In these uncertain economic times when cashflow might be difficult, lease financing your office furniture might be the perfect solution for you! Rather than tying up large amounts of capital, a smarter alternative could be to use lease financing – this is a cost-effective way of ensuring you can create your perfect workspace whilst retaining capital within your organisation. What Are The Benefits of Lease Finance for Office Furniture? Maximise Cash Flow Cash is the lifeblood of any business. Leasing means no large up-front payment, so you keep the cash in your business, preserving liquidity and freeing up valuable working capital for use elsewhere. Fixed Payments Unlike other methods of finance, payments are fixed for the duration of the lease period, making budgeting more accurate and eliminating unexpected variations such as increases in interest rates. Tax Benefits If you lease your office furniture project, the repayments are 100% allowable against taxable profit in the year you incur the expense. It can even work out cheaper than paying with cash. Reduce dependency on Primary Funders Lease finance is an alternative to traditional bank loans and overdrafts. Your existing credit lines are unaffected and the funding for your project can be split between two or more specialist interior funders. Reduce Future Spend Think 5 years ahead and plan that workspace now. You will save significant money in contrast to carrying out multiple projects as you grow over the years. Flexibility You decide the term and frequency of payments and can update them anytime. Typically, your lease would be spread over 3 or 5 years. Spread the Cost Rather than pay upfront, you can spread the cost of your office furniture in line with your return on investment from your workspace. Quick Decisions Securing a lease facility is far quicker than obtaining a bank loan or overdraft extension. For straight-forward proposals it can even be done in a matter of hours

In an age when work is a thing you do rather than a place you go, the whole purpose of the office has changed. Driven by an appreciation of the link between experience and productivity, the well-being of workers has assumed even greater importance since the start of the pandemic. Flexibility has become ever more crucial as one of the best ways to increase your workplace experience. The modern workspace should be a place that seamlessly supports workers in their role at every point in the day. A place that enables them to shift between a range of collaborative, cooperative and focussed tasks that comprise their varied and complex working days. That’s why we created FluidSpace™ - to give companies the flexibility and confidence they need to create exceptional workspaces for their people, and employees the flexibility and confidence to create exceptional work for their company. But why is FluidSpace™ so central to improving the experience and productivity of your people? And how can it result in tangible improvements for your business? Read on to find out more… Improving Employee Experience The move from the dominance of the cubicle office to the open-plan collaborative workspaces so common today is not driven only by costs. As study after study has shown, there is a direct correlation between employee wellbeing and productivity. Cutting edge workspaces are putting humans at the heart of the design, creating a destination, an experiential place, that people remember for how they felt while in that space – the togetherness that comes from working as a team, the empowerment felt as they choose how and where they work. This has tremendous power to improve worker wellbeing. Over the last few months, workers have very quickly got used to and now rely on the flexibility and control that working from home afforded them. The lack of real collaboration, on the other hand, is a serious drawback when working remotely. FluidSpace™ can give your people the benefits of both: the choice of where and how to work, as well as the ability to communicate effectively and bond with team members. To avoid becoming redundant, the role of the office has to focus on how best to support the people using that space in their roles. By creating a leading employee experience in your workspace, you can not only attract and retain the best people for your business but bring your people together to create the social capital that is the unseen glue of every business. Improving Employee Productivity However, the impact of FluidSpace™ reaches beyond improving the wellbeing and experience of your employees, as important as it is. FluidSpace™ can have a tangible impact on the productivity and effectiveness of your people. Different spaces and solutions are required to support your people for the different projects and challenges that they face every day. To effectively complete a report or analysis, they may need time and space to focus in peace. When working on a team presentation or complex project, they may need to communicate to brainstorm around challenges and generate creative solutions for your business and clients. The traditional workspace, with a choice of a desk or a boardroom, is ill-suited to the flexibility and serendipitous communication that your people need. Dynamic teams need dynamic environments that they can reconfigure to suit their requirements at any time. With a wide variety of mini-environments, FluidSpace™ can seamlessly adapt to meet the needs of your people throughout the day. As designer Joe Sparano famously said: “Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent”. When your workspace meets the needs of your people so well that they hardly notice it’s even there, many distractions and difficulties are removed, meaning they can focus on what really matters. FluidSpace: Improving Companies The importance of employee wellbeing and productivity for companies is obvious and well known, and yet FluidSpace™ has the ability to improve your company in other ways. FluidSpace™ is much more sustainable than traditional Office Fit-out: when your needs change, you can reconfigure and reuse your furniture, rather than throw it away. The flexibility of FluidSpace™ allows it to adapt and grow with your needs, therefore helping to future-proof this significant investment. With economies and industries changing so rapidly, companies need adaptable workspaces that can be repurposed easily and effectively. A variety of work environments is now seen as necessary for a modern workforce to fulfil its potential. If your business requires flexibility and adaptability in this time of change and uncertainty as well as an environment that empowers and connects your people, FluidSpace™ can create a solution that works for your company, your people, and your future. Want to know more? Get ideas for your own FluidSpace™ with our inspiration guide or get in touch to find out how we can help you.

Workspace Acoustics Over the last 25 years, the open-plan office has become ubiquitous. Driven by the need to cut costs, boost culture, and increase communication, many companies removed partitions and moved their people ever closer together in an effort to achieve all 3 simultaneously. Since 1995, the average office space per employee has fallen from 200sq/ft to just 80sq/ ft per person in many cases. However, over the last 18 months when the future of the entire workspace, let alone the density of staff, has been called into question, this approach is now no longer a given. Driven by a greater appreciation of privacy and space to focus, staff have embraced homeworking. However, collaboration and culture suffer over time when your teams are dispersed. The solution to this conundrum lies in providing the benefits of homeworking in the office. As one of the foremost benefits of homeworking, privacy has now become a crucial element of the post-pandemic workspace, requiring a move away from standard open-plan office design. The Importance of Office Acoustics The most important element of the 3 elements of workspace privacy is acoustic privacy and it is the hardest to control. Sound is like water – it can make it through the smallest gap. Open-plan offices are known to be loud and distracting spaces due to a large number of people with few barriers to absorb the high noise levels. The higher level of collaboration in open-plan offices only adds to this problem. While the energetic, pulsating atmosphere of a successful office plan is contagious, the by-product of noise is a serious problem for productivity. 53% of workers are regularly distracted by others when trying to focus. Given that the initial success of homeworking was due to the lack of distractions, enabling your people to continue this way of working will have serious benefits for your company. Noisy offices can also increase the stress levels of workers. Prolonged exposure to loud noise leads to heightened blood pressure and increased heart rate, which impacts our physical as well as our mental wellbeing, causing further deterioration in performance. However, collaboration is the number one reason many workers have cited as the driver behind their desire to return to the workplace, so this must not be negated, otherwise hybrid working will create the worst of both locations – the isolation and disjointedness of remote working, and the distractions of office working. Balancing the need for communication and focussed spaces in your workspace is essential. Improving Your Office Acoustics One of the most effective ways of increasing acoustics in your workspace is creating different designated zones for the 3 levels of collaboration: collaborative, semi-private, and private. By defining different areas of your workspaces for these different levels of interaction (with suitable furniture), you will ensure that private spaces are occupied by people who want to focus in private. The collaborative areas will also have their own atmosphere that lends itself to communication and problem solving – there is no one “right” level of noise in the workplace. It depends on your culture, the personalities involved and the project being worked on. Acoustic furniture is also an essential part of increasing privacy in your workspace. Office pods and booths are perfect for focus spaces or meeting rooms where flexibility and privacy are key. They can be moved around your workspace as your needs change, and can even be relocated when you do, reducing the need for expensive dilapidation works. Personal acoustic workstations can create mini havens of peace and tranquillity where your staff can really block the rest of the workspace out and focus on what they need to. By optimising the acoustic (as well as the aesthetic) design of your workspace, you are equipping your people with an environment that gives them the best possible chance to succeed. We can help you create a safe, productive, collaborative, and beautiful office space that is tailored to your people and supports your business objectives. Get in touch today to find out more.

Clutter…a word that can strike fear into the minds of the average office worker and could be costing your business a lot more than you think. Many of us have been conditioned to believe that a busy office is an effective office. The kind of place where you can touch and feel the whirlwind of hustle and bustle energising the room, papers flying seamlessly from one desk to another for signatures and employees breaking into half-sprints around desks in an attempt to beat those ever tightening deadlines. Cinematically, this is an appealing way to represent a productive office, but the truth is that a clear and organised office space is far more likely to lead to an increase in efficiency and consequently a more productive workforce. You may already be among the thousands of offices that already complete a semi-regular ‘office purge’ where piles of paper are moved around the office and the contents of desks are unabashedly swiped into the nearest waste bin, however, as most of you will know, this level of de-cluttering only lasts a few weeks before the chaos returns. Organising your office space needn’t take days and become a major distraction, in fact it can be done in small bite-size chunks that are much easier for your team to adopt, growing into routines and habits that are likely to last a lifetime. If you’re ready to get started, here are our top 5 tips to transform your office into an efficient workspace. 1) Use wall space to your advantage The walls of our offices are often highly underutilised areas as we clamber for ever more complicated and elaborate storage solutions that eat into our floor designs. By using wall space to create stylish and effective storage designs, we can begin to create a more harmonious and structured office space that allows our desk spaces to remain uncluttered and free of distractions. 2) Hide the Wires The modern office has allowed us many luxuries that our pre-technological descendants could have only dreamed about, but there has been a downside. With the increased volume of technology and machinery that made our business processes faster and more effective, there has been an explosion of wires, cables and plugs that intertwine, tangle and clutter our office lives. Finding the perfect furniture positioning, utilising hidden wire channels and wireless technology as much as possible are all effective methods of limiting this distractions and creating a more open, de-cluttered workspace 3) Go as paperless as possible Nothing conjures up stress quite like a pile of papers that denote half-finished assignments, semi-complete forms, and the inevitable impending missed deadlines. While it may still be a requirement for some documents to remain in paper form, the trend for paperless offices along with current technology support can drastically reduce the need for many paper documents cluttering up your office space. Saving time, increasing productivity and saving the environment (not to mention the savings in printer ink) is not a bad return on creating a paperless office. 4) Digital de-clutter Clutter in the 21st century is not solely limited to our physical office spaces. As there has been a marked reduction in paper files, we have transferred this disorganisation to our digital lives instead. Overfilled desktops, chaotic filing systems and unorganised email inboxes can cause as much, if not more, stress on our lives as a messy office can produce. Using the same amount of diligence to your desktop as you would with your office office filing can pay significant dividends in the long run when it comes to increasing your productivity and decreasing the stress associated with losing items or struggling to navigate your way through the mess of digital files cluttering up your work day. Top tips include utilising email rules to automatically arrange your inbox, creating online work folders for “to be completed” tasks and regular archiving of seldom needed files 5) A place for everything and everything in its place There is nothing more frustrating and time consuming that having to search for something high and low only to find it in the most unexpected and illogical place. A clear and universally understood system of where extensively used communal items go within the office can save everyone time, energy and stress throughout the working day. Ensure that you have clearly labelled your storage solutions and communicated it well with your team. The time you’ll save around the office may seem small at first but when you add up the compounding effect, this simple tip is a fantastic effectiveness boost for everyone and a great way to keep your office organised and effective.

"I found I could say things with colours that I couldn't say in any other way – things that I had no words for" Georgia O'Keeffe Nature has imparted our brains with psychological reactions to colour for millennia, and we can utilise this response when designing productivity-boosting workspaces. Colourful, vibrant workplaces have become increasingly popular in recent years, as designers become more attuned to its impact on motivation and productivity. A psychological study at the University of Rochester found that red increases the speed and intensity of our emotions, leading to an increased sense of urgency. Great for direction attention to retail sales, but less than ideal in an office environment, where it can lead to anxiety and worry. Conversely, hues like gem-coloured greens are great for boosting energy but may not be the best choice if your team need to remain focussed throughout the day. With colour being an important element of office design and proven to affect productivity, your design choices may initially seem like a daunting proposition. Here are our handy tips to adding colour into your office without a major repaint job. Adding colour through furniture Furniture is a practical way of quickly adding colour into your office space, allowing you to introduce productivity-boosting hues without overwhelming the senses. Furniture choices can provide us with a great opportunity to be more adventurous with colour and define the purpose of our spaces. Creative furniture choices can also add character and create talking points around the office that have a positive effect on team morale, energy and culture. Create consistency through brand Culture, collaboration and company values are an extremely important element within the modern workplace and you may choose to further support this affinity with the company by utilising brand colours to accentuate your office design. Whether you choose to add your company logo to your office or incorporate your brand colours into your design choices, using a consistent colour palette throughout your office creates a unified, coherent, and welcoming environment. Start with the emotion It is likely that we know the feeling we’re looking to generate within a space, e.g. collaboration and energy in shared meeting rooms, focus and concentration in quiet zones. As a great starting point, use these basic tips to think about your colour choices: · Cool blues can create a calming effect but may make spaces feel colder than usual. · Dynamic reds support urgency and energy but can make some people feel additional stress · Earthy greens and browns are fantastic to create harmonious feelings but can lack dynamic energy · Bright yellow and orange tones can denote energetic lively environments but carry the risk of potentially negatively affecting focus and concentration Inject personality with a twist Another way of injecting some colour into the workplace is through graphics, artwork and features like living walls. Incorporating these innovative and artistic features will inject your office with energy and personality. A simple but effective way to add colour into a space, is to use feature mural walls, inspired by the colours and artwork that support the feeling within the room. Forest photos and scenes depicting nature have been consistently shown to bring the ‘outdoors indoors’ and create relaxing calm spaces perfect for quiet individual work. Whereas dynamic images of movement and engineering can support feelings of creativity and innovation. Get in touch today to transform the productivity and energy within your office with our bespoke office furniture solutions.

At a time when we have all been starved of social contact for 18 months, it is no surprise that many are keen to get back to the office in order to recapture some normality. However, what many did not anticipate is the demographic split of those wanting to return to the office and those preferring to stay at home. Many elder workers, well-established in their industry and careers, are not keen to return to the office. Meanwhile, many younger workers are looking to return to the office, at least part-time, despite being typically more tech-oriented than their elder counterparts – and so better equipped for remote working. The answer to this lies in the greater need of younger people to build and establish networks and communities of their own- communities that previous generations have already created and could rely on when working from home. This trend, combined with the rise of hybrid working, creates a need in the workspace for environments that can enable true connections between team members, building the social capital so essential to long-term collaboration and teamwork. Creating Community Spaces However, these spaces very rarely happen by accident, especially in the office. They need to be created, bringing together all the elements necessary to building a community. According to psychologist David Canter, environment is comprised of 3 elements: activities, meaning, and physical attributes. Not allowing for any one of these aspects will undermine the creation of a place where people want to be, which in turn negatively impacts the effectiveness of the space. To be a community space, it needs to be a comforting environment in which your people will feel (and be) safe and valued, which will, in turn, enable them to focus on collaboration, building the networks so essential to your long-term success, as well as yours. Communities in the Workplace A genuine community environment in your workspace should be a communal, comfortable space in which great work gets done. By creating a workspace in which your people feel a sense of purpose and belonging, you are simultaneously creating a culture of community whilst enabling productivity. This space houses the wide variety of environments needed for your people to carry out their complex tasks while catering to the needs of different roles and personalities. Just as in cities, towns, and villages all over the world, true communities are created by the people who use a common space, not by designers. A community space is built around the needs of its users and adapts to their changing requirements, rather than trying to force-fit them into an environment that is not as effective as it can be. Only then will your people realise the power of the community that they have created, and its potential to create amazing outcomes for your business. Creating Communities Through Furniture The exchange of knowledge and collaboration happens naturally in a community space. As an environment where everyone shares their challenges, solutions, and expertise, it becomes a creative hub of collaboration. This synergy leads to an incredibly powerful competitive advantage. A cutting-edge workspace is full of spaces that foster communities, not only giving your people a place to work, but transforming the way they work. As the element of your space that your people interact with the most often, furniture has an integral role in enabling and empowering communities within your workspace. Through collaborative furniture, you can create spaces that encourage people to network and innovate, creating effective communities that drive your business forward. Not sure where to start? Book a call with one of our workspace experts today, to help you understand how you can foster amazing communities within your own workspace.

Workers lose 66% of their productivity due to background noise. If you’re battling with the noise emanating from an adjoining office, or the work-related chatter from colleagues, it might be time to consider soundproofing your workspace. Overheard conversations are the most troublesome noise of all. It takes an average of fifteen minutes to regain concentration after an unwelcome distraction. What a waste of productivity! Tips for soundproofing your office Often, businesses opt for solutions such as suspended ceiling tiles or internal flanking through partitioning, but these are ineffective methods for complete soundproofing. Acoustic Panels Open-plan offices are particularly vulnerable with persistent ringing phones and a plethora of conversation. Acoustic furniture is often preferable in such instances. For example, acoustic panels hung from walls and ceilings absorb sounds and reduce echo. Once you have established the source of the noise pollution, there are bespoke solutions that can be applied to mute both internal and external noise, dependent on your requirements, as well as ensuring that productivity remains high. If outside noise is an issue, a greater realm of soundproofing is achieved by adding air gaps between the source of the noise and the office area. The panels also offer a contemporary look to the office. Acoustic Pods Acoustic office pods offer a great solution for confidential meeting spaces, and are required more than ever due to rigid data protection laws. With 62% of office workers feeling bothered by a lack of opportunity for privacy in the workspace, acoustic pods are an obvious choice. This method can be utilised in numerous ways as panels can be shaped as required. Flooring Flooring is another important thing to consider; the height of your floors and chosen floor finish will all have a bearing on acoustics. Rooms that have hardwood or marble floors have a tendency to carry sound, so are anything but ideal. Acoustic battens or acoustic underlay can be used to overcome this issue while acoustic decks can soundproof all airborne sound. A study performed by the Sound Agency highlighted a 46% improvement in concentration when soundproofing technology was introduced. With that in mind, consider your employees and how noise might be affecting their productivity, take a look at your workspace, dimensions, construction and flooring. Identify the source of the noise. Every office has unique requirements. For bespoke solutions to soundproofing your office that really works for your business, contact us today.

The Changing Role Of the Office Hybrid working had been a nascent trend for years leading up to 2020, but its meteoric rise toward the end of last year rendered many London workspaces completely obsolete in a matter of weeks. Traditional office designs featured a lot of fixed partitioning, rows upon rows of desks, (various size) boardrooms, and often a distinct breakout space. However, with staff now doing much of their individual work from home, so many desks have become unnecessary. Having learned to interact via platforms such as zoom, teams no longer need to be in the same room for formal and structured meetings. The comfort and personalisation of their own living space meant they could relax much better while working from home. The crucial ability that remote teams lacked, however, was not available in the office. Amid such widespread isolation, teams craved interpersonal collaboration and connection between each other, but many offices didn’t (and still don't) have adequate collaborative facilities. As companies look beyond the immediate return to the office and start to consider longer-term workspace strategy, it is clear that the workspace must adapt to its new purpose as a collaborative hub where staff and clients come to interact and connect in a way that they cannot virtually. It is also obvious that to best suit the ever-changing needs of your people, your office needs to be adaptable to give your people the perfect environment every moment of their working day. What is Modular Office Design? Against this backdrop, modular office design has emerged as a cost-effective and high-quality way of making sure your people have all that they need to perform, both now and in an uncertain future. By utilising furniture to create rooms and zones rather than traditional methods of fit-out such as partitions, it allows for maximum flexibility – new zones and rooms can be established without the need for disruptive and expensive construction works. This means that as your team grows and the way your people use your space changes, you can easily repurpose your office so that it always matches their needs. With companies now recognising the productive benefits of giving individual employees control of their office, modular office design can allow them to take ownership of their spaces too. Customisable elements can even give your people the ability to reshuffle the space around them so that they can work in an environment that maximises their productivity at every moment. Benefits of Modular Office Design While the possibilities and effects of modular office design are different for every company, there are significant benefits to adopting this design concept, from cost savings to increased flexibility and agility. Cost-Effective A large proportion of the costs in a traditional workspace fit-out project are often the Mechanical & Electrical section – HVAC, lighting, and fire services all must be modified and extended to suit the layout and meet Building Regulations. By using zoning furniture, storage and acoustic pods to create different spaces, many of these costs are no longer necessary, saving both time and money compared to construction. Flexibility Another large section of costs in a fit-out project is internal partitions and joinery. By opting for acoustic pods or curtains to create different zones or rooms, these costs can be exchanged for a much more flexible alternative. Minimal Dilapidations An often-hidden cost of office fit-out is dilapidations – an agreement many companies have with their landlords to return the space to its original state at the end of the lease term. These costs can severely reduce the budget for a new workspace, as well as creating a lot of landfill waste. Modular furniture means your workspace can expand, shrink, or even relocate with you! Adaptability Furniture is much easier to reconfigure and relocate, compared with traditional construction. With many solutions being partially or wholly modular, your workspace could be entirely rearranged in as little as a weekend. ​ Tax Efficient From a financial perspective, this is also very efficient. As furniture is considered for capital allowance purposes as plant and machinery, it qualifies for AIA (Annual Investment Allowance) and can be taken off profits before tax is calculated. Modular Design in Your Office The days of an office worker having a choice of a desk or a meeting room are over. A variety of modular furniture is essential to ensure that all your people have an environment that enables them to do their best work all day, every day. Over the last few years, the range of modular and customizable office furniture has gone from an expensive niche to a cost-effective mainstream option. Some of our favourites are: Away From The Desk Away From The Desk is a soft upholstery system designed to answer the rapidly changing needs of the workplace as we migrate away from personal desks with their fixed and tethered technology towards shared, collaborative spaces and furniture. Platforms The Platforms range is a collection of simple and flexible 2-tier auditorium seating modules which can be configured in a multitude of ways to create environments for education and presenting. A range of configurations mean you can create your ideal learning space. Hush Hybrid The Hush family of pods offers stylish design, excellent acoustics, and a high degree of customisability. Personal pods such as the Hush Phone and Hush Work are the perfect solution for phone calls, video conversations or highly focused work. Hush is a modular system of pods that allows you to create a space that suits your individual needs. Constructif Constructif creates zones for living, working, collaborating, and relaxing. In today’s multifunctional and everchanging workplace, fixed walls are a constraint and partitions are quite literally barriers to collaboration. Campers and Dens Campers & Dens is not just a pod system but a change in built environment interior architecture. This highly customisable family of pods, awnings, and furniture is a unique demountable system that can be relocated and reconfigured to suit an organisation’s changing needs. FluidSpace – The Ultimate Modular Office FluidSpace™ is the modular office taken to the next level - a workplace concept that we have developed in response to the way working patterns have changed over the last year. With many organisations unsure of how their real estate portfolios will look in 12-24 months’ time, we have developed FluidSpace™ as a means of ensuring that companies have the flexibility and confidence to create exceptional workspaces for their people. It does exactly what it says – it creates agile, flexible workspaces that can be quickly and cost-effectively reconfigured to meet the changing demands of organisations. Download your FREE copy of our FluidSpace guide today to find out how it works, how it can benefit your business, and get inspiration for your own FluidSpace!

There has possibly never been a better time to consider a redesign of your office than during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many organisations are currently focussed on re-opening their offices to employees whilst maintaining high levels of protection. A recent study carried out by Harris Interactive on behalf of Kimberly-Clark Professional, demonstrated that employee confidence levels remain considerably low with regard to the ‘back-to-work’ transition. For this reason alone, it might be a good time to look at some new, post-pandemic, shiny office furniture! Maybe you’re looking at increasing collaborative and social spaces to encourage employees to move around and communicate with the team. Our FluidSpace workspace concept is the ideal solution for reconfigurable and adaptable areas without the requirement for construction work. Our furniture range can create rooms and zones whilst minimising the requirement for fixed partitions and provide you with agile workspaces that can be efficiently reconfigured to suit your needs. In short, we offer a cost-effective solution for a refurbishment without the need for a complete overhaul! At this point, you’re probably concerned about the outlay and wondering how you can justify a bit of a luxury at this point in time. Relax, there is good news coming your way! There are particular tax reductions that can be made prior to the calculation of your tax liability and furniture is one of them. Capital allowances such as office furniture can provide you with a generous saving. Furthermore, office fixtures and integral features such as air conditioning, work surfaces, heating systems and sanitary products are also eligible. Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) is quite an expense, and it’s possible that you may have utilised the total amount prior to an office refit. Tax allowances are available to you though they are spread over a number of years. However, for items such as fixtures and fittings, as mentioned above, you can still receive a deduction of 18% per annum on a reducing balance basis. For integral features, as mentioned above, you can receive a 6% deduction on a reducing balance basis. Every organisation is provided with an annual investment allowance and providing your expenditure on qualifying items doesn’t go above the available quota, you can deduct the entire amount from your profits. That has to be a win! So, let’s break it down and throw a few numbers into the equation. Let’s say you’ve spent £10,000 on office furniture. As this qualifies for capital allowance, you can deduct the £10,000 from profit prior to calculating tax. With corporation tax currently at 19%, this offers a saving of £1,900. In turn, this reduces the net cost of a furniture fit out to a total of £8,100. In order to make the most of your allowances, it’s a good idea to make your purchase just before the end of the current accounting year. This way, your allowance will be available a year earlier and you accelerate expenditure into the current tax year; a great way to quickly wipe out capital assets. At Fluid, our office furniture is not only tax efficient, but easy to reconfigure and relocate. Whether it’s a zoning system for collaboration space, or pods and booths for focus and privacy, we offer the ideal solution for a refit without the headache of a complete office rebuild. Moreover, our furniture is easy on the eye and looks highly impressive to both staff and external visitors. Create a space that provides choice in these difficult times; that is what we can offer you at Fluid.

In June 2019, the UK government passed legislation requiring the reduction of greenhouse gases by 100% by the year 2050. It is the most ambitious target the UK has set and requires every individual and company to act if we are going to achieve it. We all have to take responsibility, but businesses and industries find themselves at the forefront of this green revolution, given the emissions that business enterprise is responsible for. Everyone is becoming much more environmentally conscious and aware of the “net-zero” concept. Stakeholders from customers to investors are all looking for ways to reduce their own carbon footprint. Companies also have an essential part to play in the shift toward sustainability. There are several considerations you can make in your office design to improve your carbon footprint. While you stand the best chance of achieving sustainability through moving to a different location that is optimised for minimal environmental impact, this might not be a practical solution in the short term. There are still several steps you can take within your current environment to improve your company’s carbon footprint, through smart choices within office furniture and refurbishment. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle The best place to start is the “3 Rs” – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Although you can’t stop waste production entirely, these 3 steps will help you lessen the impact of the waste you do create. ‘Reduce’ is all about decreasing the amount of waste you produce, as this is the simplest and most effective way of lowering your carbon footprint. This could mean not buying more materials than you need, or avoiding the use of single-use products. ‘Reusing’ is simply reusing an item that you might not want anymore but is still perfectly usable. This could involve repurposing as much of your existing furniture as possible when you refurbish your office or selling it to a second-hand dealer rather than disposing of it. ‘Recycling’ means breaking down a product and making something new from the components. It should only be done if the other two options are not possible as this process in itself usually requires extra energy input. However, choosing to recycle could lead to you actively choosing and purchasing products that make use of recycled elements such as plastic or fabric. If you want to be as sustainable as possible, incorporating the “3 Rs” into your workspace is a great place to start, as it can apply to every facet of your office design. Utilise Natural Light Artificial light generally uses about 30% of the electricity consumed within a commercial building. While that percentage can vary, many commercial buildings, especially older ones, do not make the most of the natural light available and as such may be using more energy than necessary. Well utilised natural light can not only reduce the environmental impact but has the added benefit of lowering the financial expense required to run a building. This is one of the main reasons why newer, better-designed buildings are more sustainable. An equally effective method of reducing energy output, your office layout and space planning can also be a fantastic way to reduce the need for additional lighting. If little-used elements of the workspace, such as boardrooms, are near the windows, perhaps they can be moved so that more used areas have prime access to natural light. Storage and shelving may also be blocking access to natural light, so it’s a good idea to ensure these are out of the way of the most-used areas. It is also important to consider morning vs afternoon light, and how your space can be planned to make the most of the hours and direction of natural light. This also extends to the hours your team are at work- could this be altered to make the most of organic light? Sustainable Materials Furniture is one of the easiest ways to make your office more sustainable. Your first considerations here should be the “3 Rs”- can you reduce the amount you need through effective design, re-use what you already have, or purchase products that are wholly or partly recycled? Many manufacturers offer product ranges with recycled and/or environmentally friendly materials. It also is important to consider the energy used in manufacturing (and transportation) of your furniture. When selecting furniture and materials, opting for classic ‘timeless’ styles, both in finishes and structure, can reduce the need for frequent replacement when trends go out of fashion. Durability and longevity of materials and products are also critical factors. If products are poor quality or badly designed, they will not be as popular within the space and will be wasted, and will need to be replaced sooner. Furniture should last at least 7 years from new and can be sold to second-hand dealers or recycled, rather than sent to landfill. Energy Efficient Equipment The modern workspace is full of technology, from touch-free coffee machines to smart building systems. Looking for the most energy-efficient options with every device can make a tangible impact on your carbon footprint, as can looking at alternatives. A Laptop tends to be a lot more efficient than a desktop PC, so would a laptop be possible for all or most of your team? Appliances can also have an impact. As well as choosing white goods that are energy-efficient, using them in the most effective way is also important. Simple changes such as noticing if your dishwasher is never full and trying to make sure it is as full a possible before it is used, or switching to a smaller, more economical option if necessary. However, possibly the biggest; and simplest, difference you can make with your appliances is how you use them. Turn off equipment whenever you aren’t using it, from your computer to the printer. And no, standby is not good enough- that has very little impact on energy consumption. You can even take it one step further and unplug the things you don’t use that often as they can drain energy even when turned off. Creating the Culture All of the above measures will have very little lasting impact if you don’t get the single most important element right: culture. It is essential that your people genuinely care about your efforts to become sustainable. If they believe that you genuinely care about the environment and improving the situation, rather than seeing it as a PR exercise, your efforts will gain true momentum and become a seamless part of the company culture. By incorporating sustainability in every area of the workplace, and making it easy for your people to act responsibly on a day-to-day basis, you will greatly increase your chances of success. You won’t achieve sustainability solely through office design and furniture; however, it is a fantastic place to start and is an area that all employees will notice and engage with immediately. Other areas to look to in lowering your carbon footprint include going truly paperless and incorporating biophilic design into your workplace. . Sustainable Workspace There is a common misconception that eco-friendly offices simply aren’t as stylish. However, going green certainly doesn’t mean you have to compromise aesthetics, with elements such as eco-friendly furniture designs, stunning natural light features and ‘wow-factor living walls. A sustainable office will reap huge also benefits for the reputation and financial aspect of your business. Lowering your carbon footprint will have a tangible impact on your costs over the long term, as well as your social obligation to minimise and eliminate your environmental impact. It might seem as though your company can’t do much, but if every business and every employee can get on board, small changes soon become big changes in reducing our carbon footprint. To discover how your office design can support you in building a more sustainable business get in contact with one of our experts today on 020 3916 5005

What is Biophilia? One of the most popular office design trends of recent years, biophilia is often thought of as only office plants. However, biophilic office design is far more than this and can have a significant impact on the health and productivity of your team. The literal meaning of biophilia is “the love of life”. In office design, it is the use of natural designs and materials; along with plants, to connect us with nature. It can even extend to anything that demonstrates the natural beauty in the world around us, from soothing fish tanks to herringbone desk layouts. Studies have shown that as humans, we have an instinctive bond with nature and natural surroundings. When denied this, surrounded by harsh and engineered workplace design, creativity and productivity are slowly eroded. This leads to reduced engagement as well as physical and mental health. 3 benefits of Biophilia Biophilic design has a huge impact on employee wellbeing and performance. Here, we’ve broken down 3 of the most significant benefits of biophilic office design: 1) Increased Productivity Studies from Exeter University found office workers were 15% more productive when plain workplaces were filled with a few houseplants. One company found that when incorporating as much natural light as possible into their buildings to save costs, productivity had doubled within 5 years. The results were attributed to the benefits of the natural light on the performance of their employees. Biophilic office design can mean anything from a few stray desk plants to extravagant and eye-catching ‘living walls’, but they all have one central benefit: oxygen levels are improved, which decreases mental fatigue and increases concentration, leading to improved productivity. 2) Improved Wellbeing Unsurprisingly, biophilia can help employees achieve a more positive frame of mind. Positive people have a positive impact on others, take better care of themselves and are healthier. One study showed improved biophilic design to result in a 13% increase in wellbeing. Research has also shown that the presence of plants in offices can lower stress and anxiety levels by up to 37%, along with decreasing tiredness by up to 38%! As staff wellbeing levels increases, staff retention increases as a direct result and productivity damaging absenteeism drops significantly. It costs around 6-9 months’ salary to replace an employee, including recruiting and training, so retention is a worthwhile investment. Biophilic office design can help to engage staff and to provide them with a workplace where they enjoy being, creating a healthy and happy workforce. 3) Boosted Creativity Biophilia creates a more engaging workspace, allowing creativity to flourish. This can be nurtured through natural light & finishes (and access to the outdoors where possible). Access to nature stimulates the brain. Making natural views, or artwork, available near their desks allows employees to relax and feel less stress, which subsequently allows creativity to flow more effectively. Nature in office design also creates a positive and peaceful mindset. This leads to your people spending more time in your workspace, where they’ll interact and connect more with colleagues – leading to improved collaboration and innovation. Biophilia in Your Workspace The concept of biophilic design is often thought of as simply including a few plants, but it also extends to natural light, as well as finishes in your workspace. The simplest solution, introducing plants, can increase oxygen levels and air quality, with all the benefits that arise from improved concentration and creativity, as well as being more visually appealing. You can also go beyond increasing greenery within your workspace. As well as maximising natural light, you can also increase connection to nature through the use of natural finishes, such as wood and stone. For companies that have access to balconies, courtyards, or roof spaces, giving staff the facilities to work outside can take biophilia to the next level. At a time when the need for productive, healthy, and creative workforces has never been greater, successful biophilic design will enable your teams to achieve their full potential and create amazing results for your business. The future of the workspace is going to be hugely different, with a greater emphasis on health and wellbeing and many companies embracing the opportunities that the future brings. Talk to one of our experts today to find out how you can incorporate biophilic furniture design into your office.

For decades, business leaders have grappled with the question of how best to optimise two of their greatest costs (and opportunities): People and Workspace. When designed well, the workspace is a productive hive of creativity and collaboration, bringing your people together to drive your company forward through incredible synergy and teamwork. But in a post-pandemic world, when we are facing the greatest change to the way we work since the widespread introduction of the computer, traditional office design is fast becoming obsolete. Today’s workforces demand a much higher degree of flexibility and customisability. No longer are they working in one place on one task all day, every day. They are working on a variety of complex tasks with a variety of people, and need a variety of spaces to support them. So, while the way we work and the role of the workplace has shifted dramatically in recent months, buildings - unsurprisingly - haven’t. In an age of hybrid working, the office needs to become a destination that your people will remember for the experiences they have within that space. The future workspace needs to be a synergistic hub that employees find much more enjoyable (and effective) to work in than their own home. What is Fluidspace? With many organisations unsure of how their real estate portfolios will look in 12-24 months' time, FluidSpace™ is an ideal way to ensure your company has the flexibility and confidence to create exceptional workspaces for your people. FluidSpace™ does exactly what the title suggests – it creates agile, flexible workspaces that can be quickly and cost-effectively reconfigured to meet the changing demands of teams and organisations. ​ By utilising furniture to create rooms and zones rather than traditional methods of fit-out such as partitions, it allows for maximum flexibility – new zones and rooms can be established without the need for disruptive and expensive construction works. With furniture offering mobile and modular systems, your workspace could be entirely rearranged in as little as a weekend. This offers you the agility to adapt to your changing requirements as and when they happen, giving your people the environment they need to drive your business forward. By effectively implementing carefully designed and curated collections of furniture, we can eliminate the need for expensive M&E packages that drive up the cost of workspace adaptions. Effective use of storage and acoustic pods creates differentiated spaces, meaning many M&E costs are no longer necessary, saving both time and money. The Benefits of FluidSpace™ By imaginatively creating multiple spaces that seamlessly complement the way your people work, they become happier and more productive. A truly effective workspace has to cater to all the needs of all of its users, through different spaces in which to focus and concentrate, as well as contrasting spaces that promote connection and collection. The flexibility of FluidSpace™ allows it to adapt and grow with your needs, therefore helping to future-proof this significant investment. With economies and industries changing so rapidly, companies need adaptable workspaces that can be repurposed easily and effectively. FluidSpace™ is also much more sustainable than traditional Office Fit-out: when your needs change, you can reconfigure and reuse your furniture, rather than throw it away. The Future of Work Exceptional workspace plays an integral role in both attracting and creating exceptional employees, which in turn create exceptional results - and companies. The workspace is not just a building, but a destination that truly empowers your people, without boundaries or constrictions. Through FluidSpace™, you can create your own workspace that meets the current needs of your business and can adapt seamlessly to an uncertain future.