Does A Company’s Workspace Really Impact Culture and Performance?

Company culture is the buzzword of our time. And no wonder: great company culture drives increased productivity and engagement, and attracts top new talent to your recruitment organisation.

But how important is the physical workspace in building this positive company culture?

Discussions of company culture and the physical workspace often overlap, as they combine to significantly impact how an employee feels when they walk in the door each day. In fact, some of the most well-known recommendations for improving company culture often revolve around making some changes to the physical space to make it operate better—both functionally and aesthetically. The office, in short, becomes a pleasant place to spend time and get work done.

Recruiters are often operating in a high pressure environment, and how they feel about their physical workplace will reflect in their billing numbers (and in the company’s bottom line.)

A Matter of Design- Things to Think About

Badly lit, cold, stuffy, impersonal offices can really knock the enthusiasm out of someone before they’ve even sat down at their desk. On the other hand, noisy open-plan offices may be wildly distracting for people trying to concentrate on cognitive tasks. As recruiters are often on the phone all day long, the noise level can be pretty intense and wearying in an open plan office with no places to escape to.

As a recruitment company, you also have to consider how your office looks to visitors. You’ll be welcoming a stream of candidates and clients through your doors, so it’s vital that they feel welcome and at ease in the space—and hopefully even impressed.

A Fine Balance

If you’re planning a workspace redesign, don’t let your sweeping architectural vision blur your logical thinking. Never forget what kind of team you need to run: if you’ve decided on an open-plan design to boost collaboration, but your employees also need quiet spaces to focus, adapt your plan to include both.

When planning your office redesign, consider the four work modes:

1. Focus

2. Collaborate

3. Learn

Ideally, your workspace should have spaces that encourage and balance all four of these work modes, while also putting a strong emphasis on beautiful meeting rooms to welcome clients and candidates.

Dampen the noise

If everyone’s on the phone all the time, consider noise-deadening carpets rather than stylish wooden floorboards or cold tiles. Sound-dampening should be a major priority in recruitment offices, and also nice meeting rooms and quiet spaces for important phone calls. When a recruiter is pitching a client, meeting a candidate, or troubleshooting a placement issue, the last thing they need is noise all around them raising the stress level.

In a comprehensive study on workplace design by Gensler, 77% of employees prefer quiet when they need to focus, and 69% of respondents were unhappy with the noise level at their workplace.

Ensure there’s space to collaborate

Yet collaboration matters too: an MIT study showed that 35% of variation in a team’s performance can be predicted merely by how many face-to-face interactions the team members have.

High-sided cubicles tend to be the worst of both worlds as they don’t significantly minimise noise but can make people feel isolated. If you want to use cubicles in your workspace, just make the cubicle walls low enough that people can see each other, but still have a nice private desk space.

The Little Things That Can Make a Difference

We get it. Recruitment companies can rarely justify running their office in a funky converted warehouse space in central London with beanbags, ping pong tables and an onsite café. You don’t have to bankrupt the business to make a significant difference to how the office feels.

A coat of fresh paint, an update of the staff room furniture, or a few bright paintings and funny daily quote might be all it takes to lighten the mood.

Music in the staffroom and communal spaces can also improve the atmosphere, with 77% of respondents in a Music Works campaign saying that they believe music at work improves morale.

A decent coffee machine and a quality supply of biscuits will never go underappreciated, while pizza day or afternoon drinks to celebrate meeting targets makes the workplace feel like a living, sociable place.

Light and Air Help Concentration and Happiness

Light is really important to the feel of a workplace— particularly in the long English winter when Vitamin D levels plummet. Optimise natural light, fix any gloomy or dim spaces with good lighting, and put some green plants in to brighten the space and filter the air. Speaking of which, poor air quality matters as it impacts concentration, so if your office is stuffy or damp, take steps to rectify it.

Consult the team before you make changes

Ask your employees about how they prefer to work, whether they find the noise level distracting currently, and whether they’d like quiet spaces or more collaboration space. Ask them if they could change one thing about the workplace, big or small, what would it be? Even if you only implement one or two requests, the team believes that you are genuinely committed to making their workplace better- thereby building that positive company culture you’re seeking!

Why it matters

a. Studies show that workplaces which are designed to balance focussed and collaborative work are not only more productive, but they’re perceived by their employees and managers to be more creative and more innovative.

 
b. A nice workplace shows that you care about your employees. That initial, important gesture of creating a nice space for them to do their job is one of the foundation points of their opinion of your company, right from the first interview. The look and feel of your office space may be the deciding factor between the candidate choosing your company, or your competitor’s.

 
c. In these days of a talent shortage coupled with low engagement, recruitment companies cannot afford to have a badly designed or uninspired workspace if they hope to attract top talent and retain talent while impressing candidates and clients.

Having a thoughtfully designed workspace that facilitates both collaboration and focus can turn your recruitment team into a powerhouse. What can you do within your budget to make the office a better workspace and thereby build your positive culture?