How to improve your office environment

We know that it is important to keep your office environment to a high standard. But why is it so important?

Why it is essential to improve your office environment

Evidence suggests that a positive work environment can reduce stress and improve productivity and morale. Moreover, by creating a positive office environment, you are creating a space that your employees actually enjoy coming to. By improving your office environment, staff absenteeism, staff turnover and costs relating to staff illness are all likely to drop.

A healthy workplace environment places importance on workplace culture, physical surroundings and health and safety. So, let’s taker a look at how to improve each of these three vital elements!

Improving office culture

A culture that treats employees with respect while rewarding them for their efforts is very beneficial for your organisation. A company that maintains a positive culture often retains highly motivated and productive employees, resulting in low staff turnover.

Trying to mirror another company’s culture runs the risk of appearing disingenuous. It is best to consider your company’s visions and values and build your culture around them. In addition to this, we highly recommend to integrate a culture of a learning. By encouraging and supporting your colleagues to try new things, they will feel valued and comfortable to try their best, which benefits your company and the satisfaction of your staff!

Enhancing the physical surroundings of your office environment

There are several ways that you can enhance the physical surroundings of your office space. Investing in ergonomic office furniture, utilising colour and character within the interior, adding indoor plants, decluttering the space, ensuring that the temperature is comfortable for employees and ensuring that there is enough natural light are all common improvements that many businesses are adopting.

Of all the aforementioned suggestions, ensuring there is access to natural light in your office is essential. Evidence suggests that a brightly lit office can increase productivity and positively impact mental health. You can also improve the office environment by providing breakout areas as well as amenities such as coffee machines and complimentary items (e.g. snacks).

Health and safety in the workplace

Health and safety in the workplace simply cannot be overlooked. The purpose of health and safety is to protect your employees and who ever else you have within your premises. Not only is it a legal requirement under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, but it is also necessary practice to protect those involved with your business. By prioritising health and safety, your staff will feel safe, leading to lower staff absenteeism and staff turnover and not to mention, avoiding the high costs associated with bad health and safety!

Health and Safety covers several aspects such as physical hazards, hygiene levels and employee wellbeing. To ensure that your company is promoting excellent health and safety in the workplace, it is important to have a written policy that you can distribute to your employees. This will provide your company with official standards to consistently meet while providing protection for your employees and those involved with your business.

It is also important to provide health and safety training from the outset. This will show your employees how seriously your organisation views health and safety in the workplace. Finally, although not accessible to all companies due to cost, it is beneficial to implement an occupational health programme. Offering an occupational health scheme allows companies to take a proactive approach to health and safety. Not only this, many companies that adopt an occupational health scheme experience increased financial performance!

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