Creating a Healthy Workspace
When it comes to office interior design, aesthetics is everything, right? While it might look pretty, what about the practical elements of the space; how will people interact with the room? Will it promote creativity and encourage productivity? If you’ve ever worked in a cubicle-style workspace with artificial fluorescent lighting, you know how important these elements are and how much they can negatively affect your health.
The Healthy Workspace
Provide Chairs that promote posture
Provide different environmental settings that encourage people to sit, stand, and move throughout their day. Buy the best-quality ergonomic chair you can afford; make sure all furniture settings support people’s posture, especially when they’re using mobile technologies. Seventies-style beanbags no longer cut it! Most good furniture suppliers will also come and give your staff a lesson in ergonomics and chair adjustments to encourage good posture. Providing staff with a page of simple stretches to do at intervals throughout the day is also useful and promotes good circulation.
Move!
Provide support spaces that give people the opportunity to be active while at their place of work. Encourage people to take the stairs and walk to off-site meetings instead of taking taxis. You could even consider standing meetings, including a treadmill for slow walking while using the phone, or wearable devices for staff to encourage healthy competition via a weekly “most steps taken” competition. Digital music services such as Spotify can be used to play background music that is mentally stimulating and de-stressing. Take a walk to our break room anytime for snacks and coffee!
Create Diversity
Creating a working environment, no matter how small, that is an ecosystem of interrelated zones and settings provides users with a range of spaces that support their various work modes. A variety of spaces is important (including quiet, collaborative, individual, playful, social, and focused areas). These can be created with mobile screens, curtains, and furniture settings and don’t necessarily have to be hard walls. Choice is both mentally and physically stimulating and promotes autonomy among teams and individuals.
Use Tech to Collaborate
Technology is more and more used to enable and support connection between employees and clients. There is a vast range of apps that can be used for communication, both the recording and sharing of information. Remote teams can collaborate via Leankit and other software; technology also means that individuals have greater control over their own work/life balance, as they have much more flexibility in how they communicate and collaborate with each other. For example, parents can drop children at school then participate in a conference call during their commute—allowing them to meet both family and work commitments and have much more control over their own time.
At DataTech Business Centre, you can create your own healthy workspace environment in our offices!
