How Can Office Refurbishment Improve Employee Wellbeing?

Employee wellbeing is the cornerstone of productivity. According to Oxford University, happy and healthy employees are 13% more productive than their less satisfied peers.

So, how can office refurbishment improve your business’ employee wellbeing, and why is this?

In order to answer these questions, we sat down with our office refurbishment experts to run through how exactly a new office can improve employee wellbeing & boost your overall productivity. 

What is the link between the office and wellbeing?

Wellbeing isn’t a new concept, but we’re all now hyper aware of it as a result of the pandemic. 

With the rise of remote & hybrid working, it’s more important than ever that your office is a place where employees want to be. Fail to create a space which meets employee expectations, and you’ll start to see dips in productivity, and potentially increases in churn.

Your office space needs to be comfortable, facilitate collaboration and allow for both focus and relaxation. Get this right and your employees will be far happier in the office, helping to improve physical, mental and social wellbeing.

What are the benefits of improving employee wellbeing?

Bar the obvious benefit of improving happiness across the board, employee wellbeing will also help to:

• Prevent absenteeism – This is where employees stay away from work without a good reason (other than not wanting to be at work). 
• Improve retention – Staff that see you taking steps to improve the office and their wellbeing are less likely to look for alternative employment. 
• Attract the best talent – First impressions really matter. A clean, welcoming office space will do wonders when you’re looking to fill roles.
• Bolster your reputation – An office refurbishment is a superb opportunity for PR, as you’re putting the wellbeing of your staff first. 
• Increased productivity – As mentioned, happier employees are more productive!

What changes in the office will improve employee wellbeing?

There are a few key aspects of many office refurbishments that can help to boost your employee wellbeing – you’ll need to consider everything from daylight to working temperature, leave no stone unturned! 

Office colours

Offices have historically been muted, corporate colours, but times are changing and we’re starting to see a real splash of colour in the modern office!

The colour of your workspace can have a huge impact on how individuals feel; you may choose blues and greens for their calming effect, or yellows and purples for their fun feel. Whatever atmosphere you’re looking to achieve, colour is key.

See how we created a luxury feel using a purple aesthetic statement for Catapult.

Amount of light

Natural light releases serotonin in the brain, a hormone that boosts a person’s mood, helping them to focus, feel good and remain calm.

By optimising your office space to allow in a greater amount of natural light, you will have a significant positive impact on employee wellbeing.

In fact, being exposed to the right amount of daylight can also help your people to get a good night’s sleep – a further boost to productivity! Couple all of these benefits with the fact that more natural light less electricity usage, and it’s a win-win all round.

A natural feel

Introducing a natural feel into your office using plants can breathe life into your office space.

Plants will increase oxygen levels in your workspace, look stunning and (if you get the right plants) may also release a pleasant aroma.

Creating a ‘green’ office can increase productivity by up to 15%, research from the University of Exeter suggests; it’s natural for people to want to be immersed in nature, and plants allow you to achieve this feel in your office.

Your office layout

Your office refurbishment should consider how people use your space. This may sound a little obvious, but even small changes to your office layout can have a big difference!

You may choose to include:

• Collaborative spaces – Dedicated, optimised places for your people to come together. This often makes meetings more efficient and helps to build bonds between team members.
• Areas to relax – It’s important to get away from our desks on our breaks. If you create dedicated relaxation spaces, your employees will be able to properly switch off at break time.
• Concentration areas – Similarly, your people may want to get away from their desk if there’s
  something they really need to focus on. Open plan offices are great for collaboration, but make sure there’s somewhere you can go to really knuckle down if you need to.

In addition to this, you’ll want to consider how people move about in your office. Movement should
be natural and streamlined, there should be no bottlenecks and it should feel good navigating your
office space.

If you’re working somewhere every day, it shouldn’t be a pain to get from point A to point B.

Ask your team

What do your employees want? We often see business leaders trying to decide on an office refurbishment in a silo, but it can be really difficult creating something that suits everyone without asking them what they think first!

Ask your people what they want and what they need out of their office and create the space accordingly.

• What amenities do they want?
• Do they need standing desks?
• How do they prefer to work?
• What makes them comfortable?

You may be surprised by what people want out of the office, so don’t be afraid of soliciting opinions! We recommend providing an anonymous form so that people aren’t embarrassed or intimidated.

Office refurbishment services from Rhino

We get it, an office refurbishment is a big commitment, and it can be stressful just thinking about it,
let alone going through with it.

At Rhino, it’s our mission to take the uncertainty out of the process; trust us to be your guiding
partner in your office refurbishment project. Our consultants are on hand to help you create the
perfect office space on time and on budget.

Talk to our office refurbishment specialists today to find out how we’ll help design and create a
space that your employees will love.

Looking for more? Read about the workspace of 2022, and the changes we expect to see through the
rest of the year by clicking here.