When you are preparing for a new office, it’s a good time to prepare for a new start – and what’s more important than your staff’s wellbeing? There’s a big link between employee engagement and wellbeing, health and productivity. From a business point of view, wellbeing is a win.
How to create an office for wellbeing
While the way that we work has changed, with many people not in the office five days a week, it’s still important to make the most of the time that we are there. This can be helped by responding to the needs that we have as people. With this in mind, there are a few things to consider:
- Lighting: natural light is best, so keep your windows or light tunnels clean and maintained, while adding the option to reduce the glare with blinds or shades. In terms of the light inside, a great option would be to have dimmers available. Ideally your breakout space would be less light than employees’ workspaces.
- Temperature: a great cause of arguments but essential for wellbeing, ideally your office temperature will be between 16-24°C. A big influencing factor will be how physically active your staff are.
- Air quality: to avoid short and long term illness, it’s best to reduce the irritants and pollutants in your air. Purified air will not only help in terms of health but also productivity.
- Noise: if you have meeting rooms, it would be beneficial for your team to have them soundproofed – the same goes for management offices which are likely to have regular meetings.
- Teams: people need people – especially those that they work closely with. There’s also nothing worse than working in a space and having people shouting over you to get the questions they need answered. Think carefully about the layout of your office before you bring people together. If there are any big changes in teams or seating positions, make sure that you tell people about those in advance. This is an ideal time to think about the space that your teams need to do their work effectively – in terms of physical space around them and desk area.
- Types of furniture: you may be bringing furniture with you, but you could also see this as an opportunity to start afresh with chairs and desks that has a focus on comfort.
- Plants: either real or realistically fake, as the brain will respond to them in the same way. Bringing them into the building is one thing, but if nature is also visible from your windows, all the better.
Another big aspect of wellbeing is involving people in the decision process. Communication is key, so be sure to tell people about the new building they’ll be moving to, while sharing any images of the space that you may have. This will help people to envision where they may sit, what their new place may look like, and envision their new work-life.
Do you have an office move in the works? We would be happy to help, no matter what stage you’re at, please do get in touch.