Enquiries about Work From Home Space cabins are illustrating just how versatile a solution they are.
A Work From Home Space cabin answers a challenge many are facing right now – how to work effectively from home. British designed and made at our purpose-built UK factory, a Work From Home Space cabin is a cost effective and quick way to create a home office on your doorstep.
And it isn’t just those looking to work from home who are getting in touch. Many businesses are seeing the value in providing the cabins for their employees as a non-permanent space, a place where their work from home staff will be able to deliver better results. Some are considering Work From Home Space cabins as a way of safely returning furloughed staff to work, albeit at home.
And then there are some businesses who are taking their thinking to a whole different level, in one case, as you’ll read, literally.
The names have been changed to respect wishes for anonymity, but the enquiries have not been altered.
Martin is a Nottingham based HR director responsible for a phased return to the workplace. His major headache, he told us, will be social distancing, even with the new “one metre plus” advice.
Martin said, “Like many Nottingham businesses, we have to pay a Workplace Parking Levy (a type of congestion charging scheme) of £424 for each parking space we provide. So, like many companies, we have been looking at ways to reduce this and encouraging employees to come to work by public transport and use Park and Ride where possible. It was working and before Corona Virus the car park was often half empty. I was sat looking out on the car park when a thought dawned on me – how about we move the colleagues I can’t fit into the office into temporary buildings in the car park!”
Martin is currently investigating the puzzle of ‘when is a parking space not a parking space’, i.e. does a firm still have to pay a parking levy if the thing parked in a space is a couple of desks in a temporary cabin. He is also checking the viability of employees getting into the city by tram, bus or train in a post Coronavirus landscape. Upon successful conclusion of these enquiries, he hopes to create what he calls a village of offices, in the car park, populated with Work From Home Space cabins.
Work From Home Space cabins were designed, as their name suggests, to help people work from home. Where space doesn’t allow for a big garden office, local planning doesn’t allow an extension and time doesn’t allow for modification of loft space, a Work From Home Space cabin provides a fast, cost effective and non-permanent solution.
We always knew that their potential was not limited by the name that we had chosen to give them and that, actually, a Work From Home Space cabin could be installed anywhere. Enquiries from businesses so far are confirming this and confirming something else that we already knew too - that business owners are an incredibly creative bunch.
At the same time that Martin was surveying his car park spaces and visualising the win / win of not paying workplace parking levy and safely bringing his workforce back into the business, Claire was dreaming up an even loftier plan.
As I say, we firmly believe that a Work From Home Space cabin can be installed anywhere. If you have a patio, we can give you office space, if you have a driveway we can provide you with a workshop, if you have a backyard … well you get the idea … we are yet to encounter a place where a Work From Home Space cabin could not be erected.
Then Claire got in touch …
“Could your cabins be lifted by a crane?”
Now that is a question!
Claire explains, “We have a rooftop garden which used to be a smoking area, but no-one smokes now. We’d have to look at whether it’s allowed but I think we could double our available workspace by moving some of our team up onto the roof. If it’s permitted can it be done? Could your cabins be lifted by a crane?”
A Work From Home Space cabin is certainly robust enough to be hoisted into place by a crane. Claire is currently looking into hiring one and whether her business is allowed to expand onto the roof.
I suppose what it illustrates is that, as we emerge from lockdown, into whatever the new normal for business will look like, imagination, vision and creativity are the traits that will be needed as much as the traditional business skillsets. Just from these enquiries, and others that we have received so far, businesses contacting us have these characteristics in abundance.
Your ingenuity knows no bounds! We have even been asked about the, how can I word this, the limit of the ‘functionality’ of our cabins.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” one enquiry started and continued, “I hope I won’t offend you by asking…”
You’d be forgiven for wondering what possible business use they had in mind! We did!
It’s ok. This potential client was wondering whether a Work From Home Space cabin could be adapted to incorporate a bathroom, to prevent employees walking into the main office and compromising social distancing measures and to avoid having to install unsightly ‘Portaloos’ on the premises.
We were able to advise that Work From Home Space cabins can indeed be partitioned to accommodate a range of purposes, from a kitchen to a break out area and, yes, you could even install a bathroom in one. In fact, this particular firm is looking at using one Work From Home Space cabin exclusively as a washroom and toilet. It’s alright, we’re not offended. You use yours for whatever purpose you like – we’re just happy to help.
It's not just office managers who are displaying these attributes of creativity and innovation either. They’re called Work From Home Space cabins for a reason. We don’t all work at a desk, or in an office and a Work From Home Space Cabin can facilitate whatever you do to earn a living.
We have had queries about their suitability as a workshop and repair shed, a packing and distribution company is even looking at having them installed in a warehouse to allow packers to work safely without feeling isolated.
So, set us a challenge. Put Work From Home Space cabins to the test.
Whether you’re an employee or self employed looking to work from home more effectively, a business seeking to boost work from home output from remote colleagues, or a firm looking to safely return your most valuable asset safely back into the workplace.
Find out more about how Work From Home Space cabins might be the perfect solution to the challenges faced by your business in the ‘new normal’. Call now on 0115 932 8888.
