Most businesses and marketers understand the business value and importance of creating a strong brand identity that resonates with customers and employees. Elements of a brand’s identity include logo and visual identity, marketing design and messaging, and packaging design. One often underappreciated branding touchpoint is the physical space in which employees work – the office or workplace. Workplace branding, or office design, is an opportunity to bring your brand to life in your workplace. Workplace branding can help shape and define a workplace culture. From wall graphics and signage designs, window designs and other branded visual elements, workplace branding can have a real impact on the overall culture and success of a company.
This article will explore the business benefits of office design and workplace branding. How can workplace branding positively influence a working environment? Can office design decisions have an impact on employee engagement, retention, and productivity? I will also outline some best practices for branding a workplace that designers should know that will assist in helping to create a strong and cohesive branding designs for a physical workspace.
Workplace Branding: The Impact of Effective Office Branding
Workplace branding is the process of employing design and branding principles to adapt your physical space to reflect your organisation’s brand identity and core values. Workplace branding can be a simple and cost-effective way to improve productivity and employee satisfaction, enabling companies to make the most of their existing workspaces without the need for expensive and disruptive architectural changes.
Branding is about creating connections. A creative and thoughtful approach to office branding can serve as an opportunity to tell the story of your organisation’s culture and values, and can help strengthen company-employee relationships and drive better results. Recent research from Accenture has highlighted the importance of employee’s workplace experience and the significance of workplace experience in influencing important business outcomes like productivity, growth, and talent retention. By employing branded design elements strategically throughout your workspace, you can establish and reinforce a distinctive visual identity and help build an emotional connection between employees and the organisation.
A well-branded office space can foster a sense of pride, loyalty, and job satisfaction among employees. Investments in office branding and the workplace environment offers significant potential to create the right impressions, enhance company reputation for employees and customers alike, and boost employer branding, helping to attract and retain talent. I will explore some of the key benefits of workplace branding below, including how workplace branding can increase brand recognition, improve employee engagement, and can have an influential role in shaping the company culture.
Branding Your Workspace: The Key Benefits of Workplace Branding.
Beyond being a practical place of work, a business’ physical space can potentially help create and inspire an exciting work culture that promotes the business’ values and demonstrates a strong brand identity. Businesses may be missing an opportunity by not considering what the four walls around them says about their brand. Below I will explore some of the valuable benefits that come with investing in office branding.
- Increased brand recognition:
Office branding helps to increase brand recognition by creating physical expressions of your brand throughout the working environment that communicate your brand’s unique identity and value proposition. This can help to reinforce your brand’s identity and make it more memorable to employees, clients, and visitors. Increased brand recognition helps build trust, credibility, and loyalty, and can give your brand a competitive advantage.
- Improved employee engagement:
When employees feel a connection to the brand, they are more likely to feel engaged and committed to their work. Office branding can help to create a positive organisational culture and generate a sense of pride and belonging among employees. Improved employee engagement is strongly linked to higher levels of job satisfaction, employee morale, and higher productivity.
- Better client perception:
A well-branded office can make a positive impression on clients and visitors, helping to foster stronger relationships between your business and clients. It can help to establish credibility, professionalism, and a sense of trust in the brand. Better client perception nurtures an enhanced brand reputation, which can be beneficial in attracting and retaining clients.
- Enhanced company culture:
Office branding can help to reinforce company culture by using design and visually communicating the brand’s values and mission to employees. This can help to create a sense of shared purpose and a cohesive team culture. A positive company culture is strongly linked to better employee engagement and productivity, and higher morale and job satisfaction.
Workplace branding can have a positive impact on a company’s image, employee engagement, client perception, and the company culture. Recent research conducted by McKinsey shows that people who report having a positive employee experience have 16 times the engagement level of employees with a negative experience and are 8 times more likely to want to stay at the company. By creating a cohesive branded workplace experience, companies can enhance their overall success and benefit from heightened employee engagement and greater productivity, and a more positive environment where your teams are motivated to do their best work.
Now that we appreciate the potential benefits of workplace branding, what are the key aspects that designers should focus on when designing a workplace brand identity? Below, I will outline some important branding and design tips and best practices to consider when planning a workplace branding design project.
Workplace Branding Design Tips: How to Create a Strong Workplace Brand Identity in Your Workplace
- Understand and clearly define the brand identity and visual identity of the organisation. Integrating a brand into an office design requires a thoughtful approach that aligns with the brand’s image and values. Clearly defining your brand identity, including your brand values, mission, vision, and brand personality, will inform and influence your design decisions. Understand how you want your brand to be perceived by employees, clients, and visitors. This will serve as the foundation for designing your workplace.
- Use the brand’s logo, colours, typography, and other design elements as the starting point for the office design. Incorporate these elements and express them through wall graphics, signage, artwork, and décor, to reflect the brand’s personality and create a cohesive and unified visual experience. The brand colour schemes should be used to reinforce your brand’s mood and personality. The strategic use of brand colours can evoke specific emotions and connect the space to your brand.
- Make the workspace feel consistent with the brand’s image: Consider the overall image that the brand is trying to convey and make sure that the office design aligns with this image. If the brand is known for being innovative and modern, consider using cutting-edge and contemporary design elements. If the brand values collaboration, create design elements that support open workspaces and encourage teamwork and better communication.
- Personalise the workspace: Use the brand’s history, mission, brand messaging, and culture to create a unique and personalized space. Tell the brand’s story to help employees and visitors connect with the brand on a deeper level. Incorporate brand-specific artwork, photographs, or other visual elements to create a space that feels unique and authentic to the brand.
By following these tips, you can create an authentic and unique physical space for your brand that is aesthetically pleasing, helps reinforce the brand’s identity and inspires and supports an enthusiastic and engaged working culture.
Conclusion: Workplace Branding – Building a More Positive and Productive Workspace
As we have seen, branding your office or workplace can bring a range of real benefits for businesses. Applying brand designs to workspaces, reinforcing brand identity, plays a significant role in creating an exciting and engaging branded space that supports a sense of community and connection between employees and the company. A thoughtful and creative workplace branding design can create a positive and welcoming working atmosphere that encourages collaboration and teamwork.
From improving employee experience, morale, and productivity, to enhancing the company culture and client perceptions, workplace branding can be an extremely effective investment for businesses and organisations. “A company that knows how to create a happy working environment can inspire creativity and improve productivity; it can market its brand and culture to attract and retain top talent that can hone a competitive edge.”
Are you interested in working with designers to create unique and distinctive branded designs for your office or workplace?
At Gold Rabbit, our design experts will work with you to develop a bespoke workplace branding solution for your business that will help bring your brand to life in your office or workplace. With our office design service, we can develop and design a unique, branded environment that will transform your workspace and inspire your employees to do their best work.
Contact us today to book a workplace branding consultation.
