While the end result of renovations can be an improved environment for workers and customers, the process can involve noise, dust, and other disruptions to ordinary business. The key to a successful renovation is working closely with a construction company to ensure that renovations are completed in a timely fashion while minimizing disruption.
Preparation Is the Key to Success
Before starting your renovation, you should hold meetings with all groups who will be affected by the renovation and involve all stakeholders in the planning process. IT personnel, for example, need to be involved in discussions of anything that might affect building power supplies or cabling. Staff whose jobs include face-to-face meetings or telephone conversation will be particularly concerned about noise. Accessibility may be an issue for disabled employees while construction dust may be an important issue for those with respiratory issues. The more people you involve in the initial planning process, the less disruptive the renovations will be.
Construction Strategies
Before you start your renovation, you should work with a construction company like Prime Building & Construction to plan access, including parking, staging and storage areas for construction materials and machinery, and partitions to separate areas under renovation from normal work areas. It is also critically important to have a safety plan in place that conforms with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines. Removing anything that will not be needed by employees during construction, such as archival records, rarely used machinery, or furniture in rooms scheduled for renovation, to offsite storage may simplify this process. Renovations can actually provide an opportunity to increase efficiency by decluttering your business, and selling off or donating to charity obsolete equipment and digitizing or shredding old files.
Scheduling
Try to schedule renovations to fit in the least busy time of year for your business. To minimize the effect on productivity, processes that involve substantial noise, fumes, dust, or other disruptions should be scheduled outside normal working hours if possible. If this is not feasible, you might consider renting temporary facilities or allowing staff to work from home. Having construction workers renovate one floor at a time of a multi-story building or one area at a time of a large facility will minimize disruptions.
Invest in Cleaning
Two of the most disruptive elements of construction are dust and fumes. Minimize these with regular cleaning, including vacuuming and damp mopping, and using of exhaust ventilation.
