How Workplace Design Can Impact Company Culture
Building a strong company culture is a big priority for many companies. But what exactly is company culture? And how do you build it?
Company culture is the distinctive essence that defines the values and social atmosphere of a company. Unlike many other business-related metrics, company culture isn’t something tangible that can be measured. But just because you can’t quantify company culture, that doesn’t mean it isn’t important.
Many studies have shown that strong company culture can have benefits like improved engagement, higher employee retention rates, greater productivity, and improved company reputation. And business owners and employees alike see company culture as being more than just a buzzword. One study by Deloitte found that 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe that a distinct company culture is important to the success of a business.
The first step to building a strong company culture is to decide how, exactly, you want to define your culture. Company culture is much more than just an idea or a person, it’s something that needs to be actively fostered. But once you know what you want to achieve, workplace design can play an important role in helping you get there.
For example, let’s say a company chooses to make wellness a key part of their culture. There are lots of different ways workplace design can be used to help employees lead healthier lives in big and small ways. This can range from doing things like building office fitness centers to designing your office to encourage movement, maximizing access to natural light, incorporating elements of biophilic design, and creating break rooms with healthy snacks available for people to enjoy throughout the day. Or if communication is something you want to focus on, you may want to consider things like open plan layouts, various types of spaces for collaboration, and support for video conferencing technology.
When people think about company culture, they often focus a lot on encouraging socialization and having fun in the workplace. It’s one thing to say that you want your workplace to have a fun, social atmosphere, but there need to be opportunities within the space for that to happen naturally. For instance, when we were working on our Novara Law project, we needed to create a workplace that supports both work and play so that their team would have ways to destress during the day, so their space includes features like a game room and a golf simulator along with several collaborative areas that can be used for both socialization and work.
Ready to create an office space that will help you build a strong company culture? Premier Construction & Design has experience creating spaces for companies in a wide range of industries. Contact us to tell us more about your project and our team will start coming up with ideas for your space.
