Reducing Levels of Stress Within Your Office Design In London

Although any type of workplace offers a potentially stressful environment; the non-stop, busy nature of the UK's capital is likely to see those stress levels increase tenfold, for any business based within an office design in London. No matter where the business is located, stress is the major player in offering a negative effect on employees – and it needs to be addressed.

A workforce that is healthy and happy is simply paramount in running a successful business. The creation of pressure, leading to stress is a natural by-product of an employee working to achieve the aims of the business – it's when stress boils over and leads to unhappiness that the problems start. Unhappy staff will be less likely to hit performance levels expected of them (creating yet more stress) and eventually, anxiety and depression will transpire. This is not how we should be living – we all should be able to work in an environment that aids our development and sees us well. In this blog, we're going to look at the effects of stress in the workplace and how it can be addressed with a finely-honed office design in London.

Dealing With Stress In An Office Design In London.

According to a report undertaken during 2016 by the Government's Health and Safety Executive, from 488,000 cases, stress, depression and anxiety accounted for a total of 11.7 million working days lost – equating to 23.9 days average days lost per case. The total amount of work-related ill health that stress accounted for was 37% – showing the huge impact it has on employees and not to mention, the businesses they work for.

This is why every company must make strides to ensure that their office design in London doesn't help to contribute to these statistics. As people will be present within their offices for most of the day, it's understandable that any environment that works negatively will have a big impact on their mood. Ensuring that comfortable, flexible furniture and installing modern, easy-to-use tech is a great start but there is more to office design than just the equipment needed to complete the work – the space itself should be working as another member of staff.

Addressing Stress Levels From Within The Workplace.

Changing your office layout into an environment that gives employees easy access to everything they need to go about their work is certainly a great start in creating a more-functional workspace – here are additional some stress-battling steps you can take when creating a new office design in London:

• Allow For Flexibility and Customisation. Each person is different – and so are their working practices. It's unlikely that everyone will be able to feel comfortable and inspired having to fit their own needs and requirements around an unwavering working area. Why not make the working area fit their requirements instead? Many forward-thinking businesses combine the collaborative effects that open-plan offices have, alongside that of singular, private offices. Ultimately, by creating a space that will be able to adapt to the working practices of a person, they will be able to settle into the new environment right away, producing more – and better – work than they would do otherwise.

• Give The Office Some Natural Light. More-and-more offices are turning away from artificial lighting and instead, are introducing more glass within the workspace in order to take advantage of the benefits of natural light. Not only is the natural light less distracting, but by simply being able to bask within it for most of the day, exposure to an increased level of vitamin D (contained in sunlight) will help people to feel much healthier too.

• More Communal Spaces. Stress is easily caused when someone is isolated with no one to help them in times of struggle. Not only can a more-collaborative environment help employees to ask for help but an increase of areas that would allow people to communicate away from the arena of work, will further help to increase the mood – something like a breakout room would be ideal for this.

• Introduce More Greenery. Just like the effects that light can have, introducing more natural materials within the workplace will further help to create a better atmosphere for those who have to work within it. Studies of Biophilic design have shown that through the introduction of greenery (plants or 'living walls') the levels of stress and the general negative feelings experienced in the workplace will be vastly reduced.

• Encourage activity. Stuck at the desk all day, not having enough time to go for lunch and often staying late to finish up – it's no real surprise that people get stressed at work. This is why it's vital that a business must take responsibility, not only to look at its current working practises and insist that employees take breaks from their work to unwind and refresh, but also to encourage them to take a fit and healthy approach to their working lifestyle. Whilst many offices have space and the budgets to create internal gyms and fitness suites, others create after-work clubs. This not only encourages them to keep fit, helping to reduce stress – but it's also great to further increase the collaboration, team-working and rapport between team members – which can only be a positive for the business.