Eliminating aisles full of files may seem difficult, but you'll benefit greatly from using office space efficiently.
Clearly, if you lease your office space, the cost of
that lease is probably one of the single largest expenses you face each
month (right up there with the cost of wages and salaries). Therefore,
it makes sense to review periodically how efficiently you are using
that space, given its cost. If you were to discuss space usage with
retailers, they would undoubtedly point to their costs per square foot
compared with their store revenue per square foot. Where the comparison
falls short, consideration can be given to replacing the products for
sale that occupy that space with something that would (hopefully) pull
in a greater amount of revenue. In other words, for retailers it is
possible to quantify and objectively measure the use of space. With
financial advisors, it may not be as simple as that.
Storage is one issue to contend with. If the
financial advisor's practice uses physical files (paper), space to is
needed to house them. If the advisor prepares financial plans,
comprehensive quarterly reports or other bulky filing requirements, the
physical files can quickly grow to multiple sets of files per client.
Many advisors have chosen to convert their physical files to electronic
form to save space in their offices and to save money on the use of
office space.
In one large financial practice we observed, it was
discovered that physical documents housed in several lateral files
throughout the office occupied more than 200 square feet. Because the
filing cabinets (25 of them) were placed along the walls of corridors
in the office, the shortened width of the corridors was potentially
violating ADA accessibility rules. And, because they were not located
in a lockable filing room, there were questions about the security of
client information. However, the larger concern was the cost of the
space itself. At $30 plus per square foot, the space occupied by those
filing cabinets is costing upward of $6,000 per year. The question that
needs to be asked is, "Is that a good use of that money?"
Another issue of space utilization is employee tasks
and how efficiently they match up with the physical location of the
employee's workspace. For example, if an employee is primarily
responsible for scanning documents and/or printing copies of documents,
yet their workspace is all the way across the office from the location
of the scanner or printer, how much time and productivity is lost by
requiring that employee to constantly march back and forth to those
areas? Another example is the smaller office where the receptionist is
required to answer the phone, greet clients and do other miscellaneous
office tasks such as filing, making coffee, etc. In this example, does
the receptionist have a wireless headset for the phone system that
permits him or her to answer and transfer calls even if they are not
sitting at the reception desk? Is there an announcing bell, tone or
other noticeable way to know when a client walks through the door? If
the answer to these questions is no, then not only does productivity
suffer, but it would also likely make a poor impression on the client
when someone has to run to the reception area to greet them (or worse,
show up late).
Another topic of space utilization is building
density, a space planner's term for measuring the amount of area
employees are given to perform their duties. It is calculated as the
gross square footage of a building (or designated office space) divided
by the number of total employees (for all full- and part-time workers).
The equation looks like this: Building density = (square footage of a
building or designated office space)/(the number of employees). This
number is important to note, as it has shrunk in recent years because
of rising office lease rates per square foot. In other words, employers
have attempted to squeeze more people into the same space.
From an efficiency viewpoint, the overcrowding of
employee space can cause two distinct problems. The first is auditory
interference. When employee density reaches the point that cubicles are
made smaller and less soundproof, sounds from one cubicle spill over to
the next. Try carrying on a phone conversation when you have to raise
your voice to be heard above those who are talking right next to you.
It is nearly impossible to concentrate on analytical tasks when you can
hear every word of a conversation in the next cubicle. Additionally, if
your employees are having trouble with this, imagine what your clients
may be hearing on the other end of the line.
The second problem is visual interference. Consider
a situation where two employees might share the same cubicle area.
Anyone walking into that area to speak with one employee would surely
interfere with the concentration and or task being performed by the
other employee in that cubicle. One solution to both of these issues is
to extend the height of the cubicles. Using cubicle walls that have
some sound-deadening qualities will assist in this as well.
Client convenience and office workflow should also
be considered when looking at space utilization. Take one financial
advisor's office, where the reception area was all the way across from
the conference room where clients would be meeting with their advisor.
They were forced through a gauntlet of cubicles and other offices (and
exposed to some of the messiest areas in the office) to get to the
conference room. This is poor space design. Still, there are times,
especially in smaller offices, when it is difficult if not impossible
to have the perfect setup. But when possible, it is preferable to
create a path for clients to travel to their meeting area that does not
lead them through a main admin area.
The other area is office workflow. Just as the
receptionist should not be asked to run through the office to greet
clients, other employees should not be expected to perform tasks that
carry them all over the place (when they could avoid it). One way to
accomplish this is to group employees with complementary tasks. Rather
than, say, lump all the admin people into one area and the paraplanners
into another, while leaving the lead planner in some remote office
location, some advisors group the team members adjacent to each other.
This can facilitate better communication and create clearer channels of
workflow without forcing employees to chase people down at opposite
ends of the office.
Before you start knocking down walls and rebuilding
your office space, consider implementing some of these suggestions. For
the most part, they are low-cost, simple efficiency ideas that could
substantially increase productivity and client satisfaction.
Ultimately, any change that is being considered should be weighed
against the impact it will have on your clients.
David Lawrence, AIF (Accredited
Investment Fiduciary), is a practice efficiency consultant and is
president of David Lawrence and Associates, a practice-consulting firm
based in Lutz, Fla. (www.efficientpractice.com). David Lawrence is a
sought after public speaker on a variety of leadership, financial and
technical topics. For details, visit www.davidlawrencespeaks.com.