If you’re hoping to encourage employees back into the workplace after periods of remote working, it’s tempting to think more short-term. Offering fun team days and workshops in the office, as well as free snacks and drinks, are all good. However, while these all come recommended, these strategies aren’t conducive with long-term employee retention.
In this guide, we’re looking at whether your office environment can influence employee retention and what you can do to improve your workplace.
How does office design affect employee retention?
Hybrid working has increased employee expectations of working in the office. If employees have what they believe to be a better environment at home, you may have a greater challenge to retain some of your top talent.
What can you do to retain talent?
Comfortable environments
Some employees may simply prefer to work remotely because their home office is quieter and more comfortable for detail-oriented tasks. You can bring quieter acoustics to your office without completely redesigning the layout or internal structure.
Sound Masking raises the ambient background sound to lower the perceptibility of distracting noises.
Inclusive office design
It’s believed that 15% of the UK’s population are neurodivergent. This encompasses autism spectrum disorder and a range of other conditions, such as dyspraxia and ADHD.
It’s highly likely that your business already has a number of neurodivergent employees. With this in mind, it’s important to understand the unique talents and value they can bring and how you can help them overcome environmental challenges.
Installing Sound Masking can be a great support for neurodivergent employees, as they tend to be more sensitive to sounds. By reducing the level of distracting noise in the office, they can focus more easily on the task at hand.
This acoustic technology brings plenty of benefits for all employees, including enhanced speech privacy and a boost in productivity.
Bring your brand values into the office
If your brand values are to be more inclusive, enhance employee wellbeing or to introduce eco-friendly initiatives, it’s important to match these across all areas of your business. This includes your office environment.
Office technology is improving all the time with a focus on increasing productivity and wellbeing. If employee wellbeing is on your agenda, human-centric lighting and soundscapes are two fantastic ways to enhance your office.
Solutions like these will also improve your ethos credibility among your clients, customers, stakeholders and employees.
Make employees feel valued
There are a multitude of factors that contribute to employees feeling valued in the workplace. Clear progression and training opportunities, rewards for good work and establishing a positive company culture are all common starting points. However, the office environment itself can often be overlooked.
Providing a comfortable, practical space where employees can perform the best work possible is an effective way to make them feel valued. It demonstrates that you take their health, wellbeing and work productivity seriously.
Interested in developing your office environment to increase employee retention? Speak to the experts at Remark Group. Our engineers are fully trained to install a wide range of top-spec business solutions to enhance employee wellbeing and productivity. These include Sound Masking, Video Conferencing, Digital Signage, Smart Lighting and much more.
