Office Benching
An office benching system is a desk system that connects multiple employee workstations in a continuous manner. It typically uses a shared table frame, a central beam, and a cable management area, and can be arranged in a single row, face-to-face, or multiple connected configurations. The biggest difference between office benching and regular individual desks is that you don't have to "have one desk for each person and put your own things on it".
Office benching desks can connect multiple workstations into a complete system, making it easier to organize desktops, desk frames, power supplies, and cables in a unified manner. This difference becomes even more apparent if your office has dozens of employees.
Common office bench desks can start with 2 or 4 people, and then the number of workstations can be increased according to the size of the team. Screens can also be added between desks to slightly block the view between adjacent colleagues. Underneath the desk, cable channels, cable management holes, and storage cabinets can be installed to organize computers, power cords, and personal belongings, preventing the desktop from looking modern while the space underneath is cluttered with cables.
Therefore, office benching is not just "putting several desks together". It's more like an office system that can uniformly arrange seating, wiring, and desktop configurations for multiple people.
Why are more and more offices choosing office benching instead of giving each employee a separate desk? The reason isn't actually that complicated. For offices with many employees, the real problem is often not "lacking a desk." but rather how to arrange dozens of workstations, how to manage electrical wires, and what to do if more employees are added in the future.
Typical office desks usually consist of one desk and one desk frame, with each desk placed independently. It's not a big problem when there are few employees, but if an office area needs to accommodate 20, 30 or even more employees, placing them individually can easily make the office look scattered.
Office benching desks are arranged in a continuous manner, allowing multiple workstations to share part of the desk frame and the middle structure, making the entire row of seats more compact and neat.
The key is not to find a way to "cram more people in," but to make more reasonable use of the limited office space while ensuring that employees have normal desks and activity space.
After all, office planning can't just be about whether a desk can fit; you also have to leave room for people to walk through.
Benching workstations also have a very practical advantage: the cable is easier to retract. When multiple people work together, the number of computers, monitors, telephones, power supplies, and network cables will naturally increase.
If each desk has its own dedicated cable management system, four or five people might not notice anything, but once the office has dozens of workstations, the area under the desks will quickly become a mess. Therefore, multi-person office workstations usually take into account the issue of cable routing.
Office benching systems can centrally organize power and data cables from multiple workstations through cable trays, cable management holes, and other wire management configurations, either in the middle or under the desk.
This not only makes the desktop cleaner, but also eliminates the need to slowly search through a bunch of cables to find "whose cable is this" when adding equipment, checking cables, or rearranging seats later.
The number of people in a company rarely remains constant. A team might have only 4 people now, but it could grow to 6 in six months, and then to 8 or 10 later.
The modular office benching system allows for the addition of desktops, table frames, or other components based on product structure and office layout, enabling the entire row of workstations to be adjusted to accommodate the number of team members.
This is useful for expanding companies or those planning large office procurement projects. Hiring two more people doesn't necessarily mean that the entire row of desks has to be replaced. Choosing an expandable benching system in advance also leaves some room for future office needs.
The layout of an office bench is not fixed. The same set of office bench furniture can be arranged in different ways depending on the shape of your office, the number of people, and the orientation of each seat.
For procurement, there's no need to overcomplicate things from the outset. First, determine whether the office is long and narrow or spacious, then decide whether each person needs to sit in a single row, face to face, or whether more workstations may be added in the future. This will give you a basic direction.
The following are some common Office benching layouts.
Single-sided benching is a relatively simple layout, and we can place multiple benches in a continuous arrangement along the same direction.
This arrangement is suitable for spaces near walls, windows, or long, narrow areas, allowing for seating to be arranged along these locations without the desk taking up too much space in the middle.
If your office has a long wall, or you want everyone to work in the same direction, then a single-row layout is usually more suitable for you.
Face-to-face benching is a common layout in large offices. Two rows of employees sit facing each other on the same set of benching workstations, sharing a table frame, cable tray, and power supply area in between. Compared to two rows of completely independent desks, this combination reduces redundant structures and makes it easier to arrange power supplies and cables uniformly.
Desktop partitions can also be installed in the middle to separate each person's workspace a little. After all, working face-to-face doesn't mean you have to "gaze deeply into each other's eyes" every day. Add a screen so you can look up when you want to discuss something, and block the view when you need to concentrate.
This layout is particularly suitable for office spaces that need to house a large number of employees in a concentrated manner.
Modular benching doesn't involve fixing the entire row of tables in one go; instead, it connects multiple benching modules to achieve the required length.
For example, two modules can be used to form a 4-person benching workstation. When more seats are needed, new modules can be added based on the structure of the desks. Form continuous bending workstations for 6, 8 or more people.
Office benching modules typically maintain the same desktop size, frame structure, and orientation. So when you need to add more workstations, the entire row of desks can still maintain uniformity, instead of having two completely different desks temporarily added at the back.
This type of office benching layout is suitable for companies whose headcount may change, and it also makes it convenient for large offices to plan office benching areas of different lengths according to different departments.
A complete office bench area cannot be determined solely by whether the desk can fit. Office chairs should be able to be pulled out so that employees can stand up normally, and there should also be room to walk around. If the office has 20, 30 or even more workstations, then the total number of workstations needs to be calculated in advance.
When making initial plans, Benching workstations can be estimated at approximately 40–60 square feet (about 3.7–5.6 square meters) per employee, which includes desks, chairs, and basic activity space nearby.
For typical office benching desks, the width of each employee's desk is usually 48–60 inches (approximately 1200–1500 mm), and the depth is approximately 24–30 inches (approximately 600–760 mm).
If employees primarily use laptops and basic office supplies, a compact desktop is usually sufficient. If you need to accommodate dual monitors, documents, or more devices, consider a larger desktop.
When calculating the layout of a benching office, one thing that is easy to overlook is that chairs also take up space. You need space to sit down, pull back your chair, and stand up. If two rows of benching workstations are too close together, people on both sides can easily interfere with each other when moving backward at the same time.
For face-to-face or back-to-back work areas, you can use about 6.5–8 feet (about 1980–2440 mm) as a reference range, and then adjust it according to the actual desk depth, chair size and aisle position.
Just because the tables are arranged neatly in a CAD drawing doesn't mean that employees can get up normally after sitting down.
In addition to tables and chairs, employees also have to walk from their workstations to meeting rooms, printing areas, tea rooms, and exits.
In general planning, secondary passageways can be designed to be at least 36 inches (approximately 915mm) wide. Main passageways with high pedestrian traffic usually require more space. For example, 44–48 inches (approximately 1120–1220mm). Don't wait until all the office benching is in place before considering aisle placement.
If you are planning the entire office, you cannot calculate based solely on the area of the benching workstations themselves. In addition to employee workstations, space also needs to be reserved for meeting rooms, office storage, rest areas, printing equipment, main passageways, and other shared spaces.
Therefore, a common reference range for complete office planning would be approximately 100–150 square feet (approximately 9.3–13.9 square meters) per employee. This figure doesn't mean that each person needs an office this big, but rather that it includes meeting rooms, corridors, and other common areas on average.
When choosing an office benching system, you need to consider how your company's staff will be grouped. Do we need a screen? How should I arrange the computer and power cord? Where should the files be stored? And will it still be usable if we add more employees in the future?
Once the spatial dimensions and layout are determined. When purchasing office benching, you should focus on checking the following aspects.
First determine how many workstations are needed, then see how each department should be seated.
For example, if a company has 40 people, it doesn't necessarily mean that a super long benching desk for 40 people is required. Sales, design, finance, and operations may have completely different work styles, and you can divide different work positions into different types.
Groups of 4, 6, or 8 people can be assigned office benching, while departments with more people can continue to connect.
Therefore, before making a purchase, it is best to determine how many people there are and who needs to sit together. This is much more practical than simply calculating "how many desks can fit in an office at most".
Office benching is inherently quite open, but openness doesn't mean that employees don't need any distance between each other. If groups need to have frequent discussions, they can choose a lower desktop screen to simply block the view, while still making it convenient to speak when needed.
If employees need to concentrate on their work for longer periods, they can choose slightly higher screens or use fabric or sound-absorbing materials to separate adjacent workstations and reduce surrounding distractions.
If your office requires a high degree of personal privacy, such as high partitions or relatively independent personal work areas. Therefore, Office Benching may not be the most suitable option, and Office Cubicles could be considered as a further consideration.
Furniture should be selected according to the way work is done. Just because Benching looks simple doesn't mean that all departments should be arranged with a long table.
The wiring of office benching is very important; you can't just look at whether there is a cable tray in the product picture.
Before purchasing an office bench, make sure you know where the power cord and network cable will come from. Is there enough space under the desk to store cables? Are there cable management holes on the desktop? Will the cable still be easy to adjust when adding monitors, computers, or other devices in the future?
Especially with benching desks placed face-to-face, the computer cables and power cords of employees on both sides are usually concentrated in the middle of the desk. If the cable management is done well, most cables can be tucked under the table or in the middle, instead of hanging everywhere.
Benching desks usually look simple and tidy, but employees' belongings don't just disappear just because they get a new desk. Documents, stationery, bags, and all sorts of personal items all need a place to go.
If you mainly use it to store personal items, you can equip each workstation with a mobile pedestal. The department has a lot of documents that everyone uses together, so shared storage or office storage cabinets can be used. If there are a lot of documents, it is best to set aside a special place for cabinets in advance.
If the company may add more employees in the future, modular office benching systems should be given priority consideration. However, when purchasing, it's best to understand the current desk frame, desktop, partition, and cable management to see if they can be reused when adding more workstations in the future.
If these main components can remain the same, it will be much simpler to increase the number of people from 4 to 6, 8, or even more. There won't be situations where experienced employees sit in one type of table and new employees sit in another, or where the colors and sizes of the two rows of tables don't match.
LINRAY office benching systems can provide different multi-person office workstation desk combinations to suit your office layout and number of employees. From small team workspaces to offices with dozens of people, you can choose the right office benching desktop size, color, finish, table frame, and partition configuration.
When designing office benches, we also consider how easy it is for employees to use once they actually sit in them. For example, under-desk cable management can keep computer cables, power cords, and network cables organized, preventing a mess under the desk. Desktop partitions can slightly block the view, reducing mutual interference between adjacent employees while they work. When paired with mobile pedestals or office storage cabinets, there's also a place to store documents, bags, and personal items.
Desktop size, color, finish, screens, and some structural configurations can all be customized to your project needs. If you are renovating your office, you can also purchase office benching along with ergonomic office chairs, office storage cabinets, meeting tables, and office workstations. It makes it easier to maintain consistency in color, material and overall style across different office areas, and saves the trouble of searching for products from different suppliers to equip an office.
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