Fact: Office Design Can Boost Happiness

May come as a shock to you or most likely not, but having an efficient and well-designed office can actually help to improve not only your staffs productivity, but also their overall happiness. Designers and architects are both in agreement that an ergonomic, efficient and well planned office can really help the productivity of your staff for a number of reasons.

There are a number of factors that should be considered when designing an office, factors that you may not have thought of. For example office furniture, you may have thought about what the furniture looks like and have thought about where it is going to be placed. When designing this however, take into account the level of noise that might occur, where the desks are placed in relation to the facilities, for example, try to avoid placing a desk near to the toilet, or high traffic areas such as the tea point.

Lighting plays an important part in the day to day mood of an employee. It is more of a subconscious thing but a brighter workplace actually helps to pick the mood up for an employee. Not only this, but over time, a poorly lit environment will cause an employee to strain their eyes and overtime this can cause problems not only for the employee but for your company.

Taariq Nordien, a Partner at UF Architects, comments by saying that light can be the most important aspect when designing an office, but unfortunately many companies are put off by this because of the high expense. "When you're planning an office, you should consult a lighting expert. Ideally, you'd want a space where each employee gets natural light and then supplement that with artificial light, but this isn't always possible. So the more natural light, the better.