Renew the lease or relocate: how to decide
« Our lease is ending, we are unsure whether to stay or leave »
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Kytom guides
Guides for the workplace director
The hub for workplace directors: ratios, method, regulatory reporting of energy consumption, flex office and 49 operational guides.
11
cities covered
1 200+
spaces transformed
66
passionate people
The workplace director constantly makes trade-offs: increase density without degrading comfort, switch to flex without breaking up the team, meet the regulatory obligations to reduce energy consumption without blowing the CAPEX, and deliver in an occupied site without halting operations. Your pain points are well known: an executive committee that wants 30% less floor space, managers who demand closed offices, an HR department pushing for a return to the office, a CSR function requiring a carbon footprint, and 6 months to settle it all. Kytom supports the workplace director by putting the numbers on the table from the very first meeting: desk-to-headcount ratio, cost per m², project milestones, flex scenarios. On an average of 850 m², our design and build teams scope the brief, secure the phasing and deliver in 12 weeks on average. You keep control of the real estate strategy, we carry the execution.
All guides relevant to you
Real estate strategy and the decision to fit out
- Renew the lease or relocate: how to decide « Our lease is ending, we are unsure whether to stay or leave »
- Calculating the office space you need « We have 1,200 sqm, is that too much, just right or not enough »
- Cost of an office fit-out per sqm « Give me a budget per square metre »
- Building the brief for a fit-out project « Where do we start »
- Design and build or separate trades: how to choose « We have been offered both, which one do we pick »
Ways of working and organisation
- Moving to flex office without breaking the team « We want to switch to flex, but without breaking the team »
- Bringing teams back to the office « We are at 30% on-site, we want to raise it »
- Setting the remote-work policy and its impact on the fit-out « 2, 3 or 4 days on-site »
- Designing a hybrid office « Partial on-site presence, how do we fit out »
- The ideal desk-to-headcount ratio in flex office « How many desks for how many employees in flex »
Comfort, performance and well-being
- Improving the acoustics of an open space « We can't hear ourselves work »
- Indoor air quality in the office « Headaches, lack of oxygen »
- Natural and artificial lighting in the office « The back of the floor is dark »
- Biophilia and nature in the office « We want something alive »
- Ergonomics of the workstation « MSDs, pain, complaints »
- Acoustics of meeting rooms « Voices carry into the corridors »
- Air conditioning, temperature and thermal comfort in the office « Too hot in summer, too cold in winter »
Specific functional spaces
- Phone booths and video-call pods « We lack pods for video calls »
- Designing a company cafeteria « Our coffee corner is a sorry sight »
- Modern meeting rooms for hybrid video calls « Rooms unsuited to hybrid video calls »
- Focus zones in the office « Impossible to concentrate any more »
- Social spaces in the office « How to build cohesion »
- Fitting out a corporate reception « Our reception doesn't reflect our brand »
- Fitting out a company gym « We want a fitness room »
- Employee services: concierge, parents, well-being « Services for employees »
CSR, environment and regulations
- Low-carbon office fit-out « We want a low-footprint project »
- France's tertiary decree and OPERAT obligations « We understand nothing about OPERAT »
- Reusing office furniture « We want to avoid throwing things away »
- Choosing sustainable materials for your fit-out « How do we know it's truly green »
- Carbon assessment of a fit-out project « How do we quantify the impact »
Project method and management
- Fitting out without disrupting operations (occupied site) « We can't shut down for three months »
- How long an office fit-out project takes « We call you, when is it delivered »
- Change management in a fit-out project « The teams are resisting flex »
- Co-creating an office project with employees « How do we co-create with them »
- The workplace director's role in a fit-out project « I'm the one leading it, how do I do it »
- Keeping a fit-out project on schedule « We are afraid of overruns »
- Phasing works in occupied offices « How do we organise around the teams »
Cases by type of organisation
- Fitting out a head office « It's our showcase, it has to wow »
- Fitting out multi-site branches with consistency « We have 12 branches in France to harmonise »
- Office fit-out for scale-ups « We are going from 50 to 200, we are overflowing »
- Fitting out a law firm « Confidentiality, prestige, functionality »
- Fitting out an accounting firm « A mix of open space and private offices »
- Fitting out the offices of a manufacturer « We want to break the dull corporate mould »
- Fitting out a coworking or corporate third place « We are opening a shared space »
Your frequently asked questions
Why a hub dedicated to my role as workplace director?
The workplace director handles very different topics from a managing director or an HR director: m² per desk ratios, reporting of tertiary energy consumption, phasing in occupied sites, multi-package contracts. This hub brings together the 49 Kytom guides that address precisely these trade-offs, classified by operational category, with quantified benchmarks drawn from 1200+ projects delivered since 2006.
How long does it take to read a guide?
Each guide takes 8 to 12 minutes to read. The flagship guides (role of the workplace director, flex ratio, obligations to reduce the office portfolio's energy consumption) require 15 to 20 minutes as they include trade-off matrices and quantified ranges. You can also go straight to the section matching your project phase, as each guide is structured by operational step.
How does Kytom support the workplace director beyond the guides?
Beyond the guides, Kytom offers a floor audit, a brief scoping co-built with your stakeholders, costing per m² within 15 days and design and build management over an average of 12 weeks. You keep a single point of contact, from space planning to furniture delivery, with 11 agencies covering France and Spain.
Can the guides be used to defend my budget in the executive committee?
Yes. The budget guides (cost per m², hidden costs, project duration, desk ratios) are designed to be copied and pasted into a scoping note. The ranges cited are based on recognised market indices and on our 1200+ projects. You walk into the executive committee with defensible figures, not rough estimates.
What if my project is multi-site or international?
The multi-site and Spain guides deal specifically with these cases. Kytom operates 11 agencies in France and supports openings in Madrid and Barcelona, with a harmonised method: same fit-out guidelines, same furniture standards, same management. You avoid quality gaps between sites, a classic friction on portfolios of 5 agencies and more.