Attracting top talent to your company is essential for growing a business, maintaining and increasing your reputation, and working efficiently and effectively. Often, offering a competitive wage is one great way to attract the best candidates to new position listings, and for keeping great talent on your team. However, even if you are willing to stretch your budget for future growth, offering a higher salary isn't always feasible. And even a highly competitive salary isn't always enough to attract the best candidates.
Nowadays, there are all kinds of ways besides increasing salaries that businesses attract top talent. Instead of stretching your budget to a breaking point, it's a good idea to look into other options within your budget. This includes outfitting your office and making it appealing to your target demographic for new hires. Getting creative with your office space can be a cost-effective way to help your business stand out from others in your industry.
Why Does an Attractive Office Space Help Attract Top Talent?
Compared to the salary you're offering to candidates, why does your office design make a difference? First, employees are increasingly invested in the atmospheres in which they work. Studies cite the close ties between the work environment and employee satisfaction. Businesses are starting to put more effort into creating an engaging, productive, and visually-pleasing office space for their employees.
In fact, research has pointed out that employees who are satisfied with their work environment are 18 percent more likely to stay, helping a business's retention rates. Even more compelling is the research that has stated that 30 percent of polled employees say that a pleasing work environment will attract them to one competitor over another.
Office Transformation for a Variety of Budgets
If you want to re-design your office to increase your likelihood of attracting the best candidates, it's important to start by considering the first impression you're making on applicants. This impression. begins when they approach your office and ends once they step through your door. Evaluate the control that you have over the exterior of your office space. If you rent an office within a larger building, this will likely be relatively small. If your office is in a privately-owned, smaller building, you could tweak the exterior or landscaping to adjust the first impression someone will get when approaching your office.
The next thing you need to figure out when creating an attractive office space is your goal when creating the interior aesthetic. Do you want it to be calming? Do you want it to visually look like a fun place to work in or one that is more elegant and focused on keen productivity? The interior of your space should reflect your brand indentity as much as possible. Employees that align with your brand identity will be attracted to a space that shows those same values and style.
Once you have decided on your aesthetic, make changes where possible to reflect it. For a newer office or those on a limited budget, this could include paint colors and decoration. If you have a bigger budget, you can redesign your office to reflect that aesthetic; this could mean knocking out walls to create a more open space or adding windows to bring in more natural light.
Understand the Importance of Lighting
The most basic facet of lighting in a workspace is ensuring there is enough for your employees to effectively work by. For example, there needs to be plenty of light regardless of its type or source to encourage productivity in the workplace. If an office doesn't have enough light or the lighting isn't high-quality, it can result in eye fatigue and consistent headaches, greatly decreasing your employees' efficiency.
You shouldn't only think about the quantity of lighting in your office; you can also utilize lighting to attract attention to specific areas within an office or give it an overall positive feeling. For example, if you can increase the amount of natural lighting in your office, you will inevitably improve the first impression potential employees have when entering the space.
If you have harnessed as much natural lighting as you can, the next step to putting lighting to use is warm-toned bulbs. Warm tones stimulate, while cool lights can make a space feel dry and void.
Use Living Walls to Elevate a Space
Plants have a positive effect on the human psyche in almost any space. Not only do they make a space feel more welcoming and relaxed, but they also help to elevate the space. As a result, plants have recently become more associated with trendy spaces focused on the well-being of their employees and embracing nature.
One great way to add more foliage to your space is with potted plants placed strategically around your office. If you're looking for a more low-maintenance way to add plants to your space, a living wall can be a great addition to your office. A living wall is immediately eye-catching and can significantly impact the overall aesthetic of your office. Besides being aesthetically pleasing, living walls can also help to improve air quality, boost productivity, and serve the practical purpose of offering a backdrop for video meetings and dividing a space without adding physical walls.
Make It Comfortable and Open
Consider the interactions that occur within an office space. For example, do you have people that come in for meetings and interviews? Make that part of the office particularly comfortable and inviting. Seating areas are highly impactful in these kinds of spaces. The seating shouldn't be too informal, but should set visitors at ease.
Show that You Care about Mental Wellness
The visual aesthetic and layout of an office make a difference in the mental wellness of those who will spend countless hours working within it. Create spaces that further promote prioritizing mental health within an office, and it will have a positive effect on the overall working environment.
These spaces can be outside, cultivated on a balcony or roof, or even a room set aside with dim lighting and designated as a quiet space, available for employees on their breaks. Adding plants to these and comfortable seating helps to make them even more desirable and further the calming effect even in the middle of a hectic day.
Using Your Office as a Hiring Tool
Your office is a great tool that you can use during the hiring process. You don't have to have a large budget to afford the changes that attract top talent. Look into the current interior design trends, such as installing a living wall, to get new, young talent through your door. Zauben helps you take this step forward with their low-maintenance, budget-friendly living walls.