How you design your workplace interior can have a big impact on the happiness of your employees. If you’re thinking of refurbishing your workplace or are decorating a new store/office for the first time, you may want to consider a few of these tips to ensure that you create the best work environment possible.
Prioritize health and safety
An injured or sick employee is definitely not a happy employee. Injuries to employees also don’t do you any good, harming your reputation and increasing your insurance rates if an employee makes a claim. This is why you should prioritize health and safety when designing your interior. This includes using warning signs, installing barriers where necessary, laying down a non-slippery flooring surface and incorporating sufficient lighting.
Pay close attention to ergonomics
Ergonomics involves making sure that buildings and equipment are designed around the human body to provide maximum comfort. Incorporating ergonomic design can prevent strain injuries developing and can help employees to feel more relaxed. Examples of ergonomic design include making sure that chairs are height adjustable, making sure there is enough legroom beneath tables and installing workbenches at the right height.
Bring some nature in
Nature has a calming quality, helping us to battle work-related stress. Too many workplaces can feel overly synthetic in their choice of materials and decor. Try to incorporate natural textures into your workplace such as wood or even stone. Adding plants around your office can also create a calming atmosphere and may even boost productivity.
Use color psychology
Certain colors can have an influence on how we feel. Traditionally, many offices have primarily used whites and greys, however these colors can be very uninspiring and even demotivational when used exclusively. Instead, choose blues in areas where you want people to concentrate and greens in places where you want to inspire creativity. Reds and yellows are energizing colors and are best suited to physically active areas like kitchens, warehouses and gyms. Check out this guide at Ergonomic Trends for more tips on how to use color psychology.
Weigh up concentration vs collaboration
There may be some spaces in your workplace where people need to concentrate, and other places where you want to encourage collaboration. Different types of decor may help in both cases. The retired office crucible can actually help in many jobs that require concentration such as writing or working with numbers. Open-plan layouts may meanwhile be better in office spaces where people need to constantly bounce ideas off each other or share physical information/tools.
When it doubt, hire help
Designing a workplace is not easy and the best solution may depend very much on your type of company and what you want to achieve. There are interior design companies out there like Medifit Design And Construct that are specialized to specific industries such as healthcare. Consider whether it could be worth investing in such a company.
Get suggestions from your employees
If you’re trying to design a space that makes your employees happy, make sure to ask them what it is they want. Employees may be able to offer ideas that you hadn’t considered. You can find out what they want by hosting a meeting or by getting them to complete a survey.
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