Over the past two years the importance of wellbeing and health has been highlighted more than ever by the Covid-19 Pandemic. Although there are many things about pandemic that we have had very little control over, prioritising and taking control of your health and wellbeing has never been more critical than it is now.
The workplace is where we spend a good percentage of our lives, so as an employer it’s in your business’ best interests to support your staff’s wellbeing by providing a healthy working environment. Mind reports that 1 in 6 employees live with a mental health problem and these problems are only aggravated by unhealthy working environments.
Organisations that prioritise employee wellbeing outperform ones that don’t by 10%. When employees feel like they are valued and supported, they have higher wellbeing levels, are more committed to the organisation’s goals and perform better too.
So, the choice of selecting an office space to rent that has the right atmosphere and facilities to put your employee’s health and wellbeing first, is crucial. The right choice can limit the risk of mental illness, and this can result in improved employee productivity, increased morale, fewer sick days, staff retention and talent attraction.
In this post we explain 7 ways how finding the perfect office space to rent can help keep your employees healthy, happy, and importantly, productive.
Most of your working day will be spent in the office, so we’ll start by explaining how a well-designed office space can contribute to your workforce’s health and wellbeing.
On average an individual will spend one third of their adult life working, so the space in which we work has a significant impact on our well-being and mental health. A quality workspace design leads to a less stressful and more productive atmosphere, so you must take the physical work environment of your employees into consideration.
To produce the best standard of work, your employees need to feel both calm and comfortable in their work settings, so the layout of your working environment should reflect this. Finding a business centre that offers bespoke customisation is a bonus and can help to make your employees feel happy and at home.
Many people associate the office working environment with employees sitting around at desks all day typing away on their computers. However, at HUB26 we believe in a different approach to the traditional office working environment. We realise that exercise is a key element of a healthy lifestyle, and this can positively impact workplace wellbeing.
Having an onsite gym, such as our state-of-the-art FIT26, makes it possible for your business to integrate physical activity into the structure of your working day. The chance for your employees to exercise before work, have a quick lunchtime workout or to blow off some steam after work is hugely beneficial to their health and work ethic.
81.5% of employees state that regular exercise helps them to stay focused at work, and research shows that exercise can positively affect your mood, relieving tension, anxiety, anger, and stress. This also has knock on benefits for the business, as happier employees are 12% more productive.
As humans, we’re social creatures and a lot of our social interactions are key to our wellbeing and health. The office is a place where employees make some of their closest friends. These strong social connections make employees happier and physically healthier, which can positively affect work performance.
When working from home, many employees can feel isolated without the social aspect of the workplace. Social isolation has been seen to be as damaging to an employee’s health as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day, and can also increase the risk of cognitive decline and depression.
In contrast, a strong network and community feel established in an office can improve your employees’ emotional and physical health. Finding an office space to rent that’s in a business centre with a strong community feel can help your employees to interact with other like-minded individuals, swap ideas and generate valuable contacts.
When working from an office, there’s already a clear structure in place for each working day, from set office hours to break and lunchtimes. This ensures that employees take the proper breaks that they need and are entitled to, instead of eating a sandwich over their laptop when working from home.
Breaks are important as they contribute to helping employees de-stress and re-charge and they can help improve wellbeing. Office complexes generally have a canteen where employees can get away from their desk, socialise, eat and relax to lift their mood and improve your workplace wellbeing.
Having a positive work-life balance is an important part of your health and mental wellbeing. The key to maintaining this is to separate personal and professional life, without neglecting either.
Technology has resulted in difficulty separating work from our personal lives – many people answer work emails and calls on nights, weekends and even holidays. Over 40% of employees work over their assigned hours when working from home, and most claim that the reason for this is: they struggle to ‘switch off’ from work. This can cause employees to become increasingly stressed and worried about job-related issues and not take the time to drop work-related worries and focus on their personal lives.
Finding a suitable office space to rent that your employees can work helps to establish a strong structure to the day and a clear ‘place of work’ where your employees can physically leave their work and go home to let their mind rest, relax, and recuperate. The structure of the working day in a business centre environment ensures that there is time for your employees to take dedicated short interval breaks, to prevent physical and mental fatigue and of course, burnout.
Research has highlighted employees who have a positive work-life balance perform better at work, so promoting this balance in the workplace will always be beneficial to your business.
Like every business, yours will have its own workplace culture. This relates to the shared values, beliefs and set of assumptions that your team shares.
An engaging workplace culture can create a positive working environment, keeping employees productive and reducing their stress levels. Deloitte found that employee happiness and satisfaction are strongly linked to strong workplace culture. Happiness and satisfaction encourage employee retention, as happy workers are more likely to stick around.
It’s much easier to build up and establish workplace culture in a physical office environment than when you’re operating as a remote team.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, as an employer, you have a legal duty to protect the health, safety, and welfare of your employees. Therefore, you must ensure good working conditions for staff. You must consider issues such as space, cleanliness, space to eat, lighting, toilet facilities and much more when selecting an appropriate place to work from.
Under this law, you also have the obligation to ensure staff are working safely, with the right equipment from home. Given the current Covid-19 pandemic circumstances, the size of your company and the practical difficulties surrounding entering into the home of employees, it’s sometimes not feasible and difficult for employers to carry out a risk assessment of an employee’s home working space.
To ensure a good working environment for your staff, it’s far easier to set up in an office complex where a whole risk assessment can be carried out, hazards are highlighted, and facilities are already in place to ensure your employees can work in the safest possible way.
Health and wellbeing are not only important for your employees personally, but also crucial to form a motivated, engaged, and high performing workforce. Working at a business lifestyle centre, like us at HUB26, can help you to keep your employees happy and healthy, and result in numerous benefits for your business.
