How Commercial Shifting Benefits Businesses
Commercial shifting refers to the process of moving offices or business premises from one location to the next, an undertaking which must be carefully planned and carried out without disruption to productivity or client relations.
Relocating can provide several advantages to companies. These benefits may include improved market access, efficient space utilization and reduced operational disruptions.
Efficient Space Utilization
Efficient space utilization is an integral element of commercial shifting. It involves tracking and analyzing how various spaces -from offices, meeting rooms, desks and common areas- are being utilized so they meet organizational requirements. By gathering this data, companies can create more functional workplace environments while saving costs, improving productivity and increasing employee satisfaction.
Space management best practices can save businesses significant sums in expenses by identifying underutilized areas and eliminating them, leading to significant cost savings when it comes to real estate costs.
Space utilization should not be confused with occupancy, which measures how many people are present in an area. A conference room could have high occupancy but low utilization if only a handful of attendees use it frequently and use resources that could otherwise be better spent elsewhere. To achieve successful space utilization for your organization, it’s crucial that you understand its unique workspace so you can monitor metrics like daily peak utilization by business unit, average weekly usage, employee density etc. to track and measure appropriate metrics.
Reduced Operational Disruption
Shifting commercial operations is an opportunity to implement new technology and streamline workflows, while simultaneously decreasing operational disruption during the shift by having a backup plan in place. While disruptions cannot always be avoided, they can still be managed to mitigate their negative impact on operations and productivity by creating contingency plans, diversifying supply chains and resources, improving communication among teams, investing in backup systems/infrastructure, conducting risk assessments to identify any risks or threats, etc.
The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the many instances of disruptions to business operations that had far-reaching ramifications; their impacts can be felt far beyond any one location. Disruptions can have multiple negative outcomes ranging from reduced productivity and financial losses to reputational damage and trust issues; those affecting critical infrastructure may even cause physical damages to buildings, roads, or bridges.
Operational resilience consists of two separate capabilities, disruption absorption and recoverability. Previous research has established positive associations between these capabilities and operational efficiency; particularly strong associations are found when operating in disruptive environments. Our study builds on this by investigating the moderating role that disruption conditions may have on this relationship.
To address this question, we developed a formative measure of operational disruption comprised of nine items that represent independent unexpected events that cause operations disruptions. After collecting our data, we ensured there were no multicollinearity issues and all correlations fell below 2.0.
Our analyses indicate that both disruption absorption and recoverability are positively correlated with operational efficiency; however, under high disruption conditions the effects of disruption absorption are greater than recoverability. Our findings illustrate that managers may need to choose between various levels of resilience to maximize performance benefits. They suggest that disruption absorption and recoverability should not be seen as alternatives but as complementary strategies for operational resilience, while providing new insight into how various components influence operational efficiency, providing guidance for strategic investment decisions of firms faced with various disruption situations.
Enhanced Flexibility
Businesses experiencing rapid expansion or changing business needs can benefit from designing for flexibility to future-proof their spaces and reduce disruption associated with major renovations while creating environments responsive to evolving business practices and unexpected challenges. By prioritizing adaptable technology and infrastructure, commercial shifters can reduce costs associated with major remodels while creating environments which adapt as needs shift over time.
White-collar workers tend to seek flexibility through remote work arrangements; hourly shift employees require different forms of flexibility in order to remain engaged and productive at the workplace. To meet their demands, organizations can implement various employee scheduling solutions, such as compressed workweeks (with an eight-hour workday split across four 10-hour days), flexible start times (6 AM-10 AM), compressed workweeks with four 8-hour days each day shifted across four 10-hour days), split shifts (where workday is divided into multiple segments), or compressed workweeks where an 8-hour workday is spread out over four 10-hour days).
As part of designing for flexibility, one key element is making sure the underlying systems can adapt quickly to changing requirements, from adapting existing software applications or purchasing new ones with improved scalability and agility to employing employee scheduling software to increase worker engagement, productivity and job satisfaction.
Although it may seem counterintuitive, adding flexibility into frontline work arrangements for shift- and site-based employees can bring immediate advantages. According to the recent report entitled Shifting Expectations: Flexibility for Frontline Shift and Site Based Roles by Viva Energy, Worley South32 Unilever Crown Hanson shows how flexible work arrangements for shift and site based employees improve workforce engagement and productivity.
Reduced Costs
Reduced costs in commercial shifting are key to improving company profits. Cost reduction can be achieved through direct expense reduction, indirect cost cutting not directly related to production, and variable costs that vary based on production volume. It’s essential that costs are thoroughly examined in order to identify opportunities for improvement as well as direct cost shifting which occurs when project managers pass along additional expenses unintentionally to customers or suppliers.
Implementing a cost-cutting strategy is one way to gain competitive edge while creating a stable financial foundation that makes navigating volatile market conditions simpler.
