The way an office is designed has a direct influence on the happiness and wellbeing of your staff, which in turn dictates how successful you will be as a business. Happy staff equal productive staff. Unhappy staff leads to low levels of performance and high staff turnover.
Unfortunately, it is not always feasible to completely re-design the office due to budgetary constraints. In this article we will explore some of the simple changes to the office environment that cost less than a complete refurb but can help instil some life back into your workforce.
Research by the University of Texas has explored the resulting effect of different colour schemes on employee mood, behaviour and ultimately productivity.
They found that low intensity colours such as GREEN and BLUE have been shown to be most effective when creating an office atmosphere with low levels of stress and the highest levels of happiness.
Harnessing natural light can reverse the feelings of lethargy and tiredness that employees can experience. Natural elements resulted in a 15% higher level of well-being, 6% more productivity and 15% more creativity, in a recent study.
Glass partitions are an ideal and low cost solution for this as they create dedicated spaces without losing the ability for natural light to filter through.
Results of a study by the University of Queensland examining the influence of plants in office spaces in the UK showed that in office environments enriched with plants, happiness and productivity were increased by 15%.
Professor Haslam of the University’s School of Psychology and co-author of the study stated that “Office landscaping helps the workplace become a more enjoyable, comfortable and profitable place to be”
“The findings suggest that investing in landscaping an office will pay off through an increase in office workers’ quality of life and productivity.”
Research into sitting and sedentary behaviour has revealed that sitting for prolonged periods of time can be substantially detrimental to your health so much so that Mayo Clinic endocrinologist Dr. James Levine stated “The chair is out to kill us”.
Sustained sitting is linked to the slowdown of the metabolism affecting fat removal, blood sugar regulation and blood pressure but a study undertaken by the CDC, known as the Take-a-Stand project, sit/stand desks were shown to reduce upper back and neck pain and to improve mood.
Sit/stand desks are an excellent way to reduce the issues associated with prolonged sitting and are a good way to increase employee moods and productivity
If you want help improving the morale of your employees, speak to one of our experts today.