Ronda and de Gracia investigated how workplace aesthetics influence decisions to join an organization. They report that “aesthetic attributes in the workplace can be equally important in the decision-making process as non-aesthetic attributes and that aesthetic attributes deliver as much utility as non-aesthetic attributes in driving job choice. These conclusions are relevant for Human Resource (HR) managers engaged in crafting job offers, who should consider that employees may improve their assessment of a job offer as a result of superior organizational aesthetics demonstrated during the recruitment process as well as in contexts where employees would be expected to combine remote and office-based work.”
Lorena Ronda and Elena de Gracia. “Does Office Aesthetics Drive Job Choice? Boosting Employee Experience and Well-Being Perception Through Workplace Design.” Employee Relations, vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 1077-1091, https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-06-2021-0253
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.