How to improve your office environment

With a new generation of office workers starting work, attracting and retaining the best employees will need more than an attractive role to keep them engaged.

A great office environment is a hidden factor that can help increase productivity as well as job satisfaction. But if your office environment is lacking it could be causing absenteeism, low productivity and stress.

Improve your office environment with these 3 tips!

Consult your employees

Consulting your employees for their ideas on how to improve the office environment can be a great way to boost morale amongst workers.

It is a much safer way of investing money into improving the office environment since employees are more likely to suggest ways in which their office environment can be built to better suit them rather than guesses by management. This will encourage employees to care for their environment since they have put effort into making the office theirs.

Get green

The presence of house plants in an office can have many wonders from reducing fatigue to absorbing noises.

A small study by the Agricultural University of Norway in the 2000s found that the addition of plants to an office was linked to a 25% decrease in symptoms of ill health, fatigue and concentration. This is great for improving concentration amongst the workforce which suffers from bouts of loss of concentration due to stress.

In another report by the Human Spaces report conducted in 16 countries and studied over 7,000 office workers found that office workers with an office plant were 15% more creative than those who did not have an office plant.

The study also asked what office workers want the most in their office environment. In second place was, unsurprisingly, indoor plants with natural light taking top spot and a quiet working space behind indoor plants.

Get some space

A cubicle is an enclosed workspace that is partitioned from other workspaces without the need for walls.

Cubicles offer a range of benefits such as reducing distractions since it limits sound from travelling. As well as this, a cubicle can also provide an employee with a sense of privacy and ownership that allows them the freedom to work in an environment that they are comfortable in. This will lead to higher morale and higher productivity.

One of the major advantages of using cubicles is that it is one of the most cost-efficient ways of giving employees their own space. Furthermore, compared to walls which are fixed once built, cubicles are versatile allowing a range of layouts to suit any office space and any number of employees.

The normal office can be a dreary and draining place to be for employees but it doesn’t have to be. Employees can be energetic and enthusiastic to be more productive without the need to be extravagant.