We asked Chris to describe an installation that was a bit more complex than usual and to explain the strategies Office Innovations used to rise to the challenge.
Here’s Chris:
“A national HVAC parts distribution company approached us to help them with a new office furniture installation. Their furniture was quite dated and worn—honestly, it had had to be replaced probably about 10 years ago. They had about 150 employees.
The installation presented multiple challenges but years and years of experience allowed us to successfully navigate them all.
The first request was to do it in one shot so as to minimize downtime for the 150 employees. Logistically, I knew that for a project this size involving so many different trades and components, doing it in one shot would be impossible. I suggested a phased after-hours and weekend schedule that would allow us to get the work done with the least disruption possible to the business.
Multiple trades had to work together for the project to move forward on schedule. For example, we would do the tear down on a Wednesday evening. Carpeting and painting would take place on Thursday and Friday. We’d have Friday night and Saturday night to get the furniture installed so that the electrical folks could come in and, behind them, the IT folks to hook up the computers and get them ready for the employees on Monday.
Staffing in the trades is always tricky at the end of the year, but luckily we have such a solid team of people who were willing to go above and beyond to get the job done that we never wavered. We worked nights and weekends so that we could give the client with a seamless installation. Other trades weren’t so lucky and getting the timing right while coordinating with people who were short staffed was tricky. If one trade was delayed it would affect everyone else.
In the end, with our flexibility and all-hands-on-deck can-do attitude, we made it happen on schedule in spite of delays that were out of our control.
The client was very satisfied and commented that he was convinced that he’d made the right decision when he hired our team.
The final result was 100% successful. The project looked phenomenal. It made a dramatic visual difference that was sure to improve employee morale.
When an office furniture installation is done right, it makes an entire company feel good about what they do. And the investment certainly pays off in the increase in productivity and the lower turnover rate since a high-turnover rate is a critical failure in a lot of companies. People should never underestimate the impact of an employee’s immediate environment on their job satisfaction. Here’s a very good Linked-In article about the impact of workplace design on employee retention and here is another fascinating article that dives into how much employee turn-over really costs a company.
We loved working on all kinds of projects with all kinds of clients. There’s a great satisfaction in seeing a job well-done. Whether you have a simple or a challenging job, contact us to chat about it and we’ll see if we are a good fit for what you need to be done.