ISSUE
Friday, January 31, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 44
A bright and welcoming office isn’t just about creating a healthy space for your employees. It actually improves productivity too.
More than an aspect of your commercial decor, bright and happy offices help to energise your employees, inspire them to produce great work, and help them overcome the dreaded 3pm slump.
With low productivity identified as one of the greatest long-term challenges facing New Zealand, ensuring your office is bright is about creating a happy space that people want to work in. And to help them produce their best work day after day.
Are you ready to transform your office decor and productivity at the same time?
Use these 4 simple tricks to liven up your work space and start boosting productivity today.
One - Add a splash of colour
Colour is more than a design choice. The colour of your office has the potential to impact the way your employees think and feel.
These colours have been shown to elicit the following responses:
Blue: is a stabilising and calming colour. Blue helps your employees to stay focused.
Red: increases heart rate and blood flow as well as stimulates the mind. Red is an ideal colour in work environments that require physical labour.
Green: is a colour that does not wear on the eyes and keeps people calm.
Yellow: is the colour of confidence. Yellow can help your workers to feel more equipped to handle the challenges of office life.
The psychological power of colour is reinforced by Paperclip Digital Office Manager, Jacqueline Payne, who was able to transform the efficiency of her accounts team by introducing a soothing green decor.
“While our team worked well in our space I felt there was room for improvement. We introduced a calming green decor from an entire wall to mousepads, notepads and even post-it notes! We were able to see a 6% improvement in efficiency with more tickets closed compared to the same period a month prior.”
Not able to repaint your office? You can do the next best thing and introduce a splash of colour throughout your work space in the form of pigeon holes, reception chairs and other office extras.
Two - Introduce office plants
Did you know that being around plants is good for our psychological health?
This makes an office plant the perfect way to introduce calm and help your employees work to their full potential.
In addition to this brain boosting quality, office plants can:
- Improve air quality
- Reduce stress levels
- Reduce background noise
If you think that offices with greenery look and feel like a more inviting place to work...you’d be right! In fact, a study by the Nursery and Gardening Industry Australia showed that office plants reduced stress, depression, hostility and fatigue.
Wondering how to bring the outdoors inside? Turn bookcases and desks into your own mini oasis with hardy interior plants like Aloe, Ivy or Cacti that require minimal care.
Three - Remove excess clutter
A clear desk helps to clear the mind.
Whether your employees are neat freaks or the messy type, providing a working environment without external clutter is an effective way to keep people focused.
On the contrary, an office full of clutter may increase stress and make people feel overwhelmed. When you remove this excess clutter and make everything easy to find and access, you are removing a barrier of stress that comes with a messy work space.
If you’re struggling to transition from a messy space to a minimalist one, it’s likely you don’t have a proper home for everything that’s obstructing your team’s productivity.
Office storage solutions - think bookcases, cupboards and lockers, can instantly transform your space and provide the clear desks you need to create clear and focussed minds.
Four - Understand the impact of office lighting
Numerous studies have shown the link between office lighting and productivity.
As a result, making changes to your office lightning is one of the quickest and simplest ways to improve your office and boost productivity.
The correct lighting can make your space more welcoming for staff, reduce eye-strain, and boost energy. Think about it, would you do your best work in a dark, poorly lit enclosed space or an office with plenty of natural light?
This divide is reinforced by counsellor and psychotherapist, Renee McDonald, who has seen an alarming trend of office workers feeling burnt out by working in poorly designed working space, saying;
“Too often we see productivity as the process of moving from A to B quickly. Instead, productivity should be measured along metrics of efficiency, as well as happiness and overall well being. When working environments are not set up to maximise efficiency and happiness, both business outcomes and staff suffer.”
Where possible, you should opt for natural light over artificial light to ensure your team is working in a welcoming and empowering space. You can do this by using sheer, breezy window treatments rather than anything overly heavy and opaque.
However, if you’re not able to access natural light, you can make small changes like providing desk lamps for your staff to ensure their personal work space is well-lit and welcoming.
Final Thoughts
There are plenty of productivity tips and tricks online to help you get the most out of your employees.
But without making your work environment-friendly and inviting, you’ll never be giving your team the optimal conditions to be successful.
Through adding a splash of colour, introducing green plants, removing clutter, and understanding the impact of lighting, you won’t just be making your office look better.
You’ll be optimising for productivity too.
What changes have you made to make your office more welcoming? Let us know in the comments!
Author Bio
Tim Frank Anderson is an Australian freelance writer and Sydney-based university student. As a business student, he has a passion for learning about global changes in business culture and specialises in entrepreneurship and innovation-related topics. When Tim isn’t at his desk, you’ll find him exploring National Parks.