Commercial Furniture: Everything You Need To Know
Looking to improve your office and want to find out everything you need to know about commercial furniture? Well you have come to the right place.
Good quality furniture, enhances and complements our lifestyle. Like all our work surroundings, commercial furniture plays a significant role in improving your employees productivity and overall satisfaction at work.
Furniture not only has great utility but has significant potential to make your workspace more functional, flexible and on brand – something that is now a priority for businesses bringing their employees back to the office. It is important for businesses to not only have a visually pleasing workspace to represent their story and purpose but one that actually works in supporting their employees needs – a quality furniture is often overlooked for. Working in unattractive and impractical surroundings can really decrease your employees motivation and happiness levels, and therefore will impact your overall business performance.
For businesses looking to improve their workspace, knowing what commercial furniture to chose, which suppliers to use and the various benefits involved, can be a rather overwhelming process. Office refurbishments are already a daunting journey, giving business owners a lot to think about and take in. So to remove any added unnecessary headaches, we wanted to enlighten you on everything there is to know about commerical furniture.
Tribe, Dthree’s in-house team of furniture experts, work closely with our clients to create tailor made working environments, through considered furniture selections. Sales Director, Luke Cherry, talks to us about all things commercial furniture.
What is the difference between commercial and shelf furniture?
“Commercial furniture is built for higher usage than most residential furniture, meaning is it notably more hard wearing and will last longer than items we can pick up from high street retailers. Due to the higher usage levels, there is also the benefit of longer warranties for up to 10 years on most manufacturers, meaning businesses do not have to worry about replacing their furniture any time soon!
Commercial furniture can also be bespoke and carefully selected to reflect the clients brand values and business purpose. Selections can be tailor made to complement both the design and building finishes to ensure the space feels connected and consistent. Due to the multi-functional areas within the office today, commercial items are also more modular and adaptable, so are perfect for supporting flexibility and agile working requirements.”
What supplier (s) should businesses use and why?
“At Tribe we are not supplier bias. We have over 200 suppliers on our books and base our furniture proposals on a client by client basis, which includes identifying and understanding the clients unique working needs, their future business and growth plans, the design proposals of the space, flexibility requirements and of course their budget and time frames. We approach each of our projects with and open mind, there is no in house style or copy and paste scheme. Instead, a sympathetic understanding of the current challenges you may be facing and a desire to find the right furniture solution for you.”
How do businesses find the right furniture for their employees and environment?
“Its all about undertsanding your people and their needs. Business owners need to be asking the right questions, whether thats through appointing workplace analysis experts, design and build consultants, or simply just having the heads of each department find out what is important for their teams through online surveys. Everyone works differently and has different requirements within their roles to fulfil and furniture plays a huge part in supporting these. Whether you need sit / stand desks for those busy ‘on the move’ teams such as sales and business development, soft seating areas for those that need to get their heads down away from open plan areas, or even just a variety of modular chairs and tables for cultural togetherness, such as team lunches and company events.
If you have already appointed a design and build team to help you with your move or office refurbishment, then furniture suppliers should be collaborating with the team to ensure your needs are met, from the minute you enter the space at the reception desk and waiting area, all the way through to the boardroom table.”
Are there any trends businesses should be looking out for after a year at home?
“After 12 months of working from our sofas and kitchen tables, flexibility and connectivity is a big commercial furniture trend at the moment. Businesses want their people to be able to work in all areas of the office, giving them control over their working needs and a much awaited change of environment when necessary. This level of flexibility will also encourage collaboration among departments, providing employees with the right environments to share knowledge and generate new ideas – a privilege we have all missed over the last 12 months.
Comfort is another must have trend that will without a doubt gain more momentum throughout 2021. Residential furniture styles are taking prominence among commercial manufacturers, to create scenes of home like comfort for employees and challenging that traditional commercial office we used to be accustomed to. Potential products like sleep pods and fitness rooms may arise and become more essential towards business’s success and getting people excited about being back in the office.
As furniture and design experts, it is up to us to make every square foot count. Office design is about making the best possible use of the space available and that is where furniture selection is vital.”
How do Tribe help businesses work out their budget for commercial furniture?
“We look at which areas are most important to the client based on their unqiue working needs and indetify with them where they should spend their money. Whether its front of house client facing areas, open plan working areas, or collaborative employee led breakout areas, we get under the skin of the client to really understand the company behind the brand and what is important to them and their future goals.”
What is your process to helping the client understand what the is the best furniture avenue for them?
“Our team will assist the client in creating a concise and robust furniture brief. Each and every one of the clients needs will be covered, including the possibility of re-using existing furniture. Following this we then put together a cost effective and accurate budget as well as a programme proposal to meet the clients time scales and needs.
Once the budget is signed off and confirmed, we then take the client on carefully selected furniture showroom tours. This is where we collaborate on ideas and really hone into the different area requirements within their workspace.”
How do you make offices greener with your furniture selections?
“The industry has already begun to make conscious decisions for ethical change by looking at materials and products that are better for our environment.
We work closely with a number of suppliers who put sustainability at the forefront of what they do and are making more positive movements in this direction for the new year. Some of our suppliers are SKA compliant in the composition and manufacturing process of their products. It is part of our service to always ensure the client is aware of these furniture options for creating a more sustainable working environment for their business.
We also always advise and guide our clients in investing in furniture that is more durable and modular in comparison to others, so that it can be moved around the office when required or even taken into a new space when that time comes, to avoid in investing in new furniture.”
Take a look at our recent projects to find out more about our design and build services, and the key role commercial furniture plays.
If you want any advise on how to improve your workspace, contact us today to see how we can help!