Wellness has to be central to all workplaces. Good workplace design must consider the needs of everyone, as George Tilbury, of Consensus Workspace explains.
The 2023 Workplace report by Champion Health revealed that 67% of professionals experience stress at moderate to high levels, so anything that business owners can do to help reduce that needs to be applauded – and the design of the workplace can contribute a great deal.
We work with companies of all sizes to create quality workspaces: inspiring interiors where colleagues can come together to collaborate and create. It’s important for them to look good and function effectively of course, but it goes way deeper than that – the office or flexible workplace has to be good for everyone’s mental health.
It’s not just an ethical approach, it’s a sensible business ethos. Deloitte research reports that for every £1 spent by employers on mental health interventions, they get £5 back in reduced absence, presenteeism and staff turnover. And Mind reports that 60% of employees say they’d feel more likely to recommend their organisation as a good place to work if their employer supported mental wellbeing.
We see this with the work we carry out for our clients: businesses are very aware of what they need to do to ensure the comfort and wellbeing of their teams and clients. Following the Covid Pandemic, office-based companies had to do a rethink. We’ve worked with hundreds of clients recalibrating their workspaces to encourage a more hybrid approach and a design that encourages communal, comfortable work; lots of plants, moveable meeting booths, open collaborative spaces and the use of natural light and materials.
Planning
It starts well before any physical design or build. The design of a good workplace is all about planning. It means considering the needs of every employee and engaging with a variety of stakeholders, not just those that control the purse strings – and also considering talent attraction and future hires. Everyone is unique and deserves a workplace that works for them. Here are just a few examples of simple ways to do this:
Travel
68% of commuters still travel to work by car, according to government statistics, but this figure will change over time as more people opt for more sustainable methods. 91% of employees could share lifts with a colleague according to Mobility Ways.
Businesses as well as landlords should be looking to incentivise this with, and can go even further by encouraging, the rise in bikes and e-scooter use, by providing storage, charging stations, lockers, drying rooms and changing facilities with showers.
Collaboration
Business owners need to recognise that they are part of a community. That community element is what encourages employees into the office: after all, many of us can and do carry out some work from home, thanks to the adaptations we all made during the pandemic. The key is to create workspaces that bring people together, to build culture and community, for the benefit of both business and personal health. This means collaborating – with other local businesses, with town planners, with local leisure area owners – to ensure we operate effectively in the spaces that we have, creating workplaces that work for everyone.
Tech
It’s important to integrate technology into workplace designs from the initial planning stages, to ensure it is considered and designed in well – it shouldn’t be an add on. Tech obviously plays a vital role in the business function, connecting those with the options to work on a hybrid basis. Utilising tech to ultimately make a good user experience for those at working remotely is key but we should relying on those tech experts, the manufacturers and providers to help all us install the most sustainable, efficient and practical solutions to suit our needs.
Personal health
Workplace design is all about consultation and advice. If space allows (and hybrid working has possibly freed up some desk space!), it’s great to consider planning in some exercise zones for your teams. Full blown gyms won’t suit everyone, or every space, but rooms for yoga and other exercise classes are welcomed by employees who might not otherwise manage to fit physical exercise into their day. Breakout spaces should be a given for mental health: employees need wellness and welfare rooms, and any additional needs should be considered and planned for – for example, mother’s rooms, nap rooms, private medical rooms, prayer rooms. Part of our design and consultation can help teams and stakeholders of these facilities in the surrounding areas too.
Access to nature
Biophilia – the use of nature – is proven to have a positive impact on mental health with several studies showing the effect it can have. Office workers’ quality of life can be enriched by office landscaping, even if plants have no formal function, they lift the mood, and happy workers are more productive workers. Larger windows, natural light, outdoor pathways and indoor gardens can all support this.
Sustainability
Demonstrating sustainability credentials is a key part of being a healthy office – sustainability is the number one concern for Generation Z and 70% of candidates in this age group are more likely to opt for a company with greener credentials. With a global target of us all achieving net zero by 2050, the UN has set 17 sustainability targets to meet by 2030 – and these impact on all business decisions going forward. Almost half of UK companies say sustainability is key to their growth plans and 66% plan to improve their internal practices, according to HSBC’s Made for the Future Report, so those approaches to commuting are a good start and energy-saving approaches, sustainable and responsible recycling and waste disposal and a more digital, less paper-led approach should be weaved into the workplace design from the start.
By planning ahead, all these aspects will be part of the design from the very beginning – as they should be. They are integral to the wellbeing of your team or tenants.
