How Design Can Influence Our Mental Health And Well-Being
More businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of mental health and supporting the well-being of the employees in the workplace. As it is arguably easier to notice physical illnesses, hidden mental health problems could be having a bigger impact on your work place than you think.
Even more so during the current COVID-19 pandemic, where employees have to work remotely from home, it is important to create a work space that is supportive of everyone’s mental health and well-being.
Identifying what triggers poor mental health can help improve employee morale, boost productivity and decrease absenteeism once everyone returns to work.
Design plays a big part in influencing our mental health and well-being as we find ourselves situated in this physical environment for long periods of time every day. In this blog post, we will share how the workplace design can affect employees’ well-being and give some tips on enhancing your office design for mentally healthier employees.
Acoustic lighting or sounds
While the open-plan work environments are great for collaborations and discussions among team members, it is also more noisy and distracting. This noise is a source of stress especially when it is constant throughout the workday and irrelevant noise is proven to reduce productivity greatly.
The sound in exposed areas can be reduced by using physical barriers such as carpeted walls or partition walls and panels made with insulating materials to help block sounds.
The noise can also be reduced by acoustic lights with sound-absorbing properties. These lights blend in seamlessly in open-plan spaces, which adds to its aesthetic appeal, and are functional as they are designed to adjust the light and sound levels chosen for employees’ well-being.
Colours and natural elements
Colours are capable of influencing our mental and physical well-being as research in neuroscience and psychology has shown the effect that colours have on our brains and hormones, therefore affecting our mood, behaviour and physiology.
Choosing the right colour in our workplace is important as it affects our productivity. Colour psychology has shown that green is a mood-enhancing colour and is known to be good at combatting stress.
Plants are also a great way to create a distraction from stress breakouts so you can consider having more plants to decorate the workspace or have the windows opened out to nature. This can help in creating a healthier and calmer workplace environment.
Good lighting
It is no surprise that good and natural lighting affects our moods and also the productivity of employees. Low light levels are proven to induce depression when exposed to it for long periods of time.
Opt to position your desk near a large window or use glass partitioning to separate places in an office but still allow light to filter through. Be sure to also have good artificial lighting available to provide sufficient light when you work through stormy weather or late nights.
Good workplace design is achievable
With these suggestions in mind, you can assess your current workplace environment and check if there is anything that could be potentially damaging to your mental health and well-being. Perhaps, it is the insufficient lighting or how dark the walls of the room are?
Identifying the potential sources of stress is the first step in finding ways to remove them. Afterwards, with the help of design, through furniture adjustments or laminate makeovers, it can help boost the productivity and increase the aesthetic appeal of your workspace and encourage employees to work productively.
Use laminates to a positive workspace environment and design
Laminates offer outstanding quality, and a large array of options at an affordable price. As everyone has different design preferences, laminates give you an endless possibility of pairings from colour to textures, and offer the best long-term value proposition.
Jennings Laminates offers a wide range of designs, colours and even textures for you to choose from. It is an affordable way to change up the look and feel of your home while also maximising the utility of your furniture by having an effortless surface to clean.
Check out our website for the full range of designs!