There are numerous benefits that office plants can bring to your office that stem from our intrinsic connection with nature – something scientists have coined as ‘biophilia’. It’s well known that when people feel uninspired or demotivated, getting out of the house, walking around the block, or taking a break in the local park can do wonders for our focus and creativity.
However, many modern offices don’t provide that natural connection because of a desire to look professionally utilitarian, striving for a minimalist design. In fact, one out of five workers don’t have any natural elements in their workplaces, and near 50% of workers aren’t exposed to any natural light while they work. This statistic is alarming, as many of us spend most of the majority of our time in our workplaces.
So here, we illustrate 5 reasons why you should add some office plants into your workplaces. From wellbeing to enhancing productivity, plants can help your business in the long-term by bringing major, positive benefits to your employees and consequentially, your organisation as a whole.
1. Plants Reduce Stress
A study by the University of Technology Sydney in 2010 found that plants significantly reduced worker stress when plants were introduced into the workplace. The study reports great benefits that plants can provide to an employee’s psychological wellbeing; 58% decrease in depression and feelings of dejection, a 44% reduction in hostility and anger, as well as a 38% reduction in fatigue, and 37% fall in reported anxiety and tension.
Job satisfaction levels can be kept high by adding some greenery in your office design to manage your psychological wellbeing, allowing them to feel happier while lessening burnout. Strategically adding office plants to increase wellbeing is an easily implemented idea for the long-term health of your workers and business.
2. Plants Help Noise Reduction
Plants can absorb sound as one of their natural traits, giving an attractive alternative for acoustic control if you’re having trouble with managing privacy and noise levels in your office. You can keep the noise of background office chatter to a minimum by investing in a few office plants in the corners or edges of your rooms, or as a well-placed room divider.
3. Office plants reduce absence and sickness
In a study by the Agricultural University of Norway back in the 1990s found that the introducing plants to the office lead to a 25% decrease in symptoms of ill-health that are common in office workers, such as fatigue, trouble with concentration, dry skin, and nose and eye irritation. This, of course, doesn’t even touch upon the psychological benefits of nature in the office.
The 2015 Human Spaces report found that employees that worked in workspaces with nature implemented in its design scored 15% higher on wellbeing than employees that worked in places devoid of nature. Psychological wellbeing has many benefits that address many of the concerns in the workplace today – for example, maintaining psychological help can help ameliorate the negative impacts of stress, overwork, fatigue, and burnout.
4. Increase your Productivity and Creativity
In the 2015 Human Spaces report, they found that workers whose environments included natural elements scored 6% higher on productivity when compared to employees who didn’t have any natural elements in their workspaces.
In an employee’s line of sight, office plants could increase productivity to levels up to 15% even if its just a few small houseplants, according to a 2014 research paper by the University of Exeter. If a worker could see a plant from their desk, then the plant could bring greater psychological engagement with their work, allowing people to work happier and healthier. Reports additionally show that if plants were placed by approximately one plant per square metre, then employees would have better memory retention and could score higher on basic tests.
Productivity isn’t the only thing that plants can affect in the office – studies also show that the greater psychological engagement that plants bring can help boost your employee’s creativity. As the 2015 Human Spaces report states, they found that natural elements could boost employees creativity by 15% in comparison to workers who didn’t have any natural elements in their offices, keeping your workers more inspired and energised to tackle the work they’ve been given.
5. Office Plants Improve Air Quality
Plants are extremely effective in removing airborne chemicals like formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene, and having a few plants in the office can help your workers have cleaner and healthier air to breathe in.
Research from the University of Technology, Sydney studying the effect of plants towards indoor environmental quality found that indoor plants help reduce carbon dioxide levels within buildings. In fact, in air-conditioned buildings, carbon dioxide is reduced by 10%, while plants reduce up to 25% of carbon dioxide in non-airconditioned buildings. Any medium-sized plant (not too large – anything greater than 20cm) will help air quality in the room that they’re placed, therefore providing a healthier environment for your workers to work.
Take Advantage of the Benefits of Office Plants
These benefits are for home office and large corporate offices alike – there’s no distinction to how large an office space is to the effect a plant has on the people working there. Office plants bring many benefits to your office.
Not only do they target our innate attraction to nature, and therefore enhancing the overall attractiveness on a design level, but also boasts multi-functionality by facilitating the wellbeing of your employees, maintaining their mental and physical health, and their happiness while they work.
If you are looking for help in choosing the right design incorporating plants for your office space, choose Collappor8 Business Interiors or call us on (02) 8774 2682.