Your workplace is high performing
Your workplace is better than most in its ability to attract and retain the best people.
You have invested in the human, digital and physical experience so that it is easy and enjoyable for people to work productively and to connect with people virtually and in person. Your workplace as a whole evokes delight in your people and is a powerful tool for attracting and retaining talent.
You could improve your edge even further by bringing in some of the features of the most high-performing, leading workplaces:
- Provide tailored areas for specific activities such as media rooms, huddle spaces, breakout areas, a library, podcast or presentation studio or research room
- Give people autonomy to choose when they come into the office. This has the proven effect of introducing satisfaction with various aspects of the office by more than 20% according to the Leesman index.
- Establish ongoing engagement with people to understand their choice of location (e.g. the office, home or elsewhere) for specific work activities, and adjust the office dynamically as required
- Introduce flexible and modular furniture that can be easily reconfigured to suit different tasks and team sizes.
- Make elements of nature, such as plants and natural materials, a dominating feature of the design. A space that feels alive and rich with the greenery of plants is often also calm and acoustically balanced.
- Create spaces within the office that feel calming, to improve wellbeing for those people who need it.
- Link your local culture and identity to the office design through thoughtful consideration and engagement.
- Update your design to use colour and texture to create a visually interesting and stimulating environment.
- Incorporate fitness rooms or a gym, meditation spaces, healthy food options and any other specific wellness amenities into your workplace offering.
- If you are considering a refurbishment, explore the use of sustainable materials or features such as solar panels, green roofs, and rainwater harvesting. Alternatively, consider aiming for Greenstar certification above five stars.
Find out more about other performance profiles
Performance profile: Underperforming
Your workplace is underperforming. Most employees expect a basic range of features that you don’t currently offer.
You could begin to meet expectations by bringing in workplace features that are now considered typical, such as open plan, flexible workspaces and activity zones. People should be further enabled to move around throughout the space through consistent full strength internet and ergonomic furniture. Your staff expect some degree of flexibility to work from home or elsewhere. They anticipate that when they come into the office some of the spaces will facilitate them to connect with their peers, such as kitchens, kitchenettes or lounges. If you opt for unallocated seating, lockers are essential.
Performance profile: Standard
Your workplace offers features and a work style that are now considered standard, or ‘normal’. Most employees expect that the typical workplace will offer basic features such as open plan, flexible workspaces and activity zones, with some degree of flexibility to work from home or elsewhere. On the whole, your workplace meets basic expectations but doesn’t serve to attract or retain the best people.
You could lift the ability of your workplace to attract and retain talent by focusing on the aspects of the Workplace Experience that make the greatest difference to workplace satisfaction:
- Provide a layout and furniture that enable people to do work activities in the office that are well suited to the office – this involves some interaction and engagement with your staff in order to understand which activities the office is best suited to.
- Improve the flexible work experience, so that people feel both productive and connected with their team when working remotely.
- Improve acoustics so that distractions are minimised and people who need it can do focused work in the office.
- Let more natural light into the workspace through removing barriers or screens, while minimising glare where possible
- Introduce plants and elements of nature to the greatest degree possible, improving the office’s air quality, acoustics and visual appeal.
- Consider whether part of the office could be dedicated to promoting a calming atmosphere for wellbeing.
- Engage with your staff to discover what could be blocking them from achieving their goals in the office, whether that goal is productive individual work or collaborating and connecting
Performance profile: Leading
Congratulations, your workplace is highly attractive to your people and new candidates. You’ve created a powerful talent magnet, which is absolutely on point with the requirements of the modern workforce. Your exceptional workplace will continue to draw and attract the best people to work with your business.