Attracting + Retaining Talented Employees Through Branded Environments

For corporate America, recruiting talent is now Job #1.

“Attracting and retaining talent” is now the top issue facing CEOs, according to a 2019 Conference Board survey of 800 CEOs. Companies are having to fight much harder to recruit and keep employees in today’s tighter labor market.

While there are many ways to attract and retain top talent, branded environments have emerged as a way to create an appealing work space that charms potential new hires and makes existing employees happier, more productive, and less likely to leave.

Designing Branded Environments To Recruit New Employees

If your company is also highly focused on your ability to recruit top talent, then consider what effect your facility has on job candidates when they visit you there. The goal is to have visiting recruits think to themselves:

“This company knows what their mission is, and it’s a mission that I agree with.”
“What a cool space to spend most of my waking time every week day.”
“Workers are given the space they need to get their jobs done.”
“Employees are treated with respect here.”
“I could see myself working here.”

Imagine what a potential job recruit would think, entering and touring your facility while on a job interview. Would your facility inspire these same thoughts?

Attract and Retain Employees With Branded Environments That Clearly Represent Your Purpose And Culture

Company culture is at the heart of successful employee recruitment and retention. Why is that? Because your company retains more employees when they join already knowing that they fit well with your company purpose and culture.

Holt Experiential, High Point, North Carolina

Well-designed branded environments strongly communicate your purpose and culture, helping to attract good-fit candidates and discourage bad-fit candidates. Good-fit candidates will be more invested in your mission, and more likely to remain long-time employees. Lowering turnover reduces the cost of recruiting, hiring, and training replacement employees.

Design Your Workspace For A Better Employee Experience To Retain Talent

Stanley Gibbons, Raleigh, North Carolina

According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), “Design of the workplace and work” is one of three areas companies are focusing on to create a better employee experience, in order to retain more employees.

PwC reports some of the design options currently in favor: “While some may work best in a traditional office setting, others are more productive in a different atmosphere, such as in a cafe-style setting, or working from home while virtual whiteboarding with teams big and small.”

Whatever design ideas you bring to the work environment, it’s important to have a plan to make changes. Adds, PwC: “Many leaders recognize the need for an updated work environment, with half (50%) of US CEOs reporting that they are modernizing their workspace to attract digital talent.”

Office Snapshots, Behr Paint Company, Santa Ana, California

Branded Environments Help Create Strong Internal Brand Ambassadors

Your employees can be your most valuable brand ambassadors. When your employees deeply understand your brand, they can better articulate it to their friends, peers, colleagues and neighbors – among which are potential new employees. You gain a stronger recruiting network, with your employee brand ambassadors at the hub.

You can accelerate your employees’ brand awareness and buy-in through branded environments within your facility. Employees working within branded environments daily absorb your brand messages and gain a stronger sense of what your brand stands for.

Office Snapshots, Invision Labs, Prague, Czech Republic

Employer Branding – Making Your Company Attractive To Top Potential Recruits

Employer branding is the idea that your company has a separate reputation and meaning for potential employees than for clients and prospects. First originated in 1996, employer branding has gained more traction as the unemployment rate remains at its current low levels, and is now seen as a top company priority. According to the Harvard Business Review, “many leaders now place primary responsibility for the employer brand with the CEO or marketing, rather than with recruiters and HR. In fact, 60% of the CEOs we surveyed said this responsibility lies with the CEO.”

While much of employer branding focuses on managing and improving your online and social media reputation, your facilities also help bolster your employer brand as well. The #3 most important attribute of a employer brand is a “creative and dynamic work environment,” according to Universum, which originated the employer branding concept.

A strong employer brand allows your company to “recruit better candidates, reduce hiring and marketing costs, and improve productivity,” according to author Ceren Cubukcu. “A strong employer brand will make your employees proud that they are part of it. Employees who work in strong brands are generally more enthusiastic and motivated.”

Office Snapshots, Facebook, Menlo Park, California

How Many Facility Areas To Convert To Branded Environments Depends On Urgency Of Employer Competition

Your facility has a few high-profile spaces that are seen by many groups, and many more that are seen only by employees.

Because spaces such as lobbies and elevator banks are seen by everyone who enters your facility, you harness more branding value when converting these areas into branded environments. You get sales and marketing value from client and prospect visits, plus recruiting and retention value from job candidate and employee visits.

However, when your company is feeling the heat of a more competitive recruiting environment, you will also reap a positive return on investing in branded environments in more areas, which are experienced primarily by current employees and potential job recruits. These facility areas include:

Shared work areas such as open offices and work lounges
Primary transition areas
Meeting rooms and open spaces from large to small, ranging from assembly rooms to breakout rooms and meeting points
Cafeteria, kitchen and pantry areas

If your company is aggressively competing for new and current employees with other employers in your area, you will benefit by expanding the reach of branded environments in your facility, to reinforce your brand value, and provide a more appealing work space.

Getting Started On Your Branded Environments To Recruit and Retain Employees

Branded environments can help your company achieve many strategic goals, from increasing innovation to increasing sales. But all these goals are in jeopardy without a reliable team of company employees to execute your strategies. In today’s tight labor market, branded environments can help excite and inspire current and potential employees that your company brand and mission is aligned with their own interests.

We would love to help you design and build your own company’s first branded environment, or to enhance and expand your use of branded environments within your facilities. To get started, look at our portfolio of projects, or contact us via the form below.