Training Rooms Archives

Using Mobile and Nesting Desks for Your Office

Mobile and Nesting Desks Global Terina Table

Tired of getting up from your workstation and carrying your laptop from one place to another? Consider a mobile desk. Need more floor space? Try nesting desks, also referred to as stackable desks. Expand your productivity and office space and bring a new level of flexibility and efficiency to your office environment with mobile and nesting desks.

Mobile desks meet the ongoing demands for mobility with a minimalist appearance. They come in a variety of styles to fit the office needs of every industry. Nesting desks can be used for multiple functions and both types of surfaces reduce the footprint of tables and traditional desks.

They’re some of the trending items for today’s workplace.

Types of Mobile and Nesting Desks

We know about height-adjustable desks and how they move so the user is comfortable and can set the height to the individual’s proper posture. Mobile desks go a bit further, literally.

Photo: ODS Crossroads Workstations

A durable stand and surface for a laptop make them lightweight and since they’re equipped with casters, they’re easy to roll.

Nesting desks are easy to stack and reduce the space that tables and traditional desks often take up. Plus, some function as whiteboards where you can scrawl ideas, flip the top to show what you’re working on, and use the table again as a flat surface.

Photo: AMQ Concur Training Tables

When you’re done, “nest” them together so they’re out of the way. Transporting is easy since they come with a cart like the durable Via Seating Splash Stackable Table.

What else can you do with mobile and nesting desks?

A lot more.

Uses for Mobile and Nesting Desks

Mobile desks are excellent to use for health professionals and other offices where data needs sharing around a conversation. Instructors can also use them, wheeling a laptop or other screens around a conference or training room.

Nesting desks can be used near workstations where a few colleagues gather to collaborate. They can also be used in lounge or breakout areas in addition to training rooms. If floor space is being optimized in your office, then use nesting desks as needed.

You may have a few desks with the tops stacked vertically and neatly against a wall. During a huddle, you may only need one desk. However, if others come into the area where you’re doing a training session, then the additional desks are available as needed.

Nesting desks with writeable surfaces are excellent for professionals like those in engineering firms or robotics companies where spur-of-the-moment ideas are best expressed with quickly drawn diagrams.

What if you plan to move locations soon and you’re already relocating your equipment?

You wouldn’t want a room filled with tables.

Mobile and nesting desks are useful for startup companies and established companies that are changing facilities since they fit with professional décor and don’t look like temporary solutions.

In a spacious executive office, mobile desks can comfortably accommodate laptops or, if you prefer, a pad of paper and pen to take notes during meetings. Nesting desks can easily be pulled out from against the walls.

The finishes are attractive and fit with various office design schemes.

Breakrooms or lounges are also areas suitable for stackable desks where space is at a premium.

Furnishing Solutions with Mobile and Nesting Desks

Consult with the team at 2010 Office Furniture to handle your space planning needs so you can select the right mobile and nesting desks that will serve your team the best.

2010 Office has a half-century of experience working with globally recognized corporations, universities, and small businesses throughout Los Angeles County, Orange County, and the Inland Empire.

Contact them with your office needs and questions.

Read Also: 6 Types of Spaces Every Office Needs
Main Photo: Global Terina Tables
Resources & Special Thanks to Respective Product Manufacturers: AMQ, DeskMakers, Global, ODS & Rouillard

Office Furniture Trends 2022: What’s New in Commercial Office Furniture

Over the last decade we’ve seen tremendous changes in our offices and how we work — especially within the last couple of years. Office furniture trends of 2022 are no doubt a reflection of these important changes. As we recover from a world pandemic, our schedules are less structured, our interactions more organic and our technology more advanced. Innovations in office furniture have allowed us to complete our tasks much faster and be more mobile at work.

From the way we complete our daily tasks to how we meet and share ideas – our offices are changing in remarkable and exciting ways. As we review 2022’s office furniture trends, let’s ask ourselves, “How did we get to here today? And what do we have to look forward to?”

Workstations

Photo: The Open Office Plan Setup

THEN: Open-plan benching systems have been the go-to workstations ever since their revival in the early 2010s. Designer Frederick Taylor pioneered the idea of the open office back in the early 1900s, claiming it was the secret to productivity. And over the last decade or so, they’ve regained much popularity especially among health-conscious millennials who found cubicles to be somewhat oppressive and confining. Open-plan benching systems, on the other hand, promoted open communication and collaboration, and kept productivity in mind while fostering team camaraderie and employee wellbeing. They also helped ease high costs of construction, utilities and office equipment, because they’re typically modular and can be set up and reconfigured much more easily in huge open spaces without having to partition areas by building walls. The open-plan set-up is not without its drawbacks, however. They can be noisy and have been criticized for imposing too much distraction to workers, making it difficult for focused individual work.

NOW: To remedy the shortcomings of open-plan benching systems, semi-private workstations are now taking center stage as the optimized solution for the open office. Providing just enough barriers and partitions, they are not as severely closed-off as traditional cubicles. They work better to offer needed quiet and privacy while still open enough to facilitate collaboration, interaction and exchange of ideas. Moreover, to avoid costs of having to implement entirely new workstations, many offices are now retrofitting their existing open-plan benching systems to be more semi-private, by attaching raised panels or adding storage bins and cabinets, as well as glass or plexiglass dividers. With improved separation between workers, this promoted better social distancing and sanitation practices in the workplace, especially during the post-COVID era.

Office Furniture Trends 2022 Photos: Groupe Lacasse Paradigm Workstations & Senator Workpod

Private Offices

Photo: Traditional Private Office

THEN: Private offices have thrived since the Taylorist 1900s era, and continue to be popular even today. Executives and managers especially benefit from private offices, which provide the needed privacy for focused work over extended hours and allowed them to meet with clients privately. Often furnished with a complete office furniture suite, the private office generally consists of a large personal desk, a return for additional work surface real-estate, chairs for guests, and credenza and hutch with shelves and cabinets for storage. This private room setup offers maximum privacy for confidential meetings and concentrated work, and most of the time includes windows overlooking employees to supervise them as they work. It’s the ideal setup for 9-to-5/five days a week schedules for many professionals.

NOW: While private offices are here to stay, office furniture trends in 2022 are seeing a rise of touch-down spaces. Touch-down spaces are smaller, more casual private or semi-private spaces for on-the-go professionals and executives to work. Today’s much more dynamic lifestyles and technology have allowed and granted more flexibility in our work culture. We can now complete most of our tasks anywhere on a laptop and be able to meet with clients in more comfortable informal settings. These less structured setups best accommodate the hybrid work-from-home/work-at-the-office schedules that have emerged from the COVID era. Professionals are able to come to work, interact with colleagues and coworkers, have a designated space for focused work, but are still mobile to be able to pick up their work and relocate.

Office Furniture Trends 2022 Photos: Trendway Volo Walls create individual workspaces; Global Priva Acoustic Pods & Hat Collective M-Series Wall Mount Worksurfaces

Meeting Spaces

Photo: Traditional Conference Room

THEN: Meetings are as old as time, and they have always had one thing in common: one location. Starting from the 1900s, office furniture has stayed generally the same in terms of the meeting room. These spaces, most commonly referred to as conference rooms, are typically private and spacious areas with a large and stately table in the center to seat a group of people for power meetings, presentations and exchange of ideas. Traditional conference rooms are designed to impress and slightly intimidate; they’re the place where executives would meet, negotiate important decisions and strike million-dollar deals.

NOW: The past several years have seen a sort of democratization of the workplace. The open office has especially paved the way toward a more inclusive work culture where employees have free rein to roam about, and have access to all areas of the workplace. There’s less need for huge, traditional meeting rooms that feel too formal. More professionals are gravitating to smaller meeting areas, sometimes referred to as huddle rooms, which are designed to be leaner, meaner, more efficient to use and accessible to everyone. The past couple of years of COVID especially have pushed for improved telecommunications and popular video-teleconference platforms such as Skype and Zoom. Meetings no longer need to take place in one location. Fully equipped with power and state-of-the-art A/V equipment, these new and improved spaces now allow for a quick gathering, brainstorming or impromptu collaboration without even having to be physically together. A more appropriate solution for the times, they help promote social distancing safety by keeping fewer groups of people together and allowing them the flexibility to meet virtually.

Office Furniture Trends 2022 Photos: OFS Heya Meeting Lounge, Scale 1:1 Telemeet Media Table & OFS Obeya Architectural Structures

Training and Collaboration

Photo: Traditional Training Room Setup

THEN: Training and collaboration spaces are crucial to every company. These spaces are generally made up of numerous rows of chairs and tables lined up auditorium-style, inside a room specifically designed for training employees, group orientation or team-building exercises. Typically designed to be very capacious, they’re able to seat a great number of people all at one time, and typically orient a group audience toward a speaker, not unlike a classroom or lecture hall. Oftentimes these setups can feel severely rigid, formal and overly spacious, especially when only a handful of people need to use them.

NOW: Today, training and collaborative spaces are very much designed with the interaction of people in mind. The philosophy behind the design focuses on harboring a sense of community while facilitating a more intuitive and organic flow of interaction and communication among people. Now, we see breakrooms, lounges and other common areas that double as training spaces, in a less formal way. Comfortable modular furniture works best for this purpose, as they can nest together to accommodate group sessions, then be rearranged after to serve another purpose such as for lounge or individual work. Sometimes, it’s a mixture of sofas or individual seating with built in laptop and tablet tables. Sometimes, stools, benches and ottomans are used with occasional, nesting or bar-height parsons tables, along with mobile white boards and TV displays. Whatever the type of furniture, they’re meant to be dynamic, and are often on casters for ease of mobility and reconfiguration. These modern training and collaborative spaces are all about adaptability and flexibility, working to accommodate people’s natural way of interaction. The lines of formality are blurred, and optimized communication and comfort are prioritized.

Office Furniture Trends 2022 Photos: Senator Play Collection, Hat Collection M-Series Nesting Tables & OFS Coact Mobile Chairs and Heya Screen

Continued Evolution

With continued innovation in office furniture, there really isn’t one way to design an office anymore. Office layouts are fluid, and every generation focuses on different aspects of our professional lives and cultures to create what they believe is the perfect workplace for the times. Whereas the 1900s may have prioritized employees’ productivity and efficiency, many today weigh a significant value in employees’ happiness and wellbeing – because of the belief that worker satisfaction ultimately drives better productivity and efficiency. One thing will always remain however, and that is the constant improvement of the office to meet the ever-changing demands of businesses and the individuals who work for them. With a watchful eye on office furniture trends in 2022 and years beyond, we can look forward to new designs and solutions that will always reflect the culture of our times.

Following Office Furniture Trends of 2022

If you need help planning or designing your office space, please contact us and share your needs. Our team at 2010 Office Furniture has about 50 years of combined experience working with Southern California’s most distinguished corporations, universities, and small business from Los Angeles and Orange Counties to the Inland Empire.

Read Also: Designing a Healthy Office
Main Photo: Stylex Seating
Resources & Special Thanks to Respective Product Manufacturers: Global, Groupe Lacasse, Hat Collection, OFS, Scale 1:1, Senator & Trendway

2022 collaboration collaborative office spaces conference room trend corporate office cubicles layout design modular office furniture office design office floor plan office furniture trends office inspiration office trends training workstation trend

Your Guide to the Best Training Furniture for the Office

Your Guide to the Best Training Furniture OFS Maren Chairs

You need employees to learn new products, review sales procedures, or keep certifications and licenses current. Bringing everyone together for training is the answer. And it’s important to consider the best training furniture that will work for you and your company.

This raises questions like what type of desks, tables and chairs are best?

All office needs require planning the space to know what furnishings are best. Let’s plan and equip a training area.

Know Your Goals and Needs for Training Spaces

Let’s look at basic fundmentals like why you need a training area, and how often trainings are expected to occur. Will the set-up be permanent, and can the room be used for other purposes?

Keep this in mind: you want information to flow easily between the presenters and attendees.

Is there a set-up that’s best?

The answer is whatever helps your team learn, retain, and put to use what they’ve seen and heard.

Training in companies and larger corporations usually happens in classroom settings with desks and chairs set up in rows, just like school. Create an atmosphere that’s more relatable where employees can work in smaller groups and tables can be arranged to face each other.

Check products like the Krug Revo Training Table that’s easy to reconfigure. Have groups of five or six together in a huddle, or circular seating, to solve customer problems or get insights on new products.

Photo: Krug Revo Table

If space is tight, then consider tables that fold, have sturdy casters, and can be easily rolled to a storage area or one side of the room.

Once your purpose and needs are clearly established, then you can choose the furnishings.

How Training Furniture is Unique

Most tables and chairs used for training purposes have a distinct look and function that’s clearly different from executive desks and workstations. Check out the many options available for conference tables.

This is fine if your office schedules regular trainings for clients or employees.

But if bringing people together only happens occasionally then use tables like the Desk Makers Training Table that can double as an everyday work surface.

Photo: Deskmakers Newport Training Table

Photo: Krug Nuvo Conference Table

For some, conference tables can also be the best solution for employee training purposes. The conference room by nature brings people together to facilitate sharing and exchange of information and ideas. It’s very common that conference rooms double as training rooms for many companies. For ideas on what may work for your company and office culture, you can explore options for conference tables.

And who says tables have to be boring or only have one primary use?

Check out the Scale 1:1 Nomad Conference Table that:

Is useful for trainings
Is useful for conferencing
Serves as a whiteboard
And offers a surface for social activities like a Ping-pong match

Photo: Scale 1:1 Nomad Conference Table

Best Ways to Arrange Training Furniture

If you have a dedicated corporate classroom, then you’re set. But if you don’t, get creative with how you set up the furnishings.

Common arrangements cited in Room Arrangements for Training Sessions in the dummies series are:

Single square or round tables
Conference tables
Classroom style with an aisle between tables or surfaces for long rows
Clusters of round or rectangular tables
V-shape
U-shape

According to the author, u-shape arrangements are good for groups of 12 to 22, while conference seating is good for about 8 to 12 people.

Table clusters can be used for 16 to 40 attendees.

Photo: Arcadia Flirt Chair

Revisit Your Goals and Available Space

Training sessions will often tackle different topics, so decide how you want your team to respond.

Will your team be focused with eyes toward the front with little or no small group interaction? If so, then tables and chairs can be arranged in rows or at angles with the right proportions that fit the room.

Do you expect break-out sessions, or will small groups stay in huddles throughout the training?

Who says training furniture has to fit a specific mold? Sometimes the best training furniture don’t.

Certain types of lounge seating options can bring a focus that traditional tables and chairs won’t be able to do. A u-shaped solution like the Rouillard Blok Lounge Seating gives attendees a view forward while making it easy to stay together and learn or brainstorm ideas.

Keep in Mind

Choose your office furnishings to support and aid your staff, whether that’s selecting workstations, break room equipment, or training tables. Know the various ways people learn so you can bring out their best with the tables, chairs and how they’re arranged.

Photo: Allermuir Kin Chairs

Category: Training Rooms