Employer branding contributes significantly toward the success of every startup. It gives the business a unique identity and helps in establishing a strong image in the competitive startup ecosystem. It helps startups attract the best talent to the company. It strengthens the startup’s brand image by sharing the business goals, its history, and goodwill with the customers.
To stay ahead in the fierce startup competition, early-stage businesses must understand the importance of branding and invest in a fool-proof branding strategy. Designing office spaces to showcase the employer brand is one of the many tactics that startups can implement.
In this article, we will understand four ways that startups can implement to showcase their employer brand.
4 Ways to Showcase Employer Brand via Office Spaces
1. Brand Your Office Spaces
Office space is no longer just some space you fill in with furniture and computer systems. It is like a canvas that allows you to narrate your brand story. It ensures that visitors and employees have a memorable experience with your company.
Office branding is the process of designing your office space to reflect your brand. It is no longer about painting the office walls with brand colors or printing the brand logo on mugs. It includes communicating your brand values, vision, and company culture through the office space.
Here are a few tips you can use to brand your office spaces.
- Decide on a theme for your office design. For example, if you are a tech startup, incorporating technology in office design would be a smart choice.
- Incorporate your brand’s color scheme into your office design. Paint the walls in the brand colors and choose the furniture that goes well with this color scheme. Try creating an appealing aesthetic that complements your brand.
- Display your company logo in a few places. However, do not overuse it. Instead, place branded elements, such as logo marks to create an abstract pattern or design.
- Accessorize your office space with indoor plants, wall clocks, new light fittings, wall art, motivating quotes, and more to enhance the feel of the office spaces.
- Brainstorm and choose names for various work areas and rooms. This demonstrates the creative side of your brand while making navigating within the office an easy affair.
HubSpot incorporates its branding colors in its office design. Check out the clean and uncluttered furniture, logo display on an LCD screen, office color scheme, and more that subtly portrays the brand message. This business-casual office design presents HubSpot as a company that is approachable, modern, and sophisticated.
2. Prioritize Employee Experience
Employee experience is one aspect that most startups often neglect when designing their office spaces. Employee experience plays a significant role in boosting workplace productivity and contributes to employee retention. It also helps employers attract the best talent.
Create a nurturing work environment that presents employees with opportunities to learn new skills, fosters a culture of teamwork, believes in continuous feedback, and focuses on the perfect work-life balance. Hence, revamping the office design while keeping a strong focus on human experience is the need of the hour.
Here are a few tips to design your office space that focuses on employee experience.
- Let the workspaces be quiet and clean. Introduce a flexible workspace design that allows employees to reduce workspace distractions and dedicate complete focus to the work.
- Create an enjoyable workplace by introducing fun elements, such as a game area, in-house gym, hobby area, nap pods, and more to take breaks away from the desks and relax their minds.
For example, Google has installed nap pods in its offices to help employees who work for long hours rewind and relax. These pods have a pre-installed music system for employees who love to listen to relaxing nap music.
- Ask the employees to contribute to designing workstations with creative ideas and decorate the office as a team.
- Have a well-stocked pantry providing freshly-brewed coffee and lip-smacking snacks. Organize cake-cutting sessions on the employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries. Celebrate major festivities by ordering lunches for the employees.
The social media giant, Twitter offers healthy-catered meals (lunch and dinner) to all its employees.
- Organize fun events like quizzes, monthly challenges, or a chess tournament, celebrations, and team-building activities at the office. Share the pictures of these events on the office notice board to engage the employees and increase workplace happiness.
3. Opt for Open Offices Layout
Office space design and its aesthetics take workplace productivity and employer branding to the next level. No employee would love to come to a compact office with cluttered workspaces on any given day. Hence, incorporating a clean layout that transforms your workspace into spacious units is necessary.
Focus on creating an office space that makes your employees feel welcomed and comfortable. Here are a few tips to arrange your workspace as a fully-functional unit.
- Invest in the furniture that takes up optimal space while leaving enough room for employees to move around without any hassles.
- Install small storage units near the work stations for employees to store their belongings instead of having one large cupboard that takes up most of the office space.
- Create an airy and open space with ample natural lighting to create a pleasant work environment. Installing air fresheners in the right corners contributes to elevating the moods of the employees and creating a good work environment.
- Choose the right type of office lighting that offers optimal illumination throughout the office space. The perfect lighting will ensure your employees stay energized and alert at all times.
- Plan the employee’s seating arrangement as per the departments. This will help in better team collaboration and ensure productivity.
Discarding the traditional cubical arrangements and opting for an open layout demonstrates an open and collaborative work culture which indirectly contributes to building a strong employer brand.
Check out these office pictures of Moz’s office in Seattle. Notice the clean and tidy office with ample space. The large windows light up the entire workspace with bright natural lighting. The reception area is furnished with a modern desk.
Moz offers sit-and-stand desks to its employees. The employees can also work from the comfort of a beanbag or a couch, whatever they prefer.
Check out this aesthetically pleasing pantry that is fully stocked with a variety of food items and beverages.
4. Share Your Stories via Office Decor
Integrating your company story with the office design strategy certainly boosts your employer branding efforts. The right story makes a memorable and meaningful first impression on the visitors.
Here are a few suggestions for using office decor to tell your brand story.
- Share real stories about how your company was established, your mission, and future plans. These stories help in instilling a sense of trust and strengthen the company’s brand image.
- Share your company’s vision, mission, and goals through wall art, posters, and other pieces. You can also leverage words or doodle art to display your values.
Here is an image of how Starbucks shares its company mission.
- Share pictures, videos, or any other media that give a glimpse of your company to the visitors. As we have seen earlier, HubSpot has installed an LCD screen in the waiting area giving the visitors a gist about the company.
- Showcase the company’s achievements, certifications, and awards in a prominent place. This will motivate your team and also, leave a positive impression on the visitors.
- Display the pictures of memorable office moments on the office bulletin board. This will help in demonstrating your company culture to the visitors.
Wrapping Up
Designing the office space to demonstrate your company vision, culture, and goals is one of the tactics for building a strong employer brand. The right design choices foster a positive work environment and enhance workplace productivity. We are certain you will follow the tips mentioned in this article the next time you revamp the office spaces and build a strong employer brand.
Author Bio
Aanya Rachel is the Content Manager at The Address, a coworking space in Surat, Gujarat. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge, experience, and extensive research in this field. She writes on a wide range of topics related to coworking, the growth of remote workers, startups, and real estate.
