When it comes to determining how much office space you need for 30 employees, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on the type of work, the industry, and the company culture. Generally speaking, it's best to leave about 175 square feet of space per person. Leaders and executives may require 200 to 400 square feet, while open office workstations only need about 100 square feet per person.
However, there is no exact formula to determine the exact amount of space needed. The most commonly accepted rule in London is that 100 square feet per employee is the ideal amount of space. This allows for 50 square feet for desk space and another 50 square feet for common areas such as small group spaces, meeting rooms, and kitchens. When evaluating your need for office space, it's important to remember that square footage isn't always “square”.
Some office spaces may have oddly shaped floor plans where a portion of the space cannot be used as a desk area. Additionally, some parts of the office may be away from windows or natural light, which can adversely affect team morale. In addition to taking into account the size of the workspace, you should also look at the height of the ceilings, especially in loft-style offices where the ceiling may be too low to accommodate desks. If your company culture doesn't match an open-plan office where everyone is expected to sit close together, it's worth planning about twice as many square feet per person to allow for more isolated cubicles or workstations.
You can also adopt a hybrid of both styles. In the past, employees had large desks to handle cumbersome CRT monitors and needed a lot of physical storage, which meant that the average office would occupy between 120 and 180 square feet. The world's largest open floor plan seats 28,000 employees with a total of 430,000 square feet (that is, just over 153 square feet per employee) and a 3.6-acre rooftop garden. When deciding how much office space per person you need, consider common areas such as a kitchen, living room, storage space, showers, a wellness space or a library. Future vision and flexibility are crucial when making this decision.
However, keep in mind that the denser the office space, the more space you'll have to allocate to common areas. OSHA does not set minimum requirements for confined office spaces (including cubicles), but employees must be able to enter and exit the workspace comfortably and safely. When planning for your business's growth in the coming years, consider additional equipment and employees you'll need as well as additional office space. The occupancy rate of office space is calculated by dividing the space occupied by the total space available. The average North American employee needs 150 to 175 square feet of office space to work comfortably and productively. Several factors have caused the average office space per employee to decrease by 21% over the past decade; however, this trend is reversing due to the pandemic. We help businesses plan their current and future needs based on their projected growth.
While this calculator will provide an estimate of how much space your new office needs based on industry standards, it is not intended to act as a definitive assessment.
