How to Create a Healthy Workplace: 6 Tips

Blog Post

16 May

Monday, 16th May 2022

Run the numbers and you’ll find that, over the course of your professional life, you’re likely to spend about a third of your waking hours working. That’s a lot. It means that you could spend more time in your working environment than you do almost anywhere else.

Which begs the questions: Is your workplace healthy? Does it make you and your staff happy? And if you’re an employer: Are you working with your employees to design a working environment that puts their health and happiness first?

But what is a healthy workplace exactly, and how do you create one?

What is a healthy workplace?

A healthy workplace doesn’t usually come down to one specific thing. If your building is in a beautiful location, but the relationships within its walls are toxic, most employees won’t consider it a healthy environment.

Instead, healthy workplaces usually meet a variety of important criteria. At Infogrid, we believe it’s about making people’s physical, mental and emotional needs a priority, and making sure they’re met through a variety of interventions. We believe people need to:

Have the facilities, tools and resources they need to do their work effectively
Feel physically safe and healthy, especially in the wake of COVID-19
Believe they are encouraged and supported by their colleagues and by management

What are the benefits of a healthy workplace?

Imagine working at a place where you feel physically well, intellectually stimulated and emotionally at ease. Sounds pretty great, right?

Now imagine being the one leading the creation of this space. Imagine looking around your office and seeing teams who are excited, passionate and driven, and who are serving your clients to the best of their ability because they have everything they want and need.

Creating a healthy workplace doesn’t just benefit your employees, it benefits your business, too. If you establish a healthy workplace that helps people feel fulfilled, they’re likely to be more productive, more creative and more loyal, which has a knock-on effect on the success and sustainability of your organisation.

A healthy working environment isn’t just a nice-to-have, in other words. It’s critical.

6 tips on how to create a healthy workplace

Creating a healthy workplace doesn’t happen by accident. You’ve got to be strategic and thoughtful about it. And, as the World Health Organization says, it’s something that you need to improve on all the time.

A healthy workplace needs to encourage collaboration, so start by inviting your employees to co-create their workplace with you. Invite their input and feedback, and welcome their ideas as your business’s needs evolve.

The following tips will also help you:

Design a physically appealing and comfortable space
Your people have to want to come to work, and an environment that looks and feels welcoming is an important part of this. While the aesthetics of your space is an obvious component, some of the other aspects are more intangible.
A workplace where the air quality, humidity and temperature are maintained at healthy levels, for example, can help to improve your teams’ sense of comfort. Do this smartly, such as through Infogrid’s end-to-end monitoring sensors, and you’ll find the process simple, scalable and affordable.
Equip your teams the facilities and resources they need to be healthy
The workplaces of the future look very different to the workplaces of the past. Fluorescent lighting, stale air and old vending machine food just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Our 2021 Healthy Workplace report found that people want different things now:
- 33% want more outdoor space and 36% more greenery
- 30% want more breakout, recreation or collaborative areas
- 27% want fewer desks
- 25% want more facilities, like gyms, showers and bike racks
- 21% want more technology for collaboration
- Businesses that ignore these trends are sure to be left behind. Pay attention to them and you could be attracting and retaining the best talent.
Protect your people’s physical health
When people started to return to work after the first year of COVID in early 2021, we ran a survey to see how they felt about coming back to the office. Over 60% of the people we interviewed said improved air quality would make them feel safer at work, but only 22% said their employer was taking action on it. Were you one of them?
Even as we learn to live with COVID, these sentiments are unlikely to change. We’ve learnt too much about the transmission of viruses, and about how damaging it can be physically and economically if we don’t take steps to protect ourselves and those around us.
We believe that creating a physically healthy environment is so important that we developed a Healthy Building System. This state-of-the-art AI system actively monitors your building’s air quality, water safety, cleanliness and levels of occupancy so that your employees feel safe.
Nurture a culture of recognition and respect
What constitutes a healthy workplace has changed over time. It’s no longer just about employees’ physical health, but about their mental and emotional health, too.
Your company’s organisation and culture, the work-life balance you promote, and how much your business and people are involved in their communities all play a part in workplace health.
It’s also important that your people feel recognised and respected, and that you encourage diversity, inclusion, open communication and mentorship. If toxic dynamics are allowed to carry on unchecked, you might start to notice lower productivity levels and higher absenteeism among your employees. Your turnover rate might also start to increase.
Let them have their say
Your employees need to be able to give you honest feedback about the space they work in. Empowering them will not only help them feel that their voice is being heard, but will give you valuable insights on ways you can improve your space.
Our occupant satisfaction system and feedback panels help you to quantify the impact your measures are having on your employees’ well-being. They also trigger immediate alerts so that issues don’t go unattended.
Share relevant data
Are you gathering information your teams might find valuable? Share it! Employees are more interested than ever in information that relates to their health. We’ve found that workers are most interested in having access to data on virus risk (59%), followed by cleaning information (57%) and air quality (54%).
If your systems are monitoring these things, make the data available. If they’re not, speak to us today about putting them in place.
The health of your business depends on the health of your employees. Put planned, coordinated and effective measures in place – measures that help to care for your team holistically and consistently – and your business will thrive, too.