Enterprise-sized businesses are their own highly particularized beast. They are in a different class when it comes to just about everything. In a large office, just keeping the lights on and the air cooled or heated is a major production.
For the large office, everything is so much more expensive. It would shock the average person to know how much it costs just to keep the doors open. When it comes to basic technology, things get even weirder. The typical work computer is different in important ways:
- USB ports are often blocked off
- Core OS features are often shut off
- CPU and GPU performance tends to be deprioritized
As a home user, you wouldn’t want a typical large office workstation. They’re not fun, attractive, or useful for high-end tasks. They are designed for the typical office tasks performed by typical office drones… I mean, workers. If you are transitioning from running your business all by yourself to staffing a small office, you could learn a lot from those boring, large office PCs. Those features (or lack thereof) exist for good reasons. You want a more secure system on which people will not be tempted or able to play games and download viruses from the internet. Your thoughts about workstations are not the only things that need to change. Here are some other large office accommodations that make sense for your small office:
A Reception Desk
One of the first things you see in a large office is a reception desk. That is because visitors will not necessarily know where to go or who to see once they enter. The receptionist is the face of the company and the first impression of clients who will ultimately be making decisions about whether or not they will be spending money on your products or services.
Small office reception design might be even more important because you have to consider the space requirements when choosing furniture. A small office where potential clients will visit still needs some type of reception area. You still need that first impression that exudes professionalism. Your clients still need a place to sit and wait their turn. Your reception desk will be smaller by necessity. But it still needs to be there.
A receptionist tends to wear a lot of hats. They receive all package deliveries. They often answer all incoming phone calls. And they serve other support functions as needed such as handling the printing. The reception desk needs to be up to all those tasks, especially in a small office.
Advanced Connectivity
Zoom fatigue is a real thing that is growing about as fast as the adoption of the Zoom platform, itself. One of the ways to combat the fatigue is to upgrade your connectivity. Rather than gathering everyone in a conference room, you might be inclined to do meetings over Zoom from individual workstations. That is only as good of a solution as your connectivity. A good VoiP connection will make all the difference. When there is lag in what should be real-time conferencing, people can feel it.
If workers will have to do conferencing from home, you need to provide a connectivity allowance that enables them to upgrade their connectivity. Another solution that will still involve upgrading connectivity is to do fewer Zoom meetings and more voice meetings that don’t require staring at faces on a screen. Voice calls afford more freedom to move around and divert one’s attention as needed. They are much less fatiguing. The important takeaway for the small office is that they have the same connectivity needs as large offices.
Data Security
Large offices have to deal with data security all the time. That is partly why their workstations and policies are the way they are. Cybersecurity for small businesses is just as important. Big companies are big targets. But small companies are easy targets. Thieves love easy targets. It is your responsibility to be as difficult of a target as possible. You will have to use many of the same techniques as large offices if you want to keep your data safe from theft.
Your small office still represents a big responsibility. Equip your small office with an appropriate reception desk, advanced connectivity, and enhanced cybersecurity.
