Where you locate your workspace: what's at stake for the employer brand?

Employers, office managers and HR share a twofold aim: attracting new talent and making sure they feel good so as to bring their company culture to life. A great many levers can be pulled to achieve these ends. This article looks at one of them: where you locate your workspace.

According to a HelloWork survey (2021), this criterion plays a key role in the recruitment process, because a company's location is a deciding factor for 79% of French people. To approach the subject and share some practical data with you, we spoke with Linda Froment - general secretary of Freeland; Kristel Tedeschi - office manager at Combo and Marie Barbier - Head of HR at Morning. 

Where you locate your workspace: a genuine HR investment 

The Parisian firms Freeland and Bellefond have relocated to the 9th arrondissement of Paris, on rue Laffitte and rue de Bellefond. These two moves pursued very particular objectives: 

☞ For Combo: supporting workforce growth and strengthening interactions between team members,

☞ For Freeland: bringing together teams previously spread across 3 sites, developing synergies between the Group's various activities and strengthening the sense of belonging.

For Linda (general secretary of Freeland) and Kristel (office manager at Combo), setting up in the heart of Paris amounts to a genuine HR investment. "Moving to La Défense would have cost us 2 to 3 times less" Linda confides. Following the move, 80% of Freeland's staff kept an identical, or even shorter, commute. Over at Combo, a year after moving in, the new space can now accommodate the 130 people on the payroll (vs 55 people in April 2022).

An importance that should be kept in perspective 

While the "location" criterion counts for a great deal, its impact remains hard to measure, all the more so as other components come into play:  facilities, decor, outdoor spaces, and so on. Linda points out: "It's a whole package to consider, including in particular pay, the candidate experience and the company's vision. That said, candidates have joined us after their previous employer moved out to the inner suburbs." 

Kristel is also keen to add some nuance: "Your remote-work policy will put the importance of location into perspective. You can have the most central or accessible location there is, but working from home, in terms of distance, is unbeatable.

Attendance rates will also depend on the nature of the roles, on how each person organises themselves, on the time of year. For instance, within the Customer Success Managers team, there is a spirit of collective enrichment; they need to work together. The office creates that dynamic."

Which levers to pull in the event of an unfavourable location?

The majority of employees regard commuting time as time lost. Proof of this is that Marie Barbier (Head of HR at Morning) tells us there is a growing number of candidates who ask her (very early on) in interviews: "What is your remote-work policy?" The question conceals another, more personal one, namely: "How much commuting time will I be able to save each week?" 

Faced with this reality, companies try to set up in the city centre, near a station or less than 300 metres from a metro stop, and so on. But not everyone can afford it. For those companies, there are still levers to pull to attract their talent.

Build in as many services as possible 

If the office-to-bed distance can't be reduced, there are plenty of others that your workspace can shorten, or even do away with: the trips to the gym, the improv class, the shopping, the nursery, and so on. These distances can be "wiped out" if your workspace offers the right services and activities. 

Bring in the sports coaches, treat yourself to a concierge service, organise classes or training courses. To get it right, ask your team directly to gauge what they'd like.

Be flexible on remote work 

Big firms are becoming less and less appealing because of their lack of openness to remote work. It's up to you to take the opposite tack, to find the arrangement that benefits everyone. On the other hand, you will need to build specific moments so that the days spent at the office become unmissable. 

Open up your space 

Your workspace must be able to address the points above. It will need transforming, on two counts. On the one hand, you will need to make the fit-out changes specific to flex offices, with in particular the necessary furniture (individual lockers, shared desks, phone booths, and so on), but you will also need to open up your space and provide dedicated zones for conversations and your events. Your employees need to meet each other!

Look after the facilities (and the design)! 

Ergonomic chairs, fully equipped meeting rooms, a flawless network, will all be weighty arguments for bringing in your employees, who aren't always thrilled about working in the living room. 

Give importance to the design too, it's essential. Nobody spends 45 min on the RER to find white tiles and a suspended ceiling. Right from the job interview, the look of the space needs to make an impression. The wow effect isn't just a (rather dated) turn of phrase. Even on your job ads, a warm, inviting space will catch the eye. Welcome to the Jungle would agree.

Let's fit out your offices together

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You now know pretty much everything about the processes in place at Morning to allow everyone to work in the best possible conditions. If you have any ideas to enrich the subject, do feel free to share them with us in the comment field below!
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☞ Discover our flexible workspaces, for working anywhere!
☞ Where you locate your workspace: an essential criterion?
☞ 5 tips for getting your "flex office" fit-out right