Introduction
While it may seem like common sense that better health and wellbeing makes people happier and more focused, in the workplace it’s often only facts and figures that count. Fortunately, there have now been many studies that show how workplace wellbeing solutions do indeed have significant impact on employee’s wellbeing and productivity and have benefits for the business as well as their employees.
Reduce stress and health issues
Factors in the workplace such as excessive noise, poor lighting and poor indoor air quality can have major effects on a person’s health and wellbeing. Exposure to excessive noise levels stimulates our nervous system – raising blood pressure and releasing stress hormones. In our ‘Noise and Wellbeing at Work’ survey it shows that 58% of UK workers say that noise has a high impact on their stress levels in the workplace and 44% said that noise had a negative impact on their overall wellbeing.
Science has proven that lighting in the workplace has as much of a significant effect on the efficiency and productivity of employees as any other considerable factor. In a recent study by UK stationery giant Staples, 80% of office workers said that having good lighting in their workspace is important to them, with a further 40% stating that they deal with uncomfortable lighting while at work every day.
Increase productivity
It’s no surprise that healthy and happy employees are more productive. Presenteeism, when employees are physically present in the workplace but don’t do work due to fatigue or distraction, is one of the most common problems at work today.
Sixty-one percent of UK office workers say that they are interrupted by noise at least five to ten times a day. The interviewees then went onto report that it takes an average of eleven minutes to get back into a task after being distracted by noise, which means between 55 minutes and 110 minutes of a day are wasted just from noise distractions.
Temperature also has a huge impact on an employee’s productivity at work. Scientists at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory found that the ideal temperature to increase productivity in the workplace is 21 degrees Celsius. The study found that at any temperature higher or lower than 21°, even by 1° had an adverse effect on productivity; and after temperatures reached 25° the effects became more pronounced and productivity was significantly reduced.
For productivity levels in the workplace to increase we seriously need to think about the working environment and what employers can do to ensure that their employees are at their most productive.
Attract and keep talent
The office environment is very important to employees, with 80% report a good working environment would affect their decision to stay with a company.
A new report supports the idea that when it comes to the workplace and the effect it has on personal wellbeing and productivity, employees want the basics first. According to the Workplace Wellness Study published by Future Workplace, the most highly prized features of an office are good air quality, access to natural light, and acoustics.
By utilising workplace wellbeing technologies such as sound masking to reduce noise distractions, human centric lighting to create a healthy workspace and air quality monitoring to keep a balanced comfortable working environment, companies can create a workplace that retains and attracts new talent.
