Office Accommodation

Office Accommodation

Office accommodation refers to the selection of must appropriate office location, office building and other facilities required for office. The appropriate office accommodation helps to achieve a business objective. It supports employee for the successful accomplishment of their duty. The office accommodation involves selection of office location, office building and layout for office. The attractive office with all other required facilities will motivate the employee to work. In other hands, inappropriate office accommodation brings difficulty in performance and negative impact on an employee toward business. Therefore, the management of business must be careful while making the decision of office accommodation. The office accommodation consist of following factors:

1. Office Location
2. Office Building
3. Office Layout
4. Shape and size of office
5. Convenience to the staff and visitors
6. Physical condition of office
7. The cost of office accommodation etc.

Office Location

It refers to the selection of an appropriate location for business. Different nature and size of business demand different location. The location of office affects the performance of employee, availability of resource etc. The appropriate selection of office location may be an inconvenience to the employees, visitor, customer and dealing with other business organization. The location of the office is largely determined by nature of business for eg. The big manufacturing industries are suitable in the area for from public resident whereas consumer consumable stores (departmental store) are more suitable for public residential. The following factor must b consider before selecting office location:

1. There must be the availability of all kinds of transport facilities.
2. There should have service facilities such as bank, post office, insurance, markets, trade or stock exchange etc.
3. The office should be located near the sources of availability of labour.
4. There should be the healthy environment.
5. It is desirable to choose the location where the same line of business is engaged.
6. We must select must appropriate area where cost is minimum.

Office Building

Selection of must appropriates office building at a specific building. The selected office building must be suitable to the nature and size of business. The office building can be available through construction rent or lease. The team of management must consider different factor before selecting building for an office. The following are important factor to be considered while selecting office building:

1. There should be safety and security of the office and the staff of the office.
2. There must be facilities of lighting, ventilation, water system, free from dust, noise, smell etc.
3. The cost of the office must match with the budget of the office.
4. The office building must be flexible to append additional floor for future expansion and requirement.
5. The building should meet the layout needs of machines, equipment, departments and human resources.

Office Layout

The systematic arrangement of different facilities inside office area is called office layout. It is the systematic and scientific management of machine, equipment, furniture and other resources in the office to achieve a business objective. It arranges different facilities in order to bring smoothness in work performance. It provides a smooth flow of work and motivates an employee to work hard and better.

According to Hicks and Place,” Office Layout refers to the arrangement of a work station in the space involve so that all equipment, supplies, procedure and personal can function at maximum efficiency.

In conclusion, office layout refers to the scientific and systematic arrangement facilities inside an office. It places different resource such as furniture, machine, and equipment at an appropriate location. It allows free flow of work and free movement of an employee at work. Office layout makes maximum utilization of office space and increases profit for business.

Principle of Office Layout

There is a certain factor that must be considered before designing the office layout. The basic requirement like the free flow of work, appropriate space, effective supervision, service facilities etc. helps to achieve office objective easily. The principle of office layout are as follows:

1. Flow of work:

The office layout must allow the free flow of work. There should not be a time gap between complision of one task and startup of another task. The employee must be able to work in their job without any disturbance.

2. Sufficient work space:

Each workstation must provide sufficient space for an employee. To narrow work space doesn’t allow an employee to complete their duty comfortably. On the other hand to wide working space increase unnecessary cost for business in term of the grant.

3. Effective supervision:

Office layout must provide the facility of effective supervision all the employee and workers must be guided and control at their workplace by their supervisor. It ensures the conformity of work-related rules and regulation.

4. Flexibility and adaptability:

Office layout should be designed by considering the principle of flexibility and adoptability. This principle says that the additional space should be available if an office is expanded. The growth and development of business need additional office space. Therefore, it must be available at required time.

5. Good lighting and ventilation:

It is the basic requirement that in an office there must e the facility of good lighting and ventilation. An employee cannot perform their job in the absence of lighting and ventilation facilities. Therefore, office layout should be designed in such a way that each space of office will get appropriate quantity of lighting and ventilation.

6. Maximum utilization:

The different office space will cost different amount in the term of rent. Therefore, office space must be utilized without lifting any part of space. The maximum utilization of office space helps to increase profit and reduce the cost.

7. Safety and security:

It is the main responsibility of office to protect its assets from any loss or damage. A scientific office layout design reduces the possibilities of loss of a business asset. The asset of business must be protected from fire, flood, water leakage, chemical leakage etc.

8. Service facilities:

The employee and visitor of office need different facilities such as water, restrooms, imitate health, care health, telephone etc. from office. Therefore, office layout must be designed by considering the facilities requirement from employee and visitor.

References:

Khanal, Soma Raj, Surendra Thapa Aslami and Sitaram Dhakal.Business Studies.Kathmandu: Taleju Prakashan, 2067.

Pant, Prem R., et al.Business Studies.Kathmandu: Buddha Academic Publishers and Distributors Pvt. Ltd., 2010.