Your employees are the foundation of your business. If you don’t provide them with a proper work space environment, you will negatively affect their productivity and the way that they perceive their job. Every workplace needs to support performance, and all the activities that revolve around it, such as creativity and collaboration. It is vital that you put thought into the design of your workplace so that your employees’ well being is your priority. There are various ways that you can be smart about it, in order to provide them with the environment that is bound to feel like a second home.
Wellbeing of Your Employees
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Control the Noise
In the majority of workplaces, noise is an issue that needs to be dealt with. What you need to provide your employees with is control over how much noise they are going to experience. You should separate the noisy, centralized spaces from the quiet ones. It is essential that your employees have places where they can meet and talk without it affecting their co-workers.
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When it comes to smart design, you need to implement materials that absorb, block, or mask the noise. This includes furniture, walls, panels, ceilings and carpets. You should provide your employees with headsets that cancel out the noise if necessary. You could also make sure that they sit close to colleagues that have similar work patterns. Finally, you should come up with policies for your employees to have the ability to have a space where they can find peace and quiet, as well as the space where they can collaborate with their colleagues.
Choose the Right Colors
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Even though the way we think about colors differentiates based on our previous experiences, there are certain generalizations on how color tends to affect us. You should have them in mind when applying color to your office space. For example, blue is a calming color that improves clear and creative thinking. Pink works well for alleviating irritation, anger and discouragement. Yellow promotes alertness and enables clear decision making. Orange is a lively color that creates ease and improves self-esteem.
What you need to do is be smart about applying color to your workplace, in order to promote the kind of behavior that you want your employees to exhibit. Make sure that you use various colors in various spaces, giving every area its necessary character. Finally, lighter colors reflect light, so they contribute to how much natural light there is.
Think about thermal Comfort
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The elements that provide the right thermal comfort are temperature, humidity and airflow. You need to find the right combination in order to make your office the most comfortable for your employees. The perfect temperature is 21.6 degrees Celsius or 70.88 degrees Fahrenheit. What is essential is that your workers have personal control over the conditions in their work space. It is bound to have a positive effect on their productivity.
This consists of having temperature control over an area, or if it is possible, over every enclosed space, such as an office. Furthermore, each office should have a window that they can adjust according to their needs. You could also implement underfloor air, as an individual form for airflow control.
Provide Access to Daylight and Nature
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Daylight is necessary for your employees to be productive and function properly. The same goes for access to nature and a change for their senses so that they don’t feel trapped in their office space. You need to provide them with windows, but also with vertical blinds that they can use to have full control over how much light enters their work space. Daylight is important for developing a proper cycle of waking and sleeping hours.
Contact with nature is also important, so you should make sure that your work space has outdoor areas that your employees can make use of. Educate them on the importance of this, and encourage them to take breaks by stepping outside for a bit. You should use glass wherever privacy is not a concern. You can also strategically organize your workplace, so that enclosed areas are in the middle, while open areas are at the perimeter near the windows.
Final Words
Finally, in order to provide your employees with the best working environment, you should regularly engage with them in order to gain feedback on how to improve it. There is a lot of things that you can do in order to maximize the wellbeing of your employees in your offices. Take all the necessary factors into consideration, such as how big your teams are and where they are located, how your desks are adjusted and how technology is implemented into your offices, and whether your workers have the proper space where they can take regular breaks and interact with each other. Your work space needs to focus on the individual needs of your employees, so that everyone can get what they need, and in result -do the best they can.
