We recently had two new businesses move into the offices next door. Looking through the doors highlighted to me how important the first impression of an office is to the energy you bring when you walk in the door.
One of the offices is very evidently a call-center. It’s clad in shades of grey and blue with small cubicles. It seems to suck the energy out of you just looking at it.
The other (pictured) seems to draw you in. In fact, upon entering, I had not idea what they did1, but you felt that it would be an interesting place to work.
It may seem obvious, but it’s important to consider the impact your office environment has on potential employee’s as well as the current ones.
When recruiting, if a candidate walks in the door thinking, “wow, I want to work here”, or compares favorably your office/team with their current office and team part of the hiring process just got simpler.
For your own staff, having a place that they want to work in, along with an outstanding team to work with brings it’s own rewards. Higher productivity, less down-time due to illness and greater retention to name just a few. These rewards have value not easily measured but a lot higher than what it can cost to make a great environment.
1 – My wife’s first guess from the photo was travel, but it turns out they are a tattoo artist.↩
