Introduction
All successful businesses understand how important productivity is in the workplace. An employee’s productivity can help the company in utilising the capacity of their available workforce. Most enterprises that focus on productivity usually has employees that are both healthy and happy, which also makes them a successful business.
Employees spending hours talking, standing and doing anything not connected to their job like roaming around the office is not uncommon to workplaces nowadays. But, it’s not always the employees’ fault. In our Noise and Wellbeing at Work survey, over half of UK office workers say that their workplace does not encourage productivity with sixty-five percent stating that their workplace impacts on their motivation to work.
For productivity levels in the UK to increase again we seriously need to think about the working office environment and what employers can do to ensure that their employees are at their most productive.
Here at Remark Group we have a huge focus on wellbeing and productivity in the workplace, we’ve highlighted a few technologies below that are proven to increase collaboration, productivity and even employee wellbeing.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Sound Masking
Productivity levels across the UK have fallen to a dramatic low, as 38% of office workers call on their employers to do more, with a further 60% believing their business has productivity issues. Distractions contribute a huge amount to lack of productivity.
In the ‘Noise and Wellbeing at Work’ survey it was found that, shrieks of laughter and conversations of variable volume are reported as the most distracting and being listened to whilst on the phone is an annoyance. Interestingly it was sudden bursts of noise that employees found most distracting at work compared to a constant background buzz.
Sound masking is an effective method that, when installed correctly, has the potential to bolster acoustical privacy and reduce distracting noise which in turn helps to improve productivity.
It works by injecting an additional sound into the environment, this may sound like it would cause more distractions but on the contrary it covers the existing distractions. The frequencies sound masking projects into the environment are only found in the human speech which is how it has the ability to cover the rest of distracting noises like laughter and chatter.
The system is installed strategically into the environment that is being treated to create an immersive environment, this helps create a low buzz that improves office comfort and helps to reduce distractions. To find out more about sound masking take a look at our sound masking page here, alternatively you can take a look at the full results from the noise and wellbeing survey here.
Collaborative Solutions
There are multiple benefits for companies who foster collaborative tools for the workplace; one of which is increasing productivity. Employees love to collaborate, it’s a great way of bonding and coming up with creative ideas.
Interactive displays can help facilitate group meetings and ad-hoc collaboration. Featuring interactive technology, screens can be set up so anyone within a business can walk up to them, access any company document they might need – from email to spreadsheets – and annotate and manipulate these documents in front of, or with the help of, team members in order to come to speedy and collaborative decisions. Thanks to the advances in technology, we even have the ability to do this with team members across different locations in real – time.With remote workers on the rise, video conferencing is becoming a necessity for many companies. Conference calls are great for short, 1 on 1 catch ups but for larger, longer meetings, the don’t give participants the opportunity to see those you are speaking and get the full meaning of what is being said.
Video conferencing is not only great for productivity and collaboration, but it can also save travel expenses and wasted time travelling from A to B. With platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, companies have the ability to have multiple participants in a call at any time.
Microsoft Teams isn’t just a great tool for conferencing, but also for live chats, meeting scheduling and sharing of documents. Microsoft Teams is fully integrated to Microsoft Office 365 and combines chat, meetings, notes and attachments which allows businesses seamlessly interact with each other wherever they are. It can also be synchronized with your calendar and pulls in existing appointments and also shows when all the other attendees are free. Remark Group specialise in video conferencing and collaborative workplace solutions, take a look at our technology solutions here.
COVID-19
With the number of remote workers increasing, keeping productivity levels up has been mainly done through the use of video conferencing solutions, and it has enabled collaboration between employees to be unaffected.
Air Quality
Now, air quality isn’t a technology, but it does have a huge impact on a person’s productivity, and there are technologies and tools out there that can help you monitor your air quality and help you better understand how you can improve it.
Remark Group recently conducted the Air Quality and Wellbeing at Work survey. The survey was conducted by the Remark Group alongside Dr Nigel Oseland to see whether air quality impacts a person’s productivity and/or wellbeing. The survey had over 1,000 UK office-based respondents with 50% male and 50% female.
The survey brought back some interesting results with 80% of UK office workers reporting that poor indoor air quality could be having a negative impact on their health and nearly 90% reported that they find themselves nodding off or losing concentration in meeting rooms.
Lack of productivity could be a direct link to poor indoor air quality in particular high levels of CO2 and high temperatures. Carbon Dioxide can reduce cognitive performance if too high and it can also cause headaches, nausea and lethargy – all resulting in unhappy and unproductive workers.
Air quality monitors are a great way of observing the air quality within your office, simple things like opening a window can help to reduce the high levels of CO2 and even out temperature. However, for those who live in busy city’s, opening a window isn’t always an option. In the same survey 30% of UK office workers won’t open their windows as they are worried about exterior air quality and 56% are worried about the air quality in the area in which they work.
Air purifiers can be a way around this, they can assist in removing contaminants from the air in a room to improve air quality. Living plant walls that combine the benefits of nature with technology are also a great way to boost the quality of air within your workplace which can in turn improve productivity. Take a look at our workplace wellbeing page here, you can also download the air quality survey results in full in our white paper.
Lighting
We’re going to end on an obvious one here, but lighting has huge effects on employee’s wellbeing and productivity.
Ideally, lighting in the workplace should encourage productivity in your workforce and provide a balance of natural and artificial lighting for employees to concentrate to the best of their ability for extended periods of time.
Workplaces without any natural light can be causing employees moods to drop and their performance to decrease. Poor lighting can also cause adverse effects such as; migraines, fatigue, nausea and eye strain. Dark shadows and flickering lights can create an uncomfortable office environment, generating an unproductive workforce. Human centric lighting is just one way you can improve the wellbeing and productivity of your employees.
Human centric lighting (HCL) creates energized environments that assist with our natural biorhythms. The lighting can improve our functionality, personal performance and overall mood. This in turn can reduce our stress levels, allowing your workplace to thrive with productive employees.
HCL works by creating a full spectrum of light, the innovative LED technology combines with a control system to provide artificial daylight to the workplace. The lighting changes colours and intensity throughout the day, mimicking the patterns of natural daylight that un turn allows us to remain a healthy circadian rhythm. You can find out more in workplace lighting solutions and how they can enhance your workplace here.
If you would like to discuss any of our solutions or services in more details you can get in touch by filling out the contact form below.
