A thriving company culture is fundamental to keeping your top people, attracting new talent, and generally making work more enjoyable for everyone. Because the physical workplace is so key to company culture, you may think that it’s not possible to cultivate a winning one when operating from a serviced office, because you believe the space is not really yours.
However, you absolutely can cultivate a positive company culture in a serviced office, and this article will show you how. Let's get started.
If your team feels connected to the workplace, they’re also more likely to feel connected to your business and brand, which will help develop company culture. The problem is, if you’re running your business from a serviced office, you may feel restricted regarding what you can do with the space. After all, it’s not like you can install a shuffleboard table or a slide.
Talk to the workspace manager about your customisation options. It doesn’t take much to make a space your own: a simple logo on the wall, your own pictures, a roller banner, and some branded mugs dotted about - anything that helps your team feel unique to the rest of the workplace and loyal to you.
While you and your team will likely have a private office, you’ll probably share some communal spaces, such as a kitchen and breakout area, with other individuals and businesses. To ensure workplace harmony, do what you can to be a good neighbour.
Introduce yourself and your team to the other teams in the serviced office, share your biscuits with them, and socialise with them when appropriate. Doing this will make sure that your people always feel comfortable in the serviced office, which is imperative to building a winning company culture.
Part of fostering a positive company culture is giving your team the opportunity to socialise away from their work-based activities.
Ask the office manager about hosting social Fridays in the communal space, where you can have a few drinks, nibbles and perhaps games (by all means, invite other businesses in the building too). Provide corporate membership to a local gym and encourage your team to go together. Take everyone out to lunch or dinner occasionally. Look into hosting a corporate hospitality day at a nearby venue.
Just because you have a serviced office to work from, it doesn’t mean that your employees won’t still benefit from the option to work from home occasionally. This is particularly pertinent if your business has moved (or is in the process of moving) from a fully remote operation, where the shift to office work could be a shock for a team acquainted with working from home life.
Routinely allowing staff to work from home provides several advantages for you and them, including improved productivity, better work-life balance, and, you guessed it, a boost to company culture. This is because it demonstrates trust, a gesture your employees will appreciate.
Serviced offices are fantastic for creating a culture of openness. Teams generally work from one room, which fosters collaboration and an overall feeling of camaraderie. As this would suggest, this is great for building an inclusive environment amongst your people.
However, it’s vital that you still make time for individual conversations with your team members. Book a meeting room within your serviced office and hold regular 1-2-1 sessions with your employees. This way, you can provide feedback on their performance, and they can discuss any challenges (professional or, if they want, personal) that they're going through.
This will not only be a useful exercise in improving performance, but also help your employees feel recognised and valued.
Your remote workers make up an important part of your team, so they mustn’t feel excluded from the company culture you’re attempting to build. Fortunately, a good serviced office will provide state-of-the-art video conferencing equipment, that allows you to make your off-site employees very much part of the team.
There are several things you can do to connect remote workers with your onsite workers:
It’s all about cultivating an inclusive working environment.
Assuming you don’t have your own private office within the serviced office address, you’ll be working amongst your team. This is a fantastic opportunity to lead from the front on all aspects of your business, including being a pioneer of company culture.
Demonstrate to your team what great work looks like, the attitude they should embrace, and how they should treat each other (and clients and partners). Take a proactive role in how your employees function in the office, making sure that they head home if feeling poorly, take their lunch break and leave on time. And, because you’re only human when you do mess up, own it and apologise.
That was 7 ways to foster company culture in a serviced office. We hope you have found this post useful.
Interested in moving your business into a serviced office in Covent Garden, London? After all, a great location and a great company culture go hand in hand. Find out about 71-75’s serviced office solutions now.
Thanks for reading.
