Rather than reenacting Beauty and the Beast with your office, most employees would rather fall in love with the look of their working environment from the start. Indeed, with one in three Brits viewing their office surroundings as uninspiring and boring, it is not a novel feeling. And such a romantic attitude may be costing companies with a lacklustre workplace to miss out on young recruits.
A survey carried out by Mindspace, the co-working space provider, found that 21% of millennials have admitted to at least once rejecting a potential employer due to their office aesthetics. Namely, the reasons for such a bold move included a lack of natural light, air conditioning and interior lighting available to them, with 16% of those aged 18 to 24 having left a job for the same reasons.
Drawing a positive message from the findings Dan Zakai, co-founder and CEO at Mindspace, said: “Millennials are the future of the workforce and will constitute over 50% of the working population in the next few years. It’s insightful to see that so many graduates and young workers are turning their back on potential employers because of the poor design of their office.
“While many young workers in the UK still value a good workplace culture and decent salary, employers need to start placing a much larger emphasis on the aesthetics of the office and fostering a more collaborative workspace in order to retain and attract the best young talent through their doors.”
Given that poor office designs have a negative effect on productivity and mental health, millennials may just be the ones to put a spin on the saying ‘age before beauty’ when it comes to shedding light on the issue hindering employers from attracting young talent. 
