Jun 2020
Tips for a Happier, Healthier Office Space
The key to having a productive team of employees is keeping everyone happy and healthy. When your employees are healthy, the amount of sick days taken is reduced. In addition, healthy employees are happy ones, and when your staff is happy, productivity goes up.
By taking a few initiatives, you can make your office space more welcoming to new and old team members. Take a look at some of the things you can do to create a healthier, happier space for your employees.
Stock Up On Healthy Snacks
A smart way to promote a healthy office is to stock your breakroom with a selection of healthy snacks. Sugary snacks, like candy and soda, can provide a lot of energy, but that energy doesn’t last long. Once the energy runs out, your employees will get burned out, resulting in lower productivity levels.
Fruits, such as apples, oranges, and grapes, all make excellent office snacks, especially when they’re dried up. Some other healthy recommendations include nuts, fruit bars, sunflower seeds, peanut butter, air-popped popcorn, and vegetables. And instead of buying soda, supply your workers with water bottles, tea, and juice. Here’s a list of what we definitely consider the breakroom essentials.
Communicate More Often
A common cause for low morale in an office is a lack of communication. Your employees may be dealing with personal issues at home, and often they’ll want to keep these to themselves. If you don’t take the time to talk with them, you might never find out about these issues, and they’ll start affecting your company’s output.
Take some time to speak others in your office; ask them how they’re doing, and see if there’s anything you can do to help them. When you’re on break, take some time to chat with others so you can get to know them a bit better. If you’re a supervisor, ask employees for feedback, so you can see where you can make improvements.
Communication is the key to success, and it helps create a friendlier work environment.
Start Using Sit-Stand Desks
One of the biggest trends in office design trends right now is the implementation of sit-stand workstations. Recent studies have highlighted the health benefits of standing during work hours. These include reduced back pain, a lower risk of weight gain, and lower blood sugar levels, among others.
Providing your employees with these workstations is an excellent way to promote healthier work styles. They’ll learn to stand more often, and be able to take advantage of the health benefits mentioned above. Everyone will be much happier, and they’ll be more productive as a result.
Put Together Team-Building Exercises
While many office workers work well on their own, some have trouble collaborating with others. If you feel this is an issue in your workplace, you should host some team-building exercises. Most people find these activities to be intrusive and time-wasting, however, so the trick to making them work is to make them engaging.
One fun example is the Barter Puzzle exercise. For this exercise, split everyone into teams of equal size, and give each team a jigsaw puzzle (puzzles need to be of the same size too). Before you give the puzzles out, mix up the pieces from one puzzle and put some of them in the others. Each team will need to communicate with each other to get the pieces they need.
When people are having fun, they’re more willing to work with others, so try to host exercises like this when you can!
Gather Everyone For Fun Games
While team-building exercises are great, there’s nothing wrong with having some old-fashioned fun. Office employees should be allowed to come together during breaks to play some games.
Not only do games allow employees to reduce stress, it also encourages them to develop team-based skills. Certain games, like ping pong, can also help employees to enhance important motor skills.
Bring some board games into the breakroom, or bring in a set of cards so employees can play some card games together. If you have the space, try developing a game room, or set up a TV with video games that employees can play together. Everyone will be much happier playing these games, and burnout will be a far less common issue.
Hire Cleaners to Visit Your Facility
Germs can linger anywhere in the office , making them a serious health concern. They hang around flat surfaces, especially around appliances that people will be sharing. People will get sick if germs are left unchecked, and this will result in hours of work being lost.
Even if you clean the office on a consistent basis, neutralize odors and stock up on janitorial supplies, it’s a smart idea to hire a cleaning team to visit your office every few weeks. Professional cleaners know offices inside and out, and they’ll know which areas need the most work. Plus, they can get the job done early in the morning, so they won’t distract your employees during work hours.
Professional cleaners are trained to do a quality job, so don’t hesitate to hire some for the sake of your employees.