Health and Wellbeing: Rethinking Workspaces for Safety, Comfort and Productivity
Health and wellbeing are essential concerns when thinking, or rethinking workspaces. The success of any workplace – its work methods and processes- depends on just how well prepared for assuring employees safety, comfort and wellness they are. Because that will definitely increase employees’ engagement and productivity.
Everyone can understand why health and safety are important in any workplace, but wellbeing goes beyond just ‘wellness’. It’s a complex blend of the physical, psychological, social and relationship aspects of employees’ working lives. It includes factors such as their working environment and how they get on with their manager and colleagues. Wellbeing affects not only the lives of individuals but businesses, the economy, and society, and that is why, nowadays, there is greater societal awareness of the non-financial aspects of well-being or ‘happiness’ and the impact wellbeing has on engagement.
People spend the majority of their time in the workplace and that generally means to be constantly stuck in stressful situations and exposed to excessive noise during the many hours they spend working and multitasking. Day after day, these situations pile up, tarnishing the employee’s moral and consequently his or her performance.
Several studies published in the last couple of years indicate that all of these circumstances mentioned above, combined with lack of conditions in the workplace have an adverse effect on employees’ efficiency, productivity, and satisfaction.
In wellbeing terms, as long as the staff has a decent office chair and desk, there’s less risk of physical injury. But unfortunately, the risks of having mental health issues associated with work, such as depression and extreme stress or burnout syndromes are major concerns. According to a report from the Health and Safety Executive, stress accounted for 45 percent of all working days lost in the UK during 2015-16 due to ill health.
That is why it is so important for companies to invest in health and wellbeing solutions while they are the thinking (or rethinking) their workplace design.
By improving work conditions and by promoting engaging and educational activities, employers are going to provide a work environment that invites creativity, healthy discussion of ideas and ultimately productivity.
Technologically limited or noisy workplaces often hamper both the employees and the company from achieving their true potential.
As millennials and younger workers enter the workforce straight from college, more workers are demanding different work environments that allow and encourage the flexibility and movability that they had during university.
But employees of all ages are also seeking offices that encourage health and wellbeing — and that means saying goodbye to cramped spaces, windowless walls and sitting for eight hours straight.
Encouraging Healthy Behaviors and Productivity through Design
Recently companies started to understand that their employees are their best assets and hence nowadays, a good part of their investment goes to initiatives for improving health and wellness within the workplace.
Companies that made changes and redesigned their spaces with employees’ wellbeing and healthy work dynamics in mind noticed that their employees were much more engaged and productive in a relaxed, flexible, collaborative work environment where privacy and space for sharing their knowledge, personal inspirations and goals is also assured.
An emerging trend in workplace design is the integration of biophilia into the overall design agenda. This trend presupposes the recognition of humans’ innate connections to nature. Biophilic design seeks to , addressing the human desire to be close to nature and capitalizing on the impact natural elements can have on psychological well-being.
Here is a “Workplace Well-being Checklist” with features that can play an important role in your workplace strategy:
- Offering spaces for and allowing movement between: Ideation and focus spaces, private places to collaborate, spaces that encourage social engagement with others (open areas for meal times and daily work), and spaces for regeneration (quiet, restorative places to rest the brain, get away from others, and do focused work).
- Design features that encourage walking, such as stairs or the placement of shared resources (think printers and waste bins) in the center of the workspace
- Access to natural light in all spaces, as much as possible. Interior walls made of glass can help in achieving this objective. Multi-spectrum or circadian lighting is a great option.
- Ergonomic equipment and furniture.
- Active noise reduction through sound absorbing wall and ceiling panels, modular dividers, desk screens, cubicles etc.
- Tall ceilings, Strategic use of color and natural materials, textures and patterns.
- Indoor air quality, plants and greenery and views of natural elements also can have a huge positive impact.
- Stress-management training and resources to encourage mindfulness meditation and healthy work
- Access to healthy food and drink options in cafeterias, vending machines and break rooms
- Anti-microbial surface protection, particularly in shared environments
- Wearable technologies. Presently workers are expecting a strong sense of collaboration and integration of technology in their workspaces.
By taking into account the health and wellness within the workplace, companies are starting to have disruptive spaces dedicated to employee’s motivation and relaxation, like entertainment and breakout rooms. Whenever employees are feeling blocked, without inspiration or feel under too much pressure, these spaces can be used to let off steam and relax. After restoring their energies, employees will see problems from a different perspective and that can lead them to a faster solution.
Many large countries — including the US, China, Japan, Germany, and Italy — will face talent shortages as their workforces age and experience declining growth rates. In the United States, the labor force is expected to grow only 0.7 percent between 2010 and 2020.
This talent shortage will challenge organizations to find and keep the best people. They will need to engage employees with workplaces that support their wants and needs. Creating vibrant offices is one tactic to recruit and retain talent. Providing flexibility and choices for where, when and how work happens is also critical for attracting the best and brightest people.
Buildings can improve overall productivity and performance by as much as 12.5 percent or reduce them by as much as 17 percent. That’s a 30 percent swing between employee performance in the best and worst buildings.
Interestingly, the same factors that enable productivity can inhibit it. Some background noise, for example, can boost productivity for routine or administrative tasks. Yet that same noise can be highly distracting when employees are conducting research or writing tasks.
According to a study done by the University of California, the level of “speech privacy” was leaving employees unsatisfied and caused disruptions in their work. It’s important not to discard privacy altogether. Office acoustics contribute to performance and well-being in the workplace.
In environments with white noise or sound masking, employees report improvements of up to 38 percent for the performance of simple tasks and 27 percent for complex tasks. Sound masking is not the only way to reduce unwanted noise. Office layout, flooring materials, walls, ceilings and behavioral protocols all can make a difference.
One growing example of the intersection of wellbeing and real estate has emerged in the WELL Building Standard, created by New York-based wellness real estate and technology company Delos. In 2013, Delos created the International Well Building Institute (IWBI) to administer the standard, which focuses on the health and quality of life of a building’s occupants.
The WELL standard, which can be applied to new and existing buildings, measures “features of the built environment that impact human health and well-being, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind,” according to the IWBI.
A Bright Future for WELL Designed Workspaces
White collar work is increasingly about ideas and collaboration rather than repetitive clerical tasks, so staff needs are changing. And for companies engaged in the war for talent, well-being can be a differentiator.
These issues coupled with the costs of recruitment and falling production levels are having an impact on office design, layout, and ergonomics.
Many organizations who are investing in workplace wellbeing initiatives are reaping the benefits of better staff engagement, higher productivity and a lower workforce turnover.
Workplace wellbeing programmes are becoming more multi-faceted, encompassing areas such as energy management, financial wellbeing, altruism, life-work balance and connecting with passion and purpose.
This can be done by organizing enjoyable fitness and recreational activities; providing canteens dedicated to healthy eating; and encouraging mindfulness meditation – which has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress and also boost creativity. Healthy employees make for healthy businesses.
“Data is becoming more ‘real time’ than a once-a-year engagement survey. Wellness is no longer a feel-good, fluffy concept. Business leaders want to see results such as improvements in retention figures, increased productivity, and fewer sick days across the business” says the expert Louise Thompson.
Engaged employees can boost a company’s bottom line by up to 20 percent. These employees are emotionally invested in and focused on creating value for their organizations.
The workplace can engage employees by acting as a communication tool that aids in celebrating the individual or team contributions, broadcasting organizational goals or objectives, and providing spaces for effective collaboration. Involving employees in the design or retrofit of a workplace also provides a wonderful opportunity for engagement.
