property


THE COST OF AN UNINSPIRING WORKPLACE


An uninspiring workplace can have ramifications when it comes to attracting new staff, employee morale and productivity. These factors can adversely impact an organisation’s performance and, as a result, many companies are now investing in workplaces that aim to inspire, writes Pino Catalano, design team leader at Morgan Lovell


Attracting the best people


It’s no news that the competition for talent is fierce. Companies are going above and beyond to attract and retain the best people and office design is increasingly being seen as an important ingredient in the mix.


We’ve seen how companies like Google and Facebook create exciting and inspiring workplaces and it’s no coincidence that they are also able to recruit the best people. A recent study of 7,600 employees found that office design was so important to workers that a third of respondents claimed it would unequivocally affect their decision whether or not to work somewhere.


Engaging the workforce


Another report found that the majority of workers (51%) said they weren’t engaged in their jobs, while a sizeable proportion (17.5%) said they were ‘actively disengaged’.


In fact, less than a third of workers reported being engaged in their jobs. It goes without saying that businesses with engaged employees have much higher productivity than those that don’t. So how can office design influence employee engagement?


Adding value


As a workforce, we want to add value in our roles and work for a business we believe in. Offices are often the physical manifestation of companies and can become places to embrace, reflect and communicate its culture and ethos. It’s engaging with these values and buying into the organisational culture that drives people to work harder, ultimately


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – FEBRUARY 2017


leading to higher individual and company performance.


Nuffield Health is a good example of this. Its office includes a smoothie bar, gym and flexible breakout areas, reflecting and emphasising the company’s commitment to health and wellbeing in a way employees can engage with. People matter when it comes to driving a successful business forward, and workplaces matter in motivating successful people.


Collaboration


Steve Jobs famously altered the design of Apple HQ to ensure that the toilets and shared spaces were at the centre of the open plan. He wanted to force chance encounters and encourage serendipity. Merissa Meyers, CEO of Yahoo! banned home working in 2013 as she saw the advantages of having teams together in the same building. Inspiring workplaces become a destination, rather than just a place with workstations and meeting rooms. People want to be there, to be part of the buzz, to feed off the energy from their workplace.


Inspiring offices today are designed to encourage this organic collaboration, to maximise those water cooler encounters that can speed up communication or lead to ‘eureka’ moments. With a less than inspiring office, people will just work from home or stay pinned to their desk, limiting group interactions, collaboration and potentially innovation.


The cost of an uninspiring workplace is clear. With people making up one of the biggest cost centres for most businesses, it’s easy to see how a negative effect on recruitment, retention, engagement and productivity can be detrimental to the bottom line. This is not to say that the only way to create an inspiring workplace is to spend millions or install a Google-style slide.


It’s about understanding what inspiring looks like to the people in your workplace. Is it free coffee, music, adding some artwork or more communal areas? Once you know what will inspire your people, you can remove inhibiting factors and create a workspace where they can flourish.


Destination workplace


Want to create an inspiring workplace?


Register to attend our free seminar – Destination Workplace: designing offices to attract and retain talent – to be held on March 9.


Email:


events@morganlovell.com or visit:


morganlovell.com/ knowledge/events to confirm your spot. morganlovell.co.uk


businessmag.co.uk


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