Ways to Detoxify Workplace for Better Employee Engagement & Productivity

While the majority of companies understand the significance of their employees’ safety, they do not pay much attention towards their wellness, and those companies that do prioritize corporate wellness tend to lose talent with time and potentially come across bottom line repercussions. It is very important to detoxify the work environments for employees as they suffer from work-related stress, anxiety or depression which adversely impacts their performance and workplace productivity. Making some alterations to improve the physical environment can greatly help companies in crafting a workplace culture that supports wellbeing, encourage creativity, as well as increase job satisfaction.

There is a link between employee well-being as well as the built environments and it cannot be overlooked. It is important to re-imagining and redesigning the workplace to enhance the work to be done now as well as in the future to improve productivity and performance. With different generations working together in the same space, it is very important that the physical environment meets their diverse working styles.

Following steps must be taken by companies to improve employee engagement and productivity:

1. Decreasing Internal Pollutants

Invisible toxins within offices can have a big negative impact on the functioning of our body. Reducing the toxins from the workplace environments needs a multi-dimensional approach. Companies must consider the specification of sustainable materials at the time of building design. Sourcing furniture, fittings, and fixtures, as well as paint, that contain a low level of contaminants can further help in reducing the toxicity. Proper consideration should also be laid on the standards of air purification, ventilation as well as operational policies like green cleaning.

2. Encourage Diversified Working Methodologies by Building Team Neighborhoods in the Workplace.

It is very important that the employees are involved in healthy communication in the workplace. Spaces must be created for the departments and teams so employees can work alone as well as together, in accordance with their changing personal preferences and needs. Teams must be allocated with neighborhoods so that there is proper social wellness and knowledge sharing, along with meeting rooms, workstations, as well as collaborative spaces. Desk sharing and agile working is a great way for most of the employees as compared to the traditional hot-desking.

3. Try Adding a Natural Twist in Office With Biophilia

According to various studies, greater affinity to the natural world helps in decreasing stress at work, enhance mental well-being as well as help in fighting chronic diseases at the workplace. Organizations can attain biophilic elements in design by incorporating nature’s colours, patterns as well as materials or by integrating natural features. For example one of the very effective ways to detoxification is to have plants in the workplace. According to research, the workplaces which incorporated natural elements in their environments experienced a hike of 15% among their employees at the end of three months.

4. Use Data to Prepare, Design as well as Measure High Performance

Analyse data from the health reports of the workforce to measure health and wellbeing risks within the organizations. Follow an approach of change management– changing behaviors is much more impactful as compared to changing space. Track improvements by the means of benchmarking or building methodologies for assessment to demonstrate performance. Data empowers the companies to communicate, initiate change, as well as market business insights.

Related Article: Toxic Signs at Workplace Every HR should Take Notice of