Wake Up Your Walls: Office Decor is the Other Team Member

office decor

Office decor may seem like it should be the after-thought of the after-thought when it comes to building an effective company culture. Normally, it’s at the bottom of the Idea Bin when it comes to employee happiness.

The real work lies in how a company can “delight” their customers, not in how a company makes their filing cabinets look pretty…right?

Filing cabinets aside (one can only do so much to make those look attractive), why should a company care so much what they put on their walls?

Firstly, it goes beyond providing motivation to employees. 51 percent of employees feel disengaged at work. A space that is both beautiful and functional can spark an employees subconscious mind. Design consultant Avantika Agarwal, the growing trend of startups and co-working spaces have raised awareness on how the modern workforce wants their space to look like. Speaking to India Times, “Millennials don’t want just a good salary. They are looking for soft benefits and companies are going all out to keep them motivated.” As trite as it might seem, an attractive office may mean higher employee retention. A pretty office shows potential and current employees that they are worth investing in, which signals a sense of commitment to employee well-being.

Research conducted by Teknion and multiple design-industry leaders, like Joan Blumenfeld found the workplace must be promoting two essential virtues. Their paper, Ethonomics: Designing For The Principles Of The Modern Workplace, believe that offices should provide movement throughout the day and should be visually appealing. The authors find that mixed spaces like open and closed offices, lounges, and private rooms provide the ability to retreat and collaborate as need be. Colors and texture, they find, can bring teams to a creative solution or help them focus. Walls can be the biggest focal point in keeping employees motivated, with whimsical colors or quotes.

It turns out, walls really do talk.

Displays of funky fonts and motivational quotes are a great use of space

Modern stripes in calming shades of blue and green promote focus

Try a funky decal for visual panache

Make a bold statement with graphic art

Post company values in a fun, creative manner

Try something different than a motivational poster–motivational clipboards!

Beautiful and bold without being distracting

Perhaps open up walls as a medium to brainstorm and illustrate on white-board walls

At absence.io, we’re doing something different when it comes to absence management. Governments, companies–like MyTheresa and Check24–trust our digital method to help them navigate planned (and unplanned) employee absence.

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