By Alan Kohll
Jan 24, 2019
It starts off being listing various trends over the last 20 years, but one thing all these trends have in common is the impact office design has on employee health and wellbeing. It is important that the atmosphere at the office is productive yet bear in mind the feelings and comfort of the employees. The Fellowes Workplace Wellness Trend Report found the following:
87% of workers would like to be offered healthier workspace benefits such as wellness rooms, fitness benefits, sit-stands, ergonomic seating, and healthy lunch options
Employees of younger companies are 34% less likely to be turned down for their requests for in-office benefits
93% of workers in the tech industry would stay at their company longer if offered healthier workspace benefits
The article then mentions a company – ROOM – that has introduced their “phone booth” rooms. These rooms are sound-proofed, ventilated and powered to offer that privacy that open office concepts sometimes lack. They believe that having access to these rooms will provide safe, comfortable, and productive environments for their employees.
The remainder of the article covers the International WELL Building Institute’s seven concepts for healthier buildings. The office design was found to be a valuable business investment, and the WELL being standard is the first to truly focus on human health and wellbeing in the design, construction, and operations of the building.
Air: Air quality has been found to have great effects on health. In fact, research has found that increased fresh air at the workstation has increased productivity by 11%. Some ways to impact air quality include no-smoking policies, green cleaning protocols, air filtration systems, healthy humidity levels, office plants and opening windows.
Water: We know we need water to survive, but it also helps to improve our sleep quality and energy levels. These in turn have an effect on our ability to focus, mental clarity, awareness, and alertness. Ways to increase water consumption include providing access to safe drinking water and educating your employees on the benefits of water intake.
Nourishment: Just like water, we also need to be eating the right nutrients for our bodies to be at their best. There are foods that will make you feel more energized, focused, and productive than others. Companies can encourage a healthy diet by making fresh fruit and vegetables available, limiting processed foods, indicating food allergies, promoting healthy food options over others and fostering mindful eating by having dedicated eating spaces.
Light: Research from Cornell University found an 84% decrease in eyestrain, headaches, and blurred vision symptoms in staff that were situated within 10 feet of a window. Ways of increasing natural lighting could include building some skylights, controlling glare, replacing flickering lights, and moving anything that blocks sunlight from coming into the office.
Fitness: Our bodies require movement; they were never intended to sit at a desk all day. Exercise improves blood flow as well as increases energy and alertness. By providing access to stairways, showers, bicycle storage, adjustable workstations and a gym - companies can help encourage movement amongst their employees.
Comfort: Comfort is so different for everyone. For this reason, it is important that an office provides ergonomically crafted work areas, allows employees to move to different areas or switch from standing to sitting, as well as limits building noise.
Mind: One study showed that office spaces with natural features increased the employee's perceived wellness by 15%. They also stated 6% felt more productive while 15% felt more creative. Businesses should be finding ways to incorporate greenery indoors or introduce outdoor spaces alongside spaces to relax and work with others.
Although it had a lot of overlapping information with previous articles, I think this one made the point a bit better. The suggestions made in this article could be adapted across any office building. There are so many small changes that can help improve our lives at the office, but knowing how big of an impact these changes can make almost create an urgency to do it sooner.
I found this article interesting because it took a bit of a different approach to office design and how it impacts people. Unlike other articles that gave you the suggestions and then the benefits of them, it put the benefits at the forefront and then mentioned ways to do achieve them instead. It was more of an "oh you want this, so here's what you have to do" than a "Do this to get this." I also enjoyed that almost every piece had some kind of data to help drive the point home. This has been one of my favourite articles to read on the subject.
Kohll, A. (2019, January 25). How your office space impacts employee well-being. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/alankohll/2019/01/24/how-your-office-space-impacts-employee-wellbeing/?sh=7894f6f664f3.
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