Yoga classes, massages, catered meals, laundry services, gourmet coffee. Sound like your job? No – probably not. But for many startup companies, this picture is often reality. Gone are the days where startup offices consisted of 10 people slaving away in a single room eating top ramen by the truckload.
For many companies battling for startup talent, giving employees amazing services and amenities is just one way of coaxing the best and brightest into working at your company. We've previously discussed the idea of using your office as a recruiting tool – here and here.
Beyond simply offering better amenities, many companies have made the move to improving the actual design of their workspace. After all, no one actually wants to work in a dank basement. And of course no company wants to be known as the one that makes companies work in one either.
And while the amenities like yoga or laundry services might seem like excess, investing in an office can pay real dividends. One larger company I recently covered reported that after their office move and redesign, employee morale was up and sick days were down. For a startup looking to get the most out of their employees – having them be satisfied and comfortable in their work environment seems like a good problem to worry about.
In San Francisco Bay Area, there are a number of design firms bringing this new startup reality to life.
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Studio O+A – Having created stunning spaces for the biggest names in the industry like Facebook, Aol, Samsung, Square – O+A has set themselves up as a design leader in the Bay Area.
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Design Blitz – Skype, Disqus, Mulesoft, Fitbit, Square, Design Blitz is taking over the Bay Area one company at a time.
- Interior Design Fair – A fairly recent entrant into Bay Area office design, IDF has completed amazing spaces for Airbnb, StumbleUpon, and NerdWallet.
Let's check out a few examples:
Facebook by O+A
MuleSoft by Design Blitz
NerdWallet by Interior Design Fair
