You may be one of many SME’s in the UK who are looking to expand, or just needing to relocate your offices to make them easily accessible for your employees. Whatever the reason for moving offices, one thing you will have to consider is whether you want closed plan offices for you and your staff to work in. There are a wide range of partitions you can choose from, such as glass partitions which usually require frameless glass doors, or solid walled demountable partitions. So stay with us as we run through some of the positives and negatives of closed plan office layouts, and then we’ll let you decide on whether it is a viable option.

A closed plan office layout means your employees will have an increased amount of privacy. Whether each employee has a separate office or if a few employees share an office space, this can be very useful for jobs that require a distinct amount of privacy, such as law and accountancy roles where client information and details will need to kept under wraps.

This layout also gives employees a chance to get away from the noise and stress of an open plan office, allowing them to work in a quiet and peaceful environment. This will help them when staying focused on the tasks in hand, and they will also not have the distractions that come with working in a busy office environment. Other positives include listening to your own music and selecting the temperature of the heating/air conditioning units, which will make your staff feel all the more comfortable when carrying out their daily tasks.

On the other hand, many feel closed office layouts create a culture of individualism among the working office, which can have a real detrimental effect when it comes to group tasks and team bonding. This can also lead to delays and deadlines being missed, as communication is not as fast or effective as it would be in an open office plan layout.

On top of that, enclosed offices aren’t necessarily the best use of office space. It could also make your employees feel entrapped or a little bit claustrophobic from having such a small working office, which can lead to stress and anxiety, but this of course depends on the layout and the type of partitions used. Glass partitions can open up many more options, and provide something which is enclosed and private whilst still giving a feeling of space and openness.

If a poor design is carried out in a partitioned office, not a lot of natural light actually gets in to the office. This means the working environment can become very uninspiring, and your electricity bill can increase substantially. Glass partitions and frameless glass doors are normally a good alternative to combat such a problem, as they allow plenty of natural light to flow through the office building.

The suitability of an enclosed office plan is dependent on the nature of your business, so they’re not for everyone. Hopefully we’ve now supplied you with all the facts you need to come to a decision about the partitioning requirements of your business.