Insights from the forefront of future of work thought leadership

According to a recent research report by Deloitte, the office is not getting any smaller or going away anytime soon, even with advances in mobile and digital technologies. In fact, from 1990 to 2017, the amount of total available office floor space in Australia even grew by 60%.

Technology is definitely transforming the workplace and how people work – but not the way most people think. Robots won’t be replacing everyone’s jobs. Deloitte mentions that people will still be ‘central to the future of work.’ What will change is the types of work humans do and the skills needed to succeed in the future.

At a lunch-and-learn event, we covered how technology drives workplace transformation. In this post, we go deeper into the discussion and focus on the impact of technology on the way people work:

Regarding the use of meeting rooms, how do you give people a choice when it comes to physical space and being able to duck into a room without the need to book?

1. Help employees to be more productive. People don’t come to the office because they want to. They come to the office to simply do their work and be productive. Employees ask themselves: ‘What’s in it for me?’ Things like meeting rooms and booking services need to help employees navigate obstacles and do their jobs effectively.
2. Provide an on-demand and personalised experience. It’s about giving your staff what they want, when they need it and in a form that is very personalised to them. They have to be able to identify with the experience and see its value. Take the example of the Uber experience. The service is not the vehicle or the driver. A normal taxi can provide that. The real difference that Uber offers is the ability to provide on-demand services, whenever and wherever they’re needed. Once you give people the confidence in choosing a meeting experience from anywhere at any time, you will see a change in behaviour. The work environment is no longer a big deal, and you will see a significant increase in workplace efficiency. We can create variety and choice across the whole environment that permits them to basically operate from anywhere but it’s underpinned by that confidence model.

When should you start considering technology when planning an office move or redevelopment?

You need to start thinking of how technology can be integrated as early as possible. According to Dan, you have to consider technology in the early stages of the process and “talk about technology today as a scalable investment.”

During an office move or refurbishment, people usually focus on where the space is going to be and what it’s going to look like. They defer technology decisions towards the end of the project – when budgets and timeframes are already constrained. This results in making some significant sacrifices on the technology front. They start cutting down on the things they wanted at the beginning. And they end up letting down the people who are going to use that work environment, ultimately impacting the level of potential productivity that could be leveraged.

So, don’t make the same mistake. Start to think about technology as a platform approach and identify and invest in what you need early.

Also, by thinking about technology early and properly communicating your needs to providers and partners, the better off you will be in meeting expectations and deadlines and achieving the outcomes you wanted at the beginning.

What is the behavioural impact of enabling technology in the way people operate, such as working from home or working non-traditional hours?

Technology has such a significant impact on the workplace, that it is changing the way people work. Here are some insights from our panel of experts:

People still seek human connection
With advances in mobile and digital technologies, people are now able to work anytime, anywhere. These days, people have the freedom and flexibility to work from home and outside the normal 9-5 hours.

But it seems employees still look for human connection. There is a slow shift back to people wanting to work in the office. They like meeting face-to face, looking people in the eye, shaking hands and directly engaging with colleagues and customers. Some even think that they are more productive and effective when working side-by-side with their team in the office.

Work-life harmony
Let's call it “work-life harmony” rather than balance as we all have to go to work and go home at the end of the day. Both work and home life are intertwined but it’s the communication piece in the middle that enables us to connect with our families and colleagues. Nothing can replace the element of human connection.

That’s why companies like Axiom develop workplaces that enhance human experiences and implement technology that enables harmony between work and home life – encouraging people to come back to the office. This then creates a cultural shift attracting employees of all levels, including leadership, to come in and get the work done.

Personalised service
Why would someone come to this office? As an employee, why would I want to do this? What’s in it for them? These are some of the questions that you need to consider when building workplace environments.

It’s not just about how impressive the technology is that you want to integrate. It also needs to serve a purpose. People need to see and experience the value of the service. Plus, it needs to be personalised to each individual’s need. For every inconvenience, we need to give employees two conveniences so they can start to offset one another, and they can start to see the value proposition beyond the friction.

Technology won’t be able to solve everything. There are going to be certain problems that you’re never going to be able to overcome or be able to rectify, but if you start to add lots of little things people can identify with – then they will begin to see the overall value of what you’re trying to do.

So, don’t just give your employees a desk to work on, personalise the service and make things easier for them. This would not only increase employee job satisfaction but also improve productivity and efficiency in the workplace.

This is how it all comes together; you’ve got to treat the working environment with respect and your employees with respect.

Want to learn how a design partner can help implement the right technologies to create a more productive and engaging workplace for your employees? Check out our free ebook How to choose a workplace design partner. Download it now!

Technology is changing the way we work. The current workplace is no longer a single place people go to do their jobs. With advances in mobile devices, networks and cloud computing, employees can now work anywhere, anytime with just a laptop and an internet connection.

This enables enhanced staff flexibility, collaboration and productivity never before seen in the workplace. However, to achieve the best results, companies not only need to provide the right workplace technology and tools for people to do their work but also create a working environment that caters to individual needs and preferences.

In this post, we focus on some valuable insights to help you create a workplace culture that adapts to advances in technology, and more importantly, delivers greater efficiency, productivity, flexibility and employee job satisfaction.

As a small to medium business, what are the things you can do to future-proof your workplace?

For a growing business, it’s important to make sure that the decisions you make today are still going to be relevant in the future, as change can happen so quickly. Here are some key actions to future-proof your workplace:

1. Review the current environment: The first step is to get a full view of the current work environment. You need to know what is and isn’t working. Try to include your staff and the key stakeholders in the business and understand their current needs. Also, do a review of the workplace technologies currently in place – and how people are engaging with those technologies.
2. Make sure people are communicating effectively: One of the biggest hurdles in growing your business is making sure people are communicating effectively. Communication is fundamentally critical to anyone’s business. So, what technologies do your staff use to communicate? How effective are they to date? How can you overcome the challenges they’re experiencing? Then make sure the tools and technologies you invest in are simple and easy to use.
3. Engage a trusted partner: Yes, tools are becoming easier to use, but most people still feel overwhelmed with new technology. Therefore, it’s important at an early stage to engage with a trusted partner to help with the discovery piece and plan the move forward. This partner can also run workshops with stakeholders in different departments and groups to understand technology needs across the organisation.
4. Look to the future: Think Nokia or Kodak. They were market leaders at some point but failed to adjust to future market needs. So often we make decisions today based on historical facts that are now obsolete. It’s not so much about what you want to do today, but more about how you want to position your company in the future. Think about where you want to go and how you can add value to your customers in the years to come.

What role does workplace technology play in helping your employees become more innovative and creative?

We all know that the greatest resource for any business is its people. There are two ways technology can add value to your employees and help them become more innovative and creative:

1. Customising the experience

It’s important to realise that most of your staff just go to the office to do the work they need to do and collect a pay cheque. That’s the reality. So, how can you help them to be more innovative and creative in their work? It is essential that you treat your employees with respect and understand that every employee is an individual, with their own needs and preferences.

You need to customise the experience for them. And technology plays a big role in doing just that. Tools and applications can be customised to suit employees’ life and work styles. Mobile and digital technologies can also make life easier for your staff – providing greater flexibility, efficiency and productivity. In essence, technology can give people more time to think creatively and focus on the more important things at work and in their personal lives.

2. Enhancing workplace culture

When people come together and collaborate at work, technology often works in the background and is not given much thought as it works on demand. However, technology plays an important role in enhancing the workplace culture. For instance, digital signage in the office can actually help inspire people at work. You can tell stories about the business, where it’s going and the success it’s currently having.

If you’re working with teams interstate or all over the world, how can you ensure people get the best experience with video conferencing?

We’ve all experienced some sort of frustration when connecting with people via video conferencing. We hear comments like ‘I can’t hear you’ or ‘your video froze’ or even ‘connection just dropped’. So, how can you ensure the best experience?

It’s important to start with understanding your company’s communication needs. What would make it easier for them to communicate with each other? How will employees use video conferencing? Is video conferencing the best solution? Of course, you first need to make sure that the technology would be widely adopted by the different teams before you invest in improving the experience.

With the internet and Wifi connectivity becoming stronger, more stable and a lot quicker, people expect video conferencing to just work. If it doesn’t, they will find another way to communicate. We always try to find the easiest way to get things done. While video conferencing is important, it is not the only way to communicate. Businesses need to be able to offer employees a lot of choices when it comes to communication – audio, video, email and text.

How can IT departments manage the security of sharing and storing information, especially across cloud platforms?

Security needs to be at the core of your technological and digital initiatives. You need to understand the flow of information across your organisation. Business data could be emailed, shared on social channels or stored on the cloud in applications like, OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive.

But how secure is the cloud? Cloud applications are getting more and more secure plus companies are now better at implementing security protocols and measures to protect business data.

The bigger threat isn’t the cloud – it’s the internet of things (IoT). IT departments need to be more concerned about the devices, machines and apps connecting to the network. These ‘things’ connect to anything and have the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human interaction.

Also, stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog, as we go deeper into the experts’ discussion on how technology drives workplace transformation! Subscribe to our blog to make sure you don’t miss out and also read our Guide to the Future of Work.

Want to learn more about technology in the workplace? A design partner can help future-proof your business by implementing the right technologies to achieve your long-term objectives.

Check out our free ebook 'Digital Transformation: The Role of Workplace Strategy'

Few would argue with the notion that innovation is the lifeblood of successful and competitive businesses. If you’re a company that’s stuck in the grind of ‘business as usual’, technology may hold the key to unlocking your employees’ hidden potential for innovation. (And it doesn’t have to break the bank either.)

Here are 5 ways technology can support innovation in the workplace.

Improved communication and collaboration

There’s a reason why so many companies are trying to break down silos within the business and foster more collaboration – improved communication frees the flow of ideas, allowing for better insights and faster decision-making. Deloitte has even put a dollar amount on the benefits of collaboration, estimating that quality improvements brought about by collaboration are worth around $2517 per employee and manager per year.

Collaborative platforms like Google Docs or Slack allow people to share files, collate discussions around particular topics, centralise knowledge and work on documents simultaneously. This means you can get on with the business of working together without any of the frictions and frustrations that often go with it (‘Where did that email end up?’, ‘Why haven’t they got that document back to me yet?’ etc.).

Video and voice conferencing technology, such as Zoom, can help to tear down communication barriers, which is particularly helpful if your team is spread out geographically. Interactive whiteboard technology like Webex or Jamboard also gives your team the freedom of brainstorming on a whiteboard combined with the ability to pull information, images and documents directly from the web, while again allowing team members to participate from wherever they might be.

Improved collaboration strengthens ties across the employee organisation chart, including senior management. Better accessibility to managers, directors and the C-suite – whose buy-in is vital when it comes to actually implementing ideas – can smoothen the path to innovation, allowing for creative ideas to become reality much faster.

Increased efficiency and productivity

Just about every job is susceptible to automation to some degree. Many CRMs and marketing automation platforms, for example, automate tasks like data capturing or lead nurturing. And while the idea of machines ‘taking away’ certain aspects of our jobs can be somewhat anxiety-provoking, automation can often be good for workers (when implemented mindfully and in conjunction with good workplace design).

Technology can foster innovation simply by making our lives easier. By partially or completely automating repetitive and mundane tasks, employees have more time to engage in higher-value tasks such as strategising and analysis, which of course often leads to innovation.

Better access to data

Data is essential to innovation – without accurate, up-to-date data, innovation simply isn’t possible. Today, technology plays an essential role in information gathering, from a simple IoT sensor picking up a single data point, to dashboards that help make sense of the information, to cloud data stores that hold and compute our vast swathes of data.

Getting a good handle on data visualisation using tools like Tableau can also help pave the way to innovation, making data manipulation and analysis far easier, thereby putting innovative ideas at your employees’ fingertips.

More flexibility

Innovation means coming up with new ways to do things – and this, of course, requires a great deal of creativity. But employees who are sitting at the same desks, doing the same things day in and day out, aren’t going to be feeling particularly inspired.

Technology can help here, too. Collaboration tools like those mentioned above can be perfect for a remote workforce, allowing people to feel connected and involved no matter where they’re working from. You can also use technology to support flexibility within the workplace – sensor solutions, for example, can give you real-time information on things like desk and office availability, minimising time wastage and helping to facilitate a more agile, activity-based work environment.

The regular change of scenery, and interaction with different people in the organisation, that comes with such flexible work arrangements can do wonders when it comes to helping people think outside of the box.

There’s also a lot to be said for a fast, reliable wifi connection! After all, it’s pretty hard to be innovative these days without internet access.

Aside from these direct impacts on innovation, giving your staff flexibility at work can increase employee engagement, which in turn makes them more willing to search for and develop ideas that will benefit the company, rather than simply going through the motions of the daily grind.

Boosted wellbeing

It may surprise you to know that improving your employees’ wellbeing can also lead to innovation – after all, happy, healthy employees are creative, engaged employees! And believe it or not, tech can play a role here as well.

Things like wellness portals, where employees can do things like book gym classes or monitor certain aspects of their health, can give employees the tools they need to stay fighting fit. Sit-stand desks can help promote exercise and movement throughout the day, helping employees to perform at their peak. Even a simple app that reminds workers to stand up and move about on a regular basis can be a way to get the creative juices flowing!

Giving employees more control over their environment can also help boost employee wellbeing. For example, smart lighting solutions that give staff individual access to the lighting in their particular area allows them to adjust the lighting as necessary depending on the time of day or task at hand, ensuring optimal working conditions at all times. Similarly, individualised climate control, which enables employees to adjust the temperature in their particular area, can also help ensure employee comfort throughout the day, so they can focus fully on the job in front of them.

A culture of innovation

Fostering a culture of innovation is not just about providing your employees with the right tools – it’s also about seamlessly integrating these tools into your workplace design so they become as much a part of day-to-day business as email or the photocopier. Ensuring employees have access to communication tools in collaborative hubs, or conferencing software and equipment in meeting rooms, for example, can ensure everyone actually makes use of the technologies at their disposal, so they can get on with the business of innovating.

Is innovation a core value for your business? A workplace design partner can help ensure your office reflects this. To learn more about how a workplace design partner can foster innovation at your business, check out our free ebook How to choose a workplace design partner. Download it now!

If moving house is one of the top five most stressful events in a person’s life, just imagine what the stress levels are like when it comes to an office relocation.

While relocating an entire office is a significant undertaking, by planning carefully and breaking the process down into small, manageable chunks, you can have an easy transition, with minimal disruptions and associated costs.

That’s why we’ve put together this super-handy office relocation checklist, so you don’t miss a thing.

With an office move, there are many moving parts. It’s important, therefore, to get your ducks in a row as early as possible. Careful planning and preparation can help ensure the office move is not just smooth, but that it actually benefits your organisation in the long term.

12–18 months before the move

• Determine what your key objectives are for your move (e.g. do you want to reduce costs, boost productivity or attract top talent?)
• Find an expert: a workplace design partner to help you with a workplace design strategy to identify your key objectives and determine the future way of working for your company. This will determine how much space you will actually need.
• If based on the above, the decision is made to relocate:
  • Look into your current lease and determine how and when to give notice to your landlord. (If you need to vacate your current premises before the lease is up, you may need to sublet or assign the lease to another tenant or negotiate a termination. You may want to seek advice from a property solicitor to work out what may be the best option for you.)
  • Do you have a make-good obligation? Consider the budget for this and adequate timing to have it completed
• If the desired outcome is to create significant change in the environment, then refer to your workplace design partner for a change management program to ensure all staff are brought on the journey
• Conduct a location feasibility study of shortlisted sites to determine the most suitable space – your workplace design partner can also assist with this

6-12 months before the move

• Negotiate and finalise the terms of your new lease
• Put together a detailed timeline to ensure the move is completed on time
• Liaise with the building manager at the new property to help determine the layout
• Create an inventory of your existing furniture and fittings, and determine what will be moved to the new office, and what new furniture and fittings will be required
• Involve IT with your workplace design partner to perform an audit of your current IT and communications systems (computer, photocopies, phones, etc.), and determine what equipment will be kept and what needs to be upgraded. (It is essential that all your IT equipment, systems and phones are all fully functional on the day you move in to ensure minimal disruption.)

3-6 months before the move

• Select a moving day
• Devise a detailed moving budget (for moving costs only, separate to your relocation budget)
• Schedule wiring and cabling of all computers and phone lines
• Create a master change-of-address list, listing clients, vendors and suppliers that will need to be notified of your new details and order new stationery
• Hire a professional moving company
• Hire a professional cleaning service for the vacated property
• Create a company moving team, ideally with a representative from each department, to help coordinate the move across the organisation
• Depending on the extent of the change, ensure the staff are regularly informed about and involved in the moving process, in conjunction with the change management program (if applicable)
• Keep a hand in with your workplace design partner, ensuring everything is going in the direction you need it to

1 month before the move

You’re on the home stretch! This is the time to make sure things are still on track, and to double (and triple) check nothing has inadvertently been left by the wayside.

• Hold a meeting at the new premises with all the parties involved (design/construction/movers/IT etc.) to ensure all details have been covered and responsibilities for the upcoming weeks are clear
• Put together a welcome pack for employees, outlining information about the building and the neighbourhood, so employees can quickly settle in
• Organise an office warming party to welcome employees to the new office
• Finalise employee seating plan
• Implement a clean-up program (purging files, disposing of rubbish, moving old files to storage etc.)
• Back-up business operations
• Acquire packing supplies for the move
• Create a detailed moving day plan
• Reserve loading dock and elevators, and acquire any necessary permits (such as parking)
• Sort out keys and access cards
• Start setting up IT and communications systems
• Give staff a tour of the new premises so they know what to expect when they arrive on day one

On the day

The big day is here. While much of the work will be in the hands of professionals (thanks to all your careful planning), you’ll still need to be keeping an eye on things and ensuring everything’s ready to go when employees walk in the door.

• Arrange with the building manager to have air conditioning switched on prior to entry (this will make the day much more comfortable!)
• Ensure workstations are assembled and correctly labelled with numbers or employees’ names, so employees can easily find their desks
• Test computers, phones, internet, and other technologies to ensure everything is connected and working properly
• Ensure old site has been cleaned thoroughly
• Ensure the new site is clear of excess furniture, crates and packing materials

After the move

Hooray! The hard part’s over. Now it’s time to tie up any loose ends, let your clients know about your new location, and reap the benefits of a brand new office.

• Brief staff on new premises, such as workspaces, break areas and amenities
• Distribute welcome packs and new phone lists
• Address any residual issues reported by staff
• Confirm termination of the old lease
• Schedule press release and client announcement
• Review office fitout and design, and track relevant metrics to see if key objectives are being met

As you can see, an office relocation is a lot of work! That’s why you want to ensure you reap maximum benefits from it. To help your business get to the next level, choose a workplace design partner that can help you achieve your objectives and prepare your new space for you. To learn more, download our free ebook How to choose a workplace design partner now.

Workplace wellness is not only important for moral and ethical reasons, but financial reasons, too. In fact, a recent study found that every year, absenteeism costs the Australian economy an estimated $44 billion, while presenteeism (working at a reduced capacity) more than $35 billion.

So what are organisations doing to promote workplace wellness?

At our recent lunch and learn, we covered how organisations can produce the best bottom-line results through workplace wellness initiatives with our panel of experts:

• Dr Debra Villar, Director at Complete Corporate Wellness, a company that provides health and wellness programs for the corporate sector.
• Jack Noonan, Vice President Australia & New Zealand at International WELL Building Institute, which is leading the movement to promote health and wellness in buildings and communities everywhere through their cutting-edge WELL Building Standard™.
• Annelie Xenofontos, Senior Workplace Strategist at Axiom Workplaces, who leads the strategic thinking process that creates intelligent workplace design outcomes for our clients.

Here’s what they had to say about wellness trends they were noticing in Australian workplaces.

How are buildings changing to support workplace wellness initiatives?

Circadian lighting

Noonan explains that 20 years ago, all offices were using bright, fluorescent lighting that didn’t change throughout the day, which led to a disruption of sleep at night.

This is why today, more organisations are using circadian lighting – that is, lighting that mimics your daily cycle. Lighting will mimic daylight midday, and become warmer in the afternoon as you finish work.

Most results are qualitative instead of quantitative, with organisations saying that staff are requesting circadian table lamps and more likely to use meeting rooms with circadian lighting.

End of trip facilities

Noonan explains that Australia is well ahead of the United States in terms of our end of trip facilities, simply because large developers and workplaces are willing to make end of trip facilities spacious enough for tenants to share and enjoy.

For example, the recently opened International Towers in Barangaroo boast the largest bike parking facility in the southern hemisphere, with room for over 1000 bicycles and more than 100 showers. This encourages cycling to work which not only reaps health benefits, but also environmental benefits.

How are organisations supporting nutrition?

Villar explains that some businesses go to the extreme by providing gourmet meals, which are pre-planned by a head chef – but not all businesses can afford this, so it’s more about providing healthy alternatives. If unhealthy snacks are available, you can place them on the bottom-shelf so that they’re not prominently promoted.

According to Noonan, 50% of food options should be fresh fruit and vegetables – or at the very least, organisations should provide two options of fruit and two options of vegetables. This is to ensure that making the healthier choice is the easier choice and that staff have options available.

Additionally, by simply providing inviting spaces for people to come together and eat, organisations are encouraging a balanced diet, as people tend to eat healthier when they eat together. A requirement of the WELL Building Standard is that there is space for at least 25% of employees to have lunch at any point in time. While it’s certainly an investment in real estate (as you’re sacrificing space that could be used as work stations), it’s an important factor for workplace wellness.

How are organisations supporting mental health?

According to Villar, 1 in 4 people in the world have a mental disorder but no one wants to admit it. Stigma prevents people with a known disorder to seek help from health professionals – even if treatment is available.

Movements like R U OK? Day help in supporting those who are struggling by inspiring people to start talking about mental health. Companies and other organisations are also doing their part in supporting mental health and creating a healthy workplace. Villar highlighted that a healthy company not only focuses on the health of an individual but on the health of the whole organisation.

A focus on taking action

Organisations are starting to go beyond the simple measurement of chronic diseases by implementing health programs that build fun and engaging workplaces.

Previous programs comprised mainly of checklists, and centred mostly on the measurement of data. Managers would tick boxes, analyse the data and conclude, for instance, that 10% of employees have a risk of diabetes. But these numbers have no value if they don’t help solve actual health issues and affect change.

Australian companies still conduct biometric testing for glucose and other health checks – but are beginning to move away from that and focus on fun and engaging activities like workplace challenges, team projects and treatment days.

Villar also mentioned that there are cost-effective ways to encourage employees to take the stairs, simply by making them more appealing. For example, you could allow people to draw artwork and write quotes along the wall near the staircase.

These activities actually make a difference in people’s health, instead of simply drawing conclusions around the percentage of staff that have chronic diseases.

Support the mental health of managers

More organisations are recognising the importance of supporting managers with the tools they need to support their own mental health, so that they can, in turn, support the mental health of their teams.

“It’s all well and good to provide education to staff around mental health, but if you’re not providing dedicated support to their managers so that they can walk the talk and inspire staff, then you’re missing an important point,” explains Villar.

Leaders need to have the necessary tools to deal with mental health issues, as they can be quite confronting.
Villar and her team provide a mental health first aid course for organisations – helping people recognise signs of mental disorders, what to do, and how to deal with those signs.

Focus on office design

Xenofontos explains that organisations are using office design to positively impact mental health. One example is through the use of open-plan offices.

She mentioned the experience of a person who worked in a law firm that had partitioned offices for every lawyer. Because of this, no one in the office noticed when one particular staff member was having a difficult time dealing with his wife’s illness and suffering from a mental health crisis. The fact that staff were separated by their own cubicles meant that he could come to the office before anyone arrived, and leave the office after everyone left – without anyone noticing.

Xenofontos stressed that if it was an open plan office, other staff would more likely notice the decline in his wellbeing, and offer some support. This is why it’s important to consider how office design can impact employee health and wellness.

A workplace design partner can help you build a healthier office for your managers and staff. To help you find the perfect one for your business, check out our free ebook, How to Choose the Right Workplace Design Partner.

Or if you’d like some free advice, why not meet with us and get a comprehensive design assessment and execution plan, obligation-free?

If you want your business to perform at its peak, then you need to ensure your employees can perform at their best, and this means looking after their health and wellbeing.

It’s important to bear in mind that employee health and wellness is not just about physical health, but also emotional and social wellbeing.

Prioritising employees’ health and wellbeing can have myriad benefits for your business, including:

• greater productivity
• reductions in work-related sickness and injuries
• lower workers’ compensation costs
• a decrease in absenteeism and staff turnover
• improved employee satisfaction
• enhanced corporate image

If improving employee health and wellbeing is an important goal for your business, one of the first things to look at is the environment in which your employees spend up to 40 hours (or more) a week.

Here are 5 ways you can improve employee health and wellbeing through your workplace design.

Encourage activity

You might have heard that “sitting is the new smoking”. Doctors have found that sedentary behaviour can be highly detrimental to health, leading to an increased risk of chronic health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

That’s why forward-thinking organisations are implementing ways to encourage movement and activity throughout the day. This could be by installing sit-stand desks, to encourage employees to stand more throughout the day; having standing meeting rooms; or even removing small personal printers and installing large shared printers, so workers have an excuse to get up on a regular basis.

Integrate nature, sunlight and fresh air

There’s ample evidence that integrating nature, sunlight and fresh air into the workplace can have positive effects on health and wellbeing, thereby boosting productivity. Indoor plants, for example, have been shown to lift people’s moods and even remove harmful chemical compounds in the air.

There’s also data that suggests air quality may have a much bigger impact than once thought. Harvard University professor Joseph Allen performed a study that showed that workers in ‘green’ buildings with enhanced ventilation scored 101% higher than those in conventional buildings.

Sunlight can also have a positive effect on workers’ productivity, with one study finding that workers who were exposed to more daylight during the working week slept longer, did more physical activity and had better quality of life than workers who had little exposure to daylight.

Consider how these elements could be integrated into your next workplace design. Could you, for example, install a ‘living wall’ to help decrease stress levels? Could you seat workers closer to windows so they get more exposure to daylight? Could you install an air ventilation system to ensure workers get plenty of fresh air throughout the day?

Promote rest and relaxation

Often at work, our days are so jam-packed that there’s barely time for a bathroom break, let alone a decent lunch. But having employees working as hard as they possibly can does not actually lead to more productivity. On the contrary, in fact – it can lead to chronic stress and employee burnout, resulting in lower levels of productivity.

That’s why it’s important that employees take regular breaks in order to recharge, clear their head and strengthen their focus.

If employees don’t have an appealing space where they can take a load off, it sends a message that taking breaks is frowned upon by upper management. Environmental cues, therefore, are a powerful way to encourage this healthy behaviour. Revamp your break area(s) by providing a variety of comfortable seating options, and using home- or café-inspired touches to make the space feel more inviting.

Factor in noise and acoustics

When considering a workplace redesign, it can be easy to get heavily focused on the visual aspects. But what about the acoustics?

Excessive noise levels at work can have a dramatic effect on employee health and wellbeing, causing disruptions and poor performance. One study has even shown it can lead to an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, resulting in more staff absenteeism. Workplace design that factors in noise management, therefore, can do much to contribute to workers’ comfort.

For example, if you are planning on an open-plan layout, you may want to help mitigate any potential interferences by installing closed rooms where people can conduct phone calls. If the space is large and potentially echo-ey, you could consider ways to absorb and block any excessive noise, whether it’s by utilising high-performance acoustic tiles or being mindful about how you use partitions, walls and windows.

Consider materials

We’ve already talked about the importance of air quality in a work environment – but did you know that just about everything around you could potentially be contributing to poor air quality?

Your carpet, paint, furnishings and office equipment (such as photocopiers) could all be emitting volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. VOCs have been shown to impair cognitive ability, including the ability to make complicated decisions, to focus and to problem solve. They can even potentially lead to health effects such as headaches, nausea and fatigue.

A workplace design should take into account workers’ exposure to VOCs by, for example, using low-VOC-emitting materials or being mindful about where office equipment like printers and photocopiers are located.

By putting employee health and wellbeing at the core of your next workplace design, you can not only have a more inviting and comfortable place to work, but you can also reap maximum ROI through boosted productivity levels. It’s a win-win!

A workplace design partner can help you develop a workplace design strategy that delivers maximum ROI. To help you find the perfect one for your business, check out our free ebook How to Choose the Right Workplace Design Partner. Download it now!