How to create a great first impression with visitors to your office

In most corporate environments everyone enters through the same point and will pass through this point at least twice a day, on their way into work and on their way home. Many people could pass through numerous times a day if they go out of the building for lunch and breaks.

This is why the office reception area is a fantastic place to communicate culture to your people.

If you have a Receptionist or someone who welcomes people into the building it is important that they understand the importance of their role and the impact they can have on the culture of the office. There is nothing worse than entering a corporate office to be greeted by someone who looks at you like something stuck to the bottom of their shoe and we have all been on the receiving end of a miserable receptionist!

Sometimes the receptionist only sees their job to welcome ‘guests’ into the building and not the people actually working there. Have you ever worked somewhere where you walk into the reception, receptionist looks up and sees its one of their colleagues and puts their head back down and carries on with what they were doing? It is a receptionists role to welcome everyone into the building regardless of whether you come every day to work or as a guest visitor.

Next time you walk into your office check to see how your colleagues and teams are being greeted, is it setting the scene for your company culture or is it a lack lustre experience?

At Jetts Support Office we have an awesome receptionist called Nikki. She is one of the most important culture people in our company. One day I was chatting with Nikki and said ‘How can we really make our culture come alive at reception? Nikki, can you think of some things you can do to put a smile on peoples face in a morning?’ Nikki has a wicked sense of humour so I knew she would come up with something great.

The next day I went into the office there was some awesome hand written notes up on the message board. On the board facing the general reception area Nikki had written a joke, a very funny joke. On the board facing the internal office that only our internal teams could see she had written a little bit more of a naughty joke.

That morning all you could hear were roars of laughter as people came into work read the first joke and then saw the second cheekier joke. The vibe in the office went up tenfold, everyone was talking about what Nikki had written and were commenting on how it had cheered up their morning.

Jetts Support Office Receptionist Nikki and her message boards brighten up our teams day

Since then Nikki writes up something different every day, some days it’s a Happy Birthday or a personal message for one of the team, other days it’s a weird fact or another joke. When guest come in to the building she always writes them a special message, it’s awesome to see their faces light up when they see their names and a personal message on the board.

So many people have commented about how this small act lifts their mood and how they look forward to coming into the office every morning to see what’s up on the notice boards.

What is also really special about this small change is that Nikki gets enormous pleasure from making a difference to everyone’s start to their day, she gets to be creative and to show she cares for her people team members which in turn makes her feel good.

So what is stopping you? Start culture hacking your office welcome today and see what an impact you can have on your team happiness levels.

For more articles on company culture visit culturehacker.com.au