the trade-off balances out. You don’t want to accept help for a half-hour project if it means helping your co-worker for three hours. You’ll be even busier than before!  
 
Saying “I don’t have time for this right now” is tactless. It implies your time and workload are more important than your co-worker’s’. One quality these three approaches share is they show your desire to help but leave space for you to offer it when your schedule allows.
 
Planning and rescheduling for when you can focus on the task at hand, ensures your help is always at its best!

Agile, Adaptable and Flexible – The future of the office space

Last month I went to an open evening at my son’s new senior high school (Years 11 – 13) The classrooms have no doors! Open plan spaces and design is throughout the school with some smaller closed in spaces, with glass walls, for quieter high focus learning and teaching environments. Scattered throughout the school are many random collaborative social areas for students to meet and work together on projects and assignments, plus an impressive cafeteria that offers the students more opportunities to meet and gather. Big bold design features are throughout the school, offering inspiring surroundings to do their best work. 

The schools large ‘learning common classrooms’ host three-four concurrent classes at any one point in time. The classes are mixed in both areas of learning and year levels so there is a lot of cross-pollination. The highly open and flexible nature of the school is designed to encourage new methods of learning, both individual and group based. With mobile panels, whiteboards and furniture, spaces of any size can be created to cater for smaller groups.

 

 

This is the environment that some of our now and future work force of NZ have only known.  Closed in individual offices and cubicles with high partitions are foreign working spaces to this generation.  For those of us who watch their children study and do assignments at home, the students of today are all on mobile devices and laptops with no fixed place to work. They happily complete assignments on the couch, the dining room table, or outside on the deck, this is where homework gets done nowadays. When needing a quieter space for more intense study they retreat to their bedrooms or a home office.  So how will NZ businesses adapt to this new work force and how will we provide an agile and flexible work environment to inspire and support our future leaders to ensure our business are relevant, productive and profitable?

There are a growing number of businesses with more mobile teams whose workforces are less predictable than the 9-5 sit at your desk for 8 hours workers of the past. Some businesses might have some employees who work from home 50% of the time, others who travel 30% of the time, and contractors who are only around for short spurts. A 2012 study conducted by the Cisco Corporation confirms this, finding that 60% of today’s assigned offices and cubicles sit empty during a typical day. Given that the average office worker has 200 sq ft of workspace, there would appear to be a lot of room for an overhaul of office architecture.

Co-working space is on the horizon for professional services firms with creative sector clients and a millennial workforce. Co-working can be a catalyst for inspiring and supporting the kind of spontaneous interaction that generates and speeds innovation.

Open offices offer more efficient use of space that are adaptable. They offer the employee more opportunity to work from home or in teams as required. The private office is not likely to make a comeback and it is probably going the way of the phone booth. Researchers surveyed more than 40,000 office workers in 303 companies worldwide and found that the plus sides of an open-plan office (ideas sharing and camaraderie) are far outweighed by the downsides (distractions and noise pollution).

It’s true, the office environment speaks volumes about your organisation – it is the only real tangible evidence you have of your company culture in action and you can’t make a first impression twice. Google, Facebook, Sky, Pixar, LinkedIn, AirBnB….they have all created workplaces that are uniquely designed for who they are and what they do. They have realised how office space can be used as a strategic lever to improve productivity, performance and provide competitive advantage.

Whilst people do different jobs, they do similar activities and have similar needs from their office environment. People need to be able to communicate, to collaborate and have time and space to concentrate effectively in order to drive business growth forward.

A few years ago, the Norwegian telecom company Telenor decided to invest in a strange experiment. They got rid of hundreds of coffee machines, leaving just one for every 120 employees and expanded their cafeteria areas to accommodate more people. Surprisingly, despite the huge costs of the capital investment this experiment yielded a 20% increase in profits, a whopping $200 million.

Why? Because office design can have a huge impact on the efficiency and creativity of employees and the right layout can improve information flow and knowledge exchange within a company. By the simple act of limiting the number of coffee stations, they ensured people from different departments would mix, socialize and network. What followed was improved information flow within the company and spontaneous collaborations between various teams.

 If your business is thinking about a new approach to your office space, relocating or undertaking a new build, below are a few points and spaces pulled together from the web to consider on your journey.  To start the process, consider really important factors, such as your company values, organizational learning and employee wellbeing.  We suggest that you spend one or two days simply observing your teams, talking to them and taking notes on what is important for them and the way they work. Studying your teams at work, you may notice that there are several pillars that define the way they work: collaboration, communication, openness to change, transparency, and predictability of the development process.

Office Spaces for Agile Working

Touchdown

The Touchdown area is where you go to work for short periods, 30 – 90 minutes. It’s an ideal environment for roving sales people who can touchdown to check emails, prepare before a meeting or have a brief catch up after the meeting. It is better than hot-desking as it allows people to work without being distracted and without distracting others. The rules are simple: No large, long or formal meetings should take place in this area and it can also co-exist as a short-term quiet area as required.

 

Breakout

The breakout area is fast becoming part of the normal office landscape. As well as being a place to relax and recharge, it can also be used for informal meetings. This reduces the demand on meeting rooms. Feedback from clients suggest more informal conversations lead to fewer delays on decisions being made and improves productivity.

 

Resources

This is the area for your printer, photocopier, shredder, recycling and stationery. It’s useful in minimising disruption to open plan areas, maximises the efficiency of multi-functional devices (printer/photocopiers) and creates spontaneous communications between people who might not normally speak to each other within the course of their day-job. Its benefits are seven-fold – a specific area for stationery means it can be restocked easily, recycling increases and secure access printers has led to 50% less paper wastage for one company. Resources can also refer to personal storage centres – cloakrooms and lockers. Again this leads to more spontaneous conversations, and in some cases fewer trips and falls as coats and bags are stored away appropriately.

Open Plan

This is the area for working 2 hours or more where you are signalling that you are open to interaction and collaboration. People are encouraged to work out loud in this area where people can pop by and ask you what you’re working on. The rules are simple. Make a beautiful mess! but don’t have prolonged conversations at your desk as it can be distracting for others sitting nearby. Grab a coffee and head to the breakout area instead.

Quiet Space

This is great for training, formal, confidential and large meetings. It reduces demand on desk space and provides an invisible DO NOT DISTURB sign above your head whilst you’re working. The rules are simple – use it or lose it! If you have a booking process for meeting rooms or quiet space and don’t use it within 15 minutes, then it’s free for anyone to use.

Enhance team mobility

Consider installing power and data hubs/terminals in your various spaces or workstation at every desk so it’s easy for your team to move around, changing seats and teams – they can just plug and work. Remember to invest in good monitor handle kits, so each individual can adjust the screen according to their specific needs.

Draw, write and scribble everywhere

Visualising ideas and concepts is one of the most useful tools for learning and forming concrete plans. Every wall in your office could be a blank canvas for your team to use if you cover it with transparent wipe-clean paint. Of course, whiteboards are equally effective. Consider buying a whiteboard on wheels for each team; these can easily be taken to a meeting room and then back to where the team is based. Glass walls can also serve as spaces for scribbles and sticky notes.