Signs You Have Outgrown Your Current Office Setup

It’s a fantastic feeling when your business is expanding, but the added responsibilities can often bring their own growing pains. Whether you’re scaling up rapidly or your team is growing more steadily, your open-plan office, which once seemed so spacious, can suddenly feel a little constrictive. Sometimes all you need to do is shift the desks around, and you can stay put; shaking things up with some new layouts can often breathe new life into your office space. But there will eventually come a time when that just isn’t going to cut it. So, how do you know when it’s time to accept that you’ve outgrown your space and you need to upgrade to something more suited to your needs?

Your People Need More Space

How much space you require will depend on the needs of your business. The statutory minimum (required by health and safety law) is eleven cubic metres per person. For a typical room, this allows for a workspace of less than 2×2 metres per person. This shows you can fit a lot of people into a room, but in practice, even with a desk-based job, people will feel squashed long before you get to that point.

Rather than considering space per person, consider how the space is being utilised. Does everyone have a desk? Can people walk around freely? Are chairs often in the way, or even bumping into other furniture when employees stand up?

If team members are complaining about cramped conditions, why not relocate to one of our serviced offices? Since we provide shared facilities, such as collaborative spaces, your workspace can focus purely on workstations and productive areas, offering everyone greater freedom to operate.

Nothing Is Private in Your Current Space

Privacy doesn’t automatically require a completely separate space. A thoughtfully designed workspace allows staff to operate without feeling constantly monitored, and quiet discussions can occur without being overheard or interrupting other colleagues.

Whether or not your company has privacy or confidentiality needs, these issues always create an impact. Studies of workplace environments have demonstrated that feelings of autonomy improve motivation and output, but even a sense of being watched can diminish employee satisfaction and morale.

Similarly, while ambient noise doesn’t bother most individuals, and many find a moderate level of ambient noise actually boosts productivity, being able to clearly hear specific conversations is disruptive because the mind will automatically process those words.

Take a few moments to assess your current office, and you’ll soon get a sense of whether it feels overcrowded. An effective solution to your office space problems is to use managed offices. Contact us, and we can show you how we can help you scale up or down, so you always have the ideal office space.

You Can Never Book a Meeting Room

Meeting spaces and breakout areas may be essential to your business, but have you considered what that means if they are always in use?

The most obvious reason they are always in use is that your teams have numerous meetings. This could be a positive indicator, but if you lack the capacity for the volume of meeting activity your company is creating, you require more space.

Sometimes, however, meeting spaces are constantly booked because employees are using them as a refuge. If someone is reserving a meeting room because they need a quiet space to work without interruptions, or to have conversations that could theoretically happen at their desks, but can’t due to excessive noise, this is another sign that your workspace is no longer operating as it should.

Overbooked meeting spaces are a signal that change is needed. And the simplest change is a move to managed office spaces. Our buildings offer high-quality offices, flexibility, and meeting rooms. From a dedicated meeting room to access to bookable meeting rooms, we’ve got you covered.

Your Cupboards Are Overflowing

Modern technology has reduced the amount of physical storage we require. Whether it involves moving documents out of the way or making them more accessible, digital storage is usually the superior option. But we still require some physical storage to retain physical copies of certain documents, and there remains a need to store office equipment.

When your storage areas become jam-packed, it can rapidly create problems. Over-stuffed cupboards make it more difficult to locate items, and staff may find themselves spending increasing amounts of time playing frustrating stationery-cupboard Tetris as they systematically repack items. They can also pose safety risks, with the potential for items to fall, or even create a fire hazard if there’s an abundance of paper.

Packed cupboards may not necessarily mean you require a larger office. Frequently, it’s crucial to streamline your storage. There’s a distinction between being adequately stocked and excessively stocked with supplies, and assessing the necessity to digitise your paper documents may be an adequate solution.

Nevertheless, overflowing storage areas may indicate an overcrowded workspace. If that’s the case, managed office space is a simple way to expand, providing you with professional office accommodation that you can scale as your requirements grow. Call us today, and we can show you how our services can help you as your business changes.

Every Office Amenity Is Overwhelmed

If you are located in a serviced office where numerous facilities are shared, there will be minimal pressure because substantial capacity has been intentionally built in. However, your workspace will likely have certain dedicated facilities used exclusively by your team. Monitoring their usage can indicate when it might be appropriate to upsize.

One area to monitor might be a dedicated break facility that you maintain. You might discover that there is a schedule, formal or informal, for when employees have lunch because your compact rest area cannot accommodate everyone otherwise, or you might observe that there are multiple kettles because staff were waiting excessively long for their mid-morning coffee break.

Moving to a managed space at Pinnacle House eliminates these capacity constraints entirely. Our facility provides extensive shared amenities designed with generous capacity in mind. With over 100 on-site parking spaces, spacious kitchens, and multiple break-out areas, bottlenecks become a thing of the past. Our ultra-fast fibre broadband ensures technology never slows your team down, while our comfort cooling maintains an optimal working environment year-round.

Your Office No Longer Suits Your Business

Companies are dynamic, and expansion is a part of that evolution. Your two-person startup might now be twenty employees.

In addition to the physical pressures that expansion can put on your workspace, you may want to consider alternative locations, either to be more convenient for your staff or to facilitate future talent acquisition.

Expansion will bring new and different customers. These considerations may also prompt you to think about location differently, moving you closer to your clients, or even adding facilities so you have a dedicated conference room, rather than a table in a coffee shop, for customer meetings.

And a new workspace might always have been a feature of your strategic plan, even if only informally, and be a milestone of your company’s expansion from startup to established enterprise.

The key question to ask yourself is whether your workspace truly represents your company. If the answer is no, then contact us. Pinnacle House boasts an accessible location just 2 miles from Peterborough city centre, with modern air-conditioned workspaces with comfort cooling, and a manned reception. Pinnacle House is a ready-made professional home for your enterprise.

The Pinnacle House Advantage

What distinguishes moving to a professionally managed workspace goes beyond simply acquiring additional square footage. These strategic advantages create measurable improvements in how your business operates.

Be where the action is: Fengate is Peterborough’s major business district, with just 10 minutes to the A1 and frictionless access to the A47, so key markets are at your fingertips. An efficient journey to London King’s Cross by rail in just 75 minutes will open doors to new markets in the capital, while the excellent transport links to other towns and cities, including Stamford, Spalding and Huntingdon, mean you can access a wider pool of talent and potential customers.

Plug and play into the infrastructure you need to win business. A manned reception means you hit the ground running, and clients walking through the door immediately see a professional and credible business operation. Avoid bottlenecks with ultra-fast fibre broadband and secure Wi-Fi. Hybrid meetings let you move easily between in-person and remote work, providing a competitive advantage in 2021 and beyond.

Scale up and down: Offices for 1-12 and meeting rooms for 2 – 60 delegates mean you will never have to compromise by over-stretching your team in tight spaces, or paying for underused space.

What to Consider

While the benefits of upgrading to a professionally managed office space are substantial, making an informed decision requires understanding the full picture.

Financial planning requires careful consideration beyond the monthly office rent. Virtual office solutions start at £50 + VAT monthly, while fully serviced offices range from £750 + VAT for 4-6 people to £950 + VAT for 6-8 people. Meeting room hire provides flexibility but adds costs for regular use, with rates from £75 + VAT for half-day boardroom sessions, up to £195 + VAT for large conference facilities.

Timing considerations can impact your transition success. The 9 AM – 5 PM manned reception hours work well for conventional business operations, but consider how this aligns with your team’s working patterns. Our 24/7 secure access supports flexible working while managing visitor access during unmanned hours.

Space allocation decisions require an honest assessment of your actual versus perceived needs. The psychological comfort of having ‘room to grow’ must balance against the practical costs of unused space. Consider whether your business truly needs dedicated office space year-round, or if hot desk and day office options might serve some team members more cost-effectively.

Location accessibility extends beyond transport links to practical daily considerations. While being 2 miles from Peterborough city centre offers suburban tranquillity, consider how this affects lunch options, banking access, and other services your team regularly uses. Our generous parking provision with EV charging points supports car-dependent staff.

Moving to a New Office

Humans are creatures of habit. We are all happy to put up with things we are not 100% happy with, especially if it is a business we believe in, or at least one we enjoy working in. Businesses tend to grow over time, and it is only when you stop and take stock that you really get a sense of the full impact of that growth.

Practical reasons are often the primary driver for moving, such as a workspace that meets your specific needs. However, that is not to say that other things are not a factor, such as the image of your business.

Whatever your reasons for moving, we are here to help. Whether you are just enquiring about the spaces we have to offer or to take a look around Pinnacle House or one of our other serviced offices, just get in touch with us at info@pinnaclehouse.co.uk or on 01733 857600, and we will help you find the space that is right for your business.