If your work allows you to be based at home then it makes a lot of sense to set up an office in your house.  There are many advantages to working form home such as saving money on taxes and also the high costs of renting office space.  Where ever you choose to work at home you need to ensure you have spec to organise your finances and pay any bills.

Here are some tips to setting up the perfect office space:

Take time to write down on a piece of paper the basic requirements you need for an office.

Next, pick a space or room in the house that has access to electric sockets and is also network accessible.

Choose an office desk that is both comfortable and also fits the space available in the room.  It should also be able to accommodate office equipment such as a computer and keyboard, telephone and allow enough room to work with all your documents.

You need a fast internet connection that allows you to communicate quickly by email and also download any files easily.

Also invest in a combination fax and printer to cut back on space usage.  Another idea is to choose a computer desk rather than a simple office desk.

We recently published an article about corporate snacks and how they are a cost effective way to show your staff that you care about them, appreciate their hard work and to encourage a little extra work from them at a time when companies really need their staff behind them in order to survive the recession.

When you go to a job interview, there are a tell tale signs that can tell you quite a lot about a company.  For instance, if you can see tell tale signs of a recent meeting, perhaps you might see the cutlery, the cup you are offered your drink in at the interview or plates on the office desks as you are shown round.  This can tell you much about how the staff and customers are treated.

For example, paper doilies or rich tea biscuits can tell you a company is quite traditional and therefore serious and thorough.  This sort of company generally expects its staff to be suited and booted.  Foil wrapped biscuits on the other hand can mean quite a fashion conscious company, serious about its image.
You can tell quite a lot from the snacks a company provides!

Recently we published an article about how pressure in the office can affect the way people act and how we sometimes act like children in the office as a result.  One way to help to relieve the pressure, and perhaps an unexpected way, is to bring snacks into the office.  We are not talking about allowing employees to have some sort of snack feast, but instead to bring some sort of snack to the office for the employees to enjoy.

Giving employees corporate snacks is a good, and cost effective, way to show employees that you recognize they did a good job, recognize that they are trying their hardest or perhaps just to show you care.  It gives a good image of the company, employees remember and appreciate it and it does not have to cost the earth. It could be as simple as getting the local bakery or caterers to drop off the odd box of donuts or cream cakes, picking up ice creams from the local supermarket or even warming up a few sausage rolls and leaving a plate in each department.

Corporate snacks could be one small incentive for your staff that can still continue despite the current economic climate.

Space saving is always a key issue for many companies and as a result, it is an area that many office furniture manufacturers have focused on over the last few years to think of and innovate new space saving solutions.

Office equipment exhibitions, although not of interest to everyone, are a great place for office furniture manufacturers and market leaders to highlight new items, and space saving is always high on the agenda.
Space saving office seating or office desks need to have more than just the space saving factor.  They also need to be stylish, affordable and eco-friendly as well as functional.  Being eco-friendly is another area that is high on most firm’s agendas as companies look to show their staff and the general public that they are as carbon neutral as possible.

As our workplace needs and conditions continue to change, as they have done drastically over the last decade, so many office furniture manufacturers and designers have committed to adapting their office equipment and suppliers to match our needs.  Already, there is a vast range of office furniture and items available on the market at competitive prices and this is a trend that will no doubt continue.

The most recent industry reports show that the office furniture industry has had quite a boost in the last three years thanks to a higher level of occupancy rates in offices throughout the UK.

The occupancy levels of offices all over the UK and in particular in central London areas is being stated as the primary cause for such a healthy boost to the office furniture market.  Higher occupancy levels has resulted in an increased need for a wide variety of office related items such as office desks and office seating.

The Office Furniture Research and Markets report also gave relevant information on daily working practices and indicated that office trends have firmly turned towards advanced technology, which has also had an impact on the office furniture market.  This new technology has meant that office furniture has had to shrink in size to match consumer desire.  For example, office desks are now much smaller because the old bulky monitors have been replaced with new slimline flatscreen computers or laptops.

The price of office furniture has also been reduced thanks to increased pressure from low cost imported office furniture items from places such as America, China and the rest of Europe, particularly in the area of office chairs.

It seems that the world of office work is constantly speeding up and nowadays, thanks to computers and other technological gadgets, we must work harder and faster whilst still achieving efficiency and ever great productivity.  Now we are in a recession, we must continue to do all of this whilst still keeping costs as low as we can.

Thanks to these tough demands, office furniture manufacturers are always working to see how office seating and office desks can be changed to better suit different purposes.

For example, one of the latest most innovative office desks has plugs incorporated within it so you can plug electrical items directly into it.  Reportedly, the desk actually generates electricity using magnetic fields.  Items such as laptops, mobiles, rechargeable batteries and mp3 players can all be plugged in.

Such an invention would be able to save a company time and space, and if ideas such as this could be applied to other office furniture items, such as office seating, then the office in a few years could be very different and even more hi-tech than the offices we use now.

Increasingly, the office shredder is becoming an essential piece of office equipment and sitting between the office desks just as the printer does.

Criminals are becoming more and more savvy and devious in the ways in which they will try to gain access to a person’s financial and personal details but there is still nothing simpler than picking up the paper being thrown away, and thus the shredder’s importance has increased.

A shredder is the easiest way to destroy personal details on paper.  Something as simple as an ATM receipt or bank statement can give away information that a criminal can make use of.

When buying your office furniture, make sure a shredder is on your list of items.  Consider its size, weight and capacity when you are purchasing.  How much paper waste are you likely to generate; the answer to this question will determine whether a table top shredder to sit on the office desks would be sufficient or if you need something a little larger.

Years ago, we may not have thought that something such as an office shredder could become so indispensable but when we set up office, this item is almost as important as the office seating.

The key to the organization of an office is its filing, whether it is filing cabinet, shelves or an online filing system.  No matter how much you can get your filing on soft copies on a computer, there is no business that can run entirely without paper.  If you can have an effective and well organized filing system, you are halfway to a successful business already.

However, it is surprising how many companies forget about the filing systems when they re-design the office and purchase new office furniture.  They rush out to purchase office desks, office seating and even executive office furniture, but forget to pick up a filing cabinet or two.

Filing or storage cabinets can now be purchased in a variety of materials to match your office furniture and can even be custom designed.  There are different sorts of locks, safety features and mobile storage, so the choice of filing cabinet is almost as wide as the choice of furniture itself.  Another consideration is how the drawers open and close, for instance, in some offices it is acceptable to have a fair degree of noise but if the office is used for important telephone calls and visitors, then a soft and quiet close can appear more professional.

So next time you rush out to buy some new office furniture, remember to consider the office filing too.

At times such as these when cash flow can be a little tight, there are plenty of offices that have not seen a spring clean in years.  Perhaps your office is looking a little dull now that the paint has faded and needs a little bit of a face lift and more often than not, the office furniture is also looking a little worn and faded.  When we look closely in an office, there are often office desks that are chipped, especially on the corners, and office seating that looks a little worse for wear.

It is generally advised that an office has a bit of an update or ‘spring clean’ once a year.  It is also a good idea to do a full office clear out at the same time, especially if your office is still predominantly paper based and you have boxes of paper and files stacked around.  It can make a refreshing change and give staff a little uplift to move the office furniture around every now and then.

Recycling is also a good idea so don’t just bin all the old documents you no longer require.  If you keep office desks tidy and clear then there should be less clutter to clear and the spring clean should take less time too.

The Bank of England’s governor, Mervyn King, last week confirmed his thoughts that the UK is in for a deep recession and he expects that we will see a decline of as much as 3 percent this year.  Many of us have felt the recession personally and even if we ourselves have held onto our jobs, almost everyone knows somebody who has sadly lost their job in the last twelve months.

Sometimes it is inevitable and there is nothing that you can do, but here are some tips to help keep a job in the recession:

•    Be seen: Within larger companies it is easy to be seen as just a number so it is important to raise your profile within the company.  That could be by ensuring you are one of those people sat at their office desks early in the morning, increasing the productivity levels more than anyone else or simply being one of those keeping morale high in the team, but make sure your manager knows you’re there
•    Be innovative: This does not always mean coming up with the greatest idea since sliced bread for a new product or something.  It could be a simple idea to help the company save a few pennies or make some pennies.  It could be that there is office furniture in the old staff room that could be re-used, or making sure all the employees switch off their computer to save power when they leave their office desks at night
•    Don’t complain: At times like these, there are many people working harder for less money.  Try to avoid sitting back in your office chair and complaining to everyone who will listen.  Be grateful you have a job and be sure that you are one keeping morale up, rather than letting the news leak back to your boss that you’re dragging the team down
•    Skills update: Find a way to improve your skills.  There are plenty of free courses.  If you can find something related to your job, make sure you inform your boss about it, otherwise, perhaps you could look for a way to diversify in case the worst should happen