How creative office design improves mental health
Ask anyone, and they will tell you that they either want to run a business or work for a business that’s successful and full of happy, healthy, like minded individuals and so, to reach this goal, it’s important to identify the correlation between a healthy work-life balance. No one working in an office from 9-5 will work flat out during their working hours. It is estimated that a workforce will generally produce between 5 and 6 hours of solid work in a 7 hour day. To take care of our businesses and the people who keep the cogs turning, it’s important to encourage good physical and mental well-being. This can be done with a few key elements in the office including: natural daylight, good air quality, colour coordination, comfort and inspirational design.
Natural daylight and effective artificial lighting
Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as (SAD) is a serious problem that causes ongoing low moods, irritability, fatigue and can also cause weight gain. Depending on how severe a person has Seasonal Affective Disorder, it can massively influence their day-to-day activities. SAD can cause your employees find it hard to concentrate which can lead to a lack of motivation and sick days, and of course, as an employer this is something you will want to reduce or eliminate completely.
To prevent SAD and to increase concentration and motivation within the office at a time of year when the daylight hours are dwindling, it’s important to get enough natural light into the office. Every morning make an effort to pull the blinds up and let your workers adjust them throughout the day, should the sun become a hindrance as it sets for the evening.
Daylight is not only important for our mental health but our physical health too, and natural lighting is crucial when it comes to our eye health. Fluorescent and artificial lights can strain our eyes if that’s all we have to work with, so ensure there’s a good mixture between natural and artificial. However, when the daylight draws to a close it’s important to have the best artificial lighting options available. This includes: incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs and LED bulbs.
Air conditioning
Poor air quality can cause respiratory issues which can be avoided easily with a decent heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit.
Another good way to ensure that the air you breathe inside the office is fresh is to invest in a number of office plants. Biophilic design is the perfect way to ensure you seamlessly blend your architecture with greenery.
Office layout
Having breakout areas for your employees, such as privacy pods and bean bags, is a creative way to support a personal space. An area where people can destress and come back to their desks clear minded and motivated.
Hot desking is another way to improve your office layout. Not everyone works well at one desk for years, it’s important to shake up the office seating plan and the best way to do it is to allow staff to come and go, using any available desk – rather than sticking to assigned seating.
Informal meeting areas are perfect for open plan offices. Instead of going into a closed off room from everyone else, the informality will bring out creativity – perfect for brainstorming sessions.
Colour coordination
Previously covered in last month’s article: colours can have a huge effect on our mental health, so find out for yourself what will best suit your office space.
Comfort
Consider the spaces between each desk, think about the density of your office. For productivity, it’s important to give your employees enough personal space because a office that is crowded can cause a lack in concentration and negatively impact workflow.
Arc Interior Design have a wealth of experience within the industry and a history of happy clients. For inspiration or more information, either call our friendly team or fill in our handy contact form today and let’s create your dream office space. We operate throughout Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Birmingham, Manchester, London and the surrounding areas.
