Workplace well being gets spoken about considerably, especially when it comes to mental health. However, physical interventions and looking after our physical health should be just as much of a priority. Here are some things you could consider when looking at improving workplace wellbeing.
Improve Your Sleep Pattern
The average employee loses over eight days of work each year from lack of sleep, according to the World Sleep Survey. Good sleep is vital for a balanced mental and emotional state and lack of sleep can leave us lethargic, inefficient, irritable and depressed.
Sleep problems affect around one in every three people in the UK. If you think you may have a sleep problem, then Sleepio was created for you. The six-week online sleep improvement programme, generated by world sleep expert Professor Colin Espie, is clinically proven to help those with chronic sleep problems fall asleep and stay asleep by using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques.
The Work Space Revolution
Want more productivity from your team? Then it might be time to revolutionise your work place. According to Chris Lansbury of Crown Workplace Relocations, businesses need to take the office environment seriously to achieve healthy productive employees.
Lansbury’s tips for improving your office include:
- Lifting the mood with colour and furniture: a modern, inviting office is one that people will enjoy working in.
- Being innovative: some offices have installed telephone boxes encouraging employees to stand up and providing a private place to have conversation.
- Installing break-out areas for lunch: give staff the opportunity to get away from the desk, take some rest and socialise, making the workplace appealing.
- Building bike stories and showers: this inspires people to cycle to work which improves mental health.
- Providing fun areas: gyms, pool tables and table-tennis tables can promote team building.
Green For Go, Go, Go
It might be worth upping your office foliage if you are looking to boost employee attention span and lower stress. A research project led by Universities of Cardiff, Exeter, Queensland and Groningen suggested plants can lower stress and increase employee productivity by up to 15 per cent.
The project, supported by Ambius, the world’s largest provider of plants, replica foiliage and flowers for commercial environments, showed that plants in office spaces can both increase employee productivity and improve workplace satisfaction by up to 40 per cent.
Bask In The Light
Light is vital for wellbeing and lack of natural light can cause fatigue and even depression. LED lighting system LUCTRA has been designed with this in mind.
The LUCTRA range features white and warm white LEDs that produce an intensity and colour that closely replicates daylight, helping to stabilise the human biorhythm, ensuring individuals are able to sleep well and feel more rested throughout the day.
Lumie Lights At Work
Good lighting at work has been shown to increase productivity, improve sleep and immunity and improve mood, lowering the incidence of depression-related absenteeism.
Lumie says its Brightspark, Desklamp and Zest are particularly well-suited to the workplace. These all provide at least 2,000 lux at arm’s length at your desk and won’t take up much room. Switch them on for 30 minutes to feel more alert, energised and positive.
You can also introduce light therapy to communal areas; several lights positioned in a rest area, meeting room or cafeteria will effectively increase staff light exposure.
Sit Down, Stand Up.
Working every day in an office can lead to a sedentary lifestyle with all the downsides this brings: obesity, anxiety, high blood pressure and event possible development of certain cancers. But there are ways to encourage an active lifestyle even in the office.
The WorkFit-T from Ergotron is an ergonomically designed sit-stand workstation, which is placed on top of a regular desk without mounting or clamping, making it easily movable from one work area to another.
Do you know of any services or tips that can also help employee well being? Tell us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
This post was published to show the IAM’s support (partners & supporters) for EventWell17 week. The Event Industries first national wellbeing week.
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