With ever-increasing stress and challenges to mental health, ensuring our workplaces are designed to promote optimum conditions is not only important but central to keeping businesses running. Essentially, the biggest capital investment a company makes is its employees. To ignore sick, stressed, sleep-deprived, or disengaged employees is tantamount to ignoring the upkeep of a building.

There are four key areas to consider when designing to optimise mental health in workplaces.

Light and colour

Science tells us that there is a significant effect of air quality and light exposure on circadian rhythms, social behaviours, mood, physical well-being and sleep quality. Working in poor or insufficient lighting can lead to headaches, eye strain and tiredness, ultimately causing stress, anxiety and depression.

The colours we surround ourselves with also affect how we feel. Light is made of colour, it converts into electrical impulses when it hits our retina. These impluses pass into the hypothalamus and affect the release of hormones. Green, particularly, is a mood-enhancing colour and is known to reduce stress.

Using plants, green-view windows, water features and other biophilia can help mitigate stress triggers for employees, creating a healthier and more soothing workplace for your staff. Perhaps if you have a balcony or roof-top space, consider fitting it out as a lunch space or workspace and encourage its use.

Organisation

Working in a soothing and harmonious environment helps to lower stress hormone levels, blood pressure, anxiety levels and depression. Ensuring that your space is organised, arranged and functional for employees is part of making a space optimal for mental health.

There is a need to strike a balance between simplicity and minimalism, and the colourful, casual Google-esque office. What feels right will depend on your company, culture, employees, business and a host of other factors. Aim for engaging, fit-for-purpose and soothing versus cluttered and distracting.

Social Relations

A company where employees experience good communications and strong social support are perceived as being healthier, have higher job satisfaction, morale, lower absenteeism and a desire to leave. However, balancing the need for an individual to have space for themselves, a sense of community and togetherness and strong social support is key. People have varying needs to be alone, to be known and to know others.

Ensuring that there are a good mixture of collaborative, social, private and quiet spaces will give employees options. It empowers them to get their work done in the way they like.

Health

Office designs have previously focused on time efficiency, putting everything at easy reach. In todays thinking, the desire to enable incidental movement for employees is important in helping them with their health goals.

Encourage staff to take the stairs, discourage eating at desks (by providing an alternative) and offer sit-stand desks. Provide mobile phones to allow people to move around rather than being tied to a desk and place amenities on the periphery so that people need to walk a bit further to access them.

What to consider

• Dont make health and wellbeing a fad in your office or a bandaid to a problem. Options like sleep pods while helpful for mindfulness or a power nap, shouldnt be used to replace healthy sleep patterns. If your employees are working too long or sleeping in the office, a different conversation is required.
• Workforces are aging and there will be some who are less fit, well and able. Remember to include options for those who need it.

Fundamentally investing in the health and wellbeing of employees is good business. Staff treated well, with respect are more likely to be retained, be more innovative, and be happier and more productive at work. That in itself is worth making the change.

Over the past decade offices have become more and more open plan and high-density. Remote working was not part of many office cultures. In many companies, pre-pandemic, if you werent at work, then you probably werent working.

In the past few months companies have had to reconfigure business models as Covid-19 lockdowns have required employees to work-from-home. Covid-19 has forced us to accelerate new ways of working, jumping forward a decade in a very short space of time.

Back to the Office

The reality is that, at some point, we will have to go back to the office. For many, working from home is not a long-term solution. Either the job itself isnt possible long-term from home or the home environment is not conducive to long-term working. Most importantly though, for many of us, work is a social, community-led activity. We miss being with our colleagues. We miss those informal run-ins in at the coffee machine. We miss the separation between work and home lives.

The likelihood is we will see a hybrid approach of remote and in-office working in the coming months. With employees expressing caution and a degree of fear at returning to the office, companies need to create a working environment that takes into account Covid-19 and employees well-being. Staff will need to not only feel safe coming into the office but feel that the space is compelling enough to come into and has the kinds of technology to support the new ways of working. It is important that companies engage with their people to get feedback but also to help allay fears.

Designing for Coronavirus

Companies will need to consider new things in office design: How can staff circulate around the office without issues of contact? How does hot-desking work? How can digital methods allow staff to book desk space, track occupancy and potentially contact tracing? What are the potential changes to office materials like the use of bleach cleanable fabrics and the use of glass?

The new normal offices will need to be:

• Driven by data insights
• Flexible and adaptable
• Technology enabled
• Fit-for-purpose around the employees needs
• Collaborative and enabling productivity
• Designed around using space in different, creative ways
• Focused on promoting community, the company culture, employee well-being and health

Flexible workspaces

Agile spaces will become more important as office areas need responds to changing space as needs and office populations. Putting wellbeing and health at the centre of office design will be key to creating an environment where people not only feel safe but where they want to be.

Other new innovations to consider include:

• Contactless solutions to minimise touch at high-touch areas like doors and elevators but also to potentially measure contamination or show how recently something was cleaned.
• Hygiene stations sanitiser and handwashing basins
• Furniture solutions that minimise contact but maintain the sense of community and culture
• Airflow measures and air quality devices and monitors
• AV, IT and unified communications and collaboration solutions that help to connect remote workers with those in the office
• Versatile versus built furniture options to allow for flexibility and agility

It is still unclear what the post-Covid-19 working world will look like but there will need to be a rebalance of working practices between remote working and office-based working. Technology will lead the way and automation will play a big part in making this the new normal. If this situation has taught us anything it is that things change and we can adapt and adapt quickly when we need to.

There is no doubt that smell has a tremendous pull on human beings. Scent has the ability to transport us, move us and motivate us. Different industries have used smell to promote sales for decades from the basic of the smell of baking bread or roasting coffee when showing your home when it is for sale to Shanghai Tang who famously use a signature scent in their stores.

The use of smell has evolved beyond this, with individuals and offices now looking at how to use aromatherapy techniques to create positive environments where staff can be motivated depending on their task. Research has shown that using an appropriate aromatherapy oil can improve an individuals mood up to 40%.

How can scents be used in the workplace?

Stress

Some essential oils can help workers relax and focus during stressful situations. Stress is not only unhealthy but it can negatively affect how employees perform at work. Lavender and rosemary have been scientifically proven to significantly decrease levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in the brain. Linalool, a substance found in lemons, reduces our fight or flight response.

Increase Performance and Promote Creativity

Workers seeking to reduce fatigue, improve mental clarity and be task-focussed can use scents to help them with their performance. A study showed that the smell of lemons, jasmine and lavender reduced typing errors by 54%, 33% and 20% respectively. Peppermint also improved performance when doing tasks that require speed and accuracy. Choosing the right smell can also help boost creativity and innovation.

Some specific scents worth considering for the office:

• Lemon promotes concentration, calms and is useful if you are feeling anger, anxiety or are stressed and run down. Lemon also has some antiviral and antibacterial properties.
• Lavender calms and controls emotional stress. It soothes nerves, relieves tension and depression.
• Jasmine calms nerves, is uplifting and is an anti-depressant promoting feelings of confidence, optimism and positive energy.
• Rosemary excellent for improving memory, fights physical exhaustion and mental fatigue and increases alertness.
• Cinnamon stimulates, improving concentration and focus while combating fatigue.
• Peppermint useful for creative activities or when brainstorming. It increases energy, stimulates the mind, promotes concentration and helps with clear thinking.
• Coffee enhances analytical reasoning and task-based activities. Obviously, it is good at keeping you alert and awake and ready to solve problems
• Vetiver boosts brain patterns, improves focus and attentiveness leading to better concentration.

How to deploy scent in the office

It is important to remember that the use of aromatherapy in the office is contentious. Some people are allergic, others may find the scent unsettling or simply unpleasant. Some scents are not appropriate for those who have medical issues or are pregnant. It is also important to consider spillage and technical equipment interference.

Companies should decide if they will allow individuals to use their own scents. There are some channels that work well for office-based environments like scented stress balls, roller balls, scented hot/cold packs and essential oil diffuser clips that have refillable scent pads.

Overall it important to consider scents as part of a holistic approach to workplace enhancement and wellbeing. Ensuring that there are clear guidelines, objectives and engagement to deploy scent into the office can mean that you can successfully use smell to change how your workforce acts, feels and performs.

Refurbishing a property is an exciting prospect but one that can feel daunting and fraught with challenges. A refurbishment gives you the opportunity to redesign, update or even expand your current space so it is fit-for-purpose for your current and future needs.

Some might consider the option of doing a refurbishment without an architect. They think by hiring one they prolong the project and potentially could lose control over the outcomes. These are myths. An Architects is a professional like a doctor or a lawyer and they act as expert consultants. They use their professional know-how to help you achieve what you truly want, sometimes things you didn’t even know how to think of. But ultimately it is your project.

From a practical point of view, there are some key reasons to engage an architect when considering an office refurbishment:

1: Architects think about more than making a space just look good. They ensure that the new rooms and space will fit the purpose they are intended for as well as the lifestyle (or workstyle) of the people of will be using it.

2: They can anticipate where you may have issues, find solutions to any problems or even see options to improve your plans. It is always best to involve an architect at the beginning of the project. They can help cost it out, do any drafting of plans that may be needed, select the best materials and can even project manage the work. It is easier and cheaper to fix an issue on a plan than when it is half-built.

3: While you have some permitted development rights that allow you to go up and out to a certain height or length, an architect can make sure you don’t face liability issues for any problems with the plans or planning permission. They will be able to advise you on the art of the possible, what needs planning permission, what doesn’t and how to go about it.

4: If you are planning something a little “out of the norm” then an architect can help you apply for planning permission. They can advise on what is likely to be approved and will help you to explain what you are proposing in the best possible way. They have tools like 3D modelling that can display to a planning permission committee exactly what it is you are proposing.

5: Having an architect review your plans means that you can be sure that they are 100% compliant to the latest building codes and planning requirements. They can take into account elements like health and safety best practices and carbon footprint. They will also ensure that your plans follow the most up-to-date and efficient ways of designing a modern and future-proof home or office

Fundamentally, an architect has one goal in a refurbishment project, to make sure you get the best refurbishment possible, with as little hassle as possible and helps you budget and keep on track. What could be more useful than that?

Everyone has lived or worked in a place that simply doesnt feel right. It can have an enormous impact on an individuals wellbeing and happiness, which then has a knock-on effect to their productivity and possibly their longevity. According to Gallups 2019 State of the Global Workplace report (https://www.gallup.com/workplace/257552/state-global-workplace-2017.aspx), just 10% of adults working full-time in Western Europe are considered engaged, (ie both involved and enthusiastic about their work and workplace). Engaged employees in Gallups report are likely to be 17% more productive and their company 21% more profitable than those who are not.

While many elements go into this, dissatisfaction with the physical working environment is certainly a key element. Shifts from cubicle-farm style offices to hot-desking and back, and offices that dont take into account the needs a multi-generational workforce, mean companies have to look at what it means to build and design a happy office.

Significant research has been done into the impact of workplaces designed for or reconfigured to maximise well-being and happiness. There are some basic fundamentals that come out through most research.

Physical elements

There are some environmental elements that instantly increase happiness:

• Delivering adequate natural light for all users of the space, not just the lucky few with a corner office;
• Ensuring acoustics are appropriate to the use of the space so sound carries if needed or is dampened in other areas;
• Building a mixture of collaborative as well as private space while collaboration is ideal, recognising that sometimes individuals need somewhere that is quiet or private;
• Providing lighting, air and temperature are appropriate and fit-for-purpose.

All of these are simple but vital elements of a happy workspace.

Movement and wellness

Given medical experts regard sitting as the new health threat, the workplace needs to be designed to encourage users to move around. For example, ensuring stairwells are accessible and attractive so that people are more likely to walk and take the stairs rather than the lift. Employees are more likely to collaborate, take breaks and have positive interactions if they are encouraged to move around. This can be as simple as offering standing desks to employees but Googles Headquarters in Colorado took this to a new level, literally, with a giant rock-climbing wall.

Ambience

Consider the ambience of your space. Does it have colours that inspire productivity and creativity or beautiful, interesting and natural interior design? Although not new, incorporating elements in an office design that provide visual complexity can impart a sense of comfort, ease and potentially mitigate stress. Give your office a sense of balance and proportion, as well as using colour and texture to improve the richness of the environment.

Flexibility

This is not about adding a yoga room but ensuring that spaces can be adapted to the changing needs of the day-to-day as well as the future. Adding flexibility to your design can help a company not only expand as its staffing levels change but to repurpose spaces as the company grows. With the average office cost per square foot in London the highest in Europe (GBP112.5 per square foot (Q1-2020) for the West End), giving companies the ability to maximise their office space is of paramount importance as well as fostering a more harmonious environment. Opened in 2016, Googles 6 Pancras Square offers modular meeting rooms. Known internally as Project Jack, each plywood pod is mass-produced and can be customised on-site into different sized spaces and different levels of privacy.

Nature

It is not a new concept to bring nature indoors. However, Biophilic design puts our interaction and connection to nature at its forefront. Research has shown that by simply including more nature and natural materials in a workspace, productivity can be increased by up to 15%. Among other recommendations, the Well Building Institute recommends one one-foot plant for every 100 square feet. This is more than a pot-plant on every desk, but the ability for users of the space to connect with their surroundings seasonally, during the day and night and even react to the weather.

Fundamentally, as the saying goes, home is where the heart is. By creating a space in which the users feel at home, inspired and creative, and where they can connect and collaborate with others, is a space which engenders a feeling of home and well-being. That feeling helps employees be more productive, creative and innovative, fosters respect and ultimately delivers happier employees.