Education Space Consultancy

Providing expert timetable and space management consultancy services within the education sector

Planning A Safe Return To The Workplace

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This is our third article in this series looking at the challenges educational institutions face this upcoming academic year. As the lockdown measures begin to weaken, many are starting to think about reintroducing office-based work. However, to do so, policies and processes will need to be put in place or revised. The preparation for the reopening and managing of an office during the era of social distancing involves many challenges. In this third article we focus on the impact of social distancing on the office environment as well as how staff and the estate can be prepared for a safe return. The government’s Working safely during COVID-19 in offices and contact centres document published on 11th May 2020, has been considered within this article.

This discussion has been broken down into the following sections:

  • Can social distancing be achieved in an office environment? 
  • Preparing the estate
    • Social distancing guidelines
    • Identification of high-risk areas
    • Circulation traffic
    • Scenario testing
    • Cleaning
  • Preparing staff
    • Phased return
    • Clear communication
    • Staff feedback
  • How we can help
  • Next time

[Read more…]

Functional Suitability – Does It Matter?

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Over recent articles I have discussed some of the different methods of getting more out of the space you have available, however one key aspect I haven’t touched on often is the importance of knowing how functional your space is and what you need to do to improve its functionality.

The functionality of space(s) is often something that is ignored, but it shouldn’t be. A space with a poor functionality hampers its users, working against the way they would like or need to work, rather than with. By having functional space the users have the space and tools they require to make the most out of their time and perform the best they can.

The best way to understand how functional your space is, is by measuring it! By measuring the functionality of the spaces at your institution you are collecting a data set that measures how the space performs in relation to the expectations for this type of space and the suer requirements/expectations.

This can be done by carrying out a Functional Suitability Survey of an area or the entire [Read more…]

How Do You Make Sure Departments Have The Office Space They Need?

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This can be a tough question to answer, however by gathering key information you can put together an effective and accurate plan of an departments or and institutions office space requirements. Therefore, the first step to finding the answer to this question is gathering this key information.

I touched on this in a previous article Are My Office Spaces Being Well Utilised? and this is part of the consultancy services I and Education Space Consultancy offer – Office Space Utilisation Surveys and Consultancy and Space Modelling. However, to give you some insight into the processes behind calculating office space requirements, for this article I am going to look at the different staff and department information I look to gather and confirm in order to asses how much office space a department needs.

Staff Information

This is one of the core components and as with all  models, the results are only as good as the information you put in, therefore this staff data must [Read more…]