Office Space: An In-Depth Look at Benching

Our friends at Kimball Office have prepared an in-depth look at a popular space- and money-saving trend in commercial design. Economic conditions, sustainability and an emphasis on workplace collaboration have fueled the popularity of “benching”, a trend for which Working Spaces is seeing an ever-increasing demand.

Within this growing trend, variations exist. Initial benching systems having been designed with a collaborative workplace experience in mind allow for limited flexibility and provide limited barriers between employees. In 2010 a newer approach to benching included the implementation of height-adjustable tables for use with additional partitions and mobile storage components. The introduction of hybrid-based benching systems, echoing the design of a traditional cubicle, has been reinvented to include lower panels and additional mobile storage options with an overall smaller footprint.

Not only can more recent benching designs provide cost saving solutions, they typically use 20% to 50% less space than typical panel-based cubicle systems. According to Kimball’s research, “The primary business drivers of alternative workplace have shifted toward ‘hard’ economic issues—cost savings and real estate flexibility—and away from ‘soft’ employee-centric ones—greater work/life balance, increased employee productivity, and improved employee attraction/retention.”

Beyond cost and real estate are the workplace experience and its impact on a company’s success. An interesting workplace survey cited in Kimball’s whitepaper found that “average companies are centered on focus work, while top companies focus on collaboration. Average companies spend half their week in focus mode—21 percent more than top companies. Top companies on the other hand, spend 23 percent more time collaborating than average companies.”

Ideal for a range of workplace situations, from teams who collaborate frequently to sales people who spend more time away from the office and simply need occasional access to workstations, benching serves a multitude of functions and offers attractive variety of design solutions. If you are interested in reading more on this growing design trend, click here to download Kimball’s whitepaper. Call or stop by the Working Spaces showroom Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. or call 314.918.8778 to learn more about how benching can work for your company.  

Photos and benching information provided by www.kimballoffice.com.