Health Conscious Workplace
Healthy workplaces are more productive because they promote and possess a high-yielding environment. Workers there can produce the best version of themselves and feel confident in what they do for their company, whether it is physically or mentally challenging work. Although often overlooked, mental wellness should be an integral part of everyday life alongside physical fitness.
Poor working conditions can lead to decreased productivity and an increased risk for illness, costing the business both time and money if left untreated. Meanwhile, a healthy working space makes one feel like their best self and evokes energy inside them.
Unsurprisingly, healthy workspaces lead to a more productive, mentally alert, engaged, and happy workforce. With satisfied employees, your workplace will be far from an unhealthy workspace with a workforce that gets bored and mentally tired more quickly, leading to suboptimal performance.
Let’s have a look at the effects of an unhealthy workplace before we dive into some ways to amend that.
Effects Of An Unhealthy Work Environment
Do your employees sit at the office desk all day? Do they grab a quick bite of whatever junk food is available because they’ve got no time or better options? What about working late from time to time and pushing through sleep deprivation for weeks or months on end? Do you think you’ve provided a good working environment?
Such unhealthy practices can bring about many issues that are not too significant. Still, these can snowball into serious problems that may warrant your immediate intervention. Here are some of these problems.
Physical problems
It’s common knowledge that sitting at the office desk all day isn’t good. This unhealthy workspace habit can lead to several health issues over time, including neck, back, musculoskeletal, and other physical problems. It wouldn’t be so bad if they persisted temporarily. Unfortunately, some can even last for a lifetime under some conditions.
Psychological problems
In remaining idle in the same place all day, people tend to lose focus on their work and become anxious and hypertensive, negatively affecting their mental health. Adverse effects on mental health severely impact individual performance and, eventually, drop organisational performance.
Consumption of unhealthy diet
Consuming unhealthy food while working in the office affects one mentally and physically. People lose their appetite and get problems with digestion. Learning and memory problems can also start to take shape due to an unhealthy diet for a prolonged time period.
Sleep deprivation
Employees sometimes have to work till late at night due to work pressure, leading to sleep deprivation for a few days or even months. Lack of sleep lowers employee morale, degrading your company’s overall functioning.
On the contrary, a health-conscious workspace increases employee productivity and wellbeing. Employers of the 21st century strive to create a healthy work environment because it’s crucial in raising the productivity and, consequently, profit margins of the business.
What Does A Health-Conscious Workplace Look Like?
Imagine your employees maintaining a healthy diet while working comfortably at the office. Imagine them looking forward to going to work every day because of the positive and safe environment you’ve created.
If you don’t really need to imagine this because you hear and see them live it, you’ve provided a healthy workspace. Health-conscious workspaces prioritise employee health and allow team members to roam around the office without sticking to their desks throughout the day. They also have the facility of healthy food and, most importantly, let one work in their comfort zone, with proper stress management solutions in place.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a healthy workplace is where employees and managers collaborate to continually improve all employees’ health, safety and wellbeing and eventually sustain business productivity.
In essence, a health-conscious workplace lacks harmful practices that can cause injury or illness and has an abundance of practices that promote health and wellbeing. How can you create such a space for your employees? Here are some ideas you can incorporate to create a health-conscious workspace.
5 Simple Ways To Create A Healthy Workplace Environment
Productivity, employee satisfaction, low absence rates, and the wellbeing of all staff and managers depend heavily on a good workplace environment. This also comes with an effective work environment, so it is equally important to simultaneously protect and enhance employee safety and health.
It’s neither hard nor expensive to make small changes that will make a big difference. Follow these 5 essential healthy workplace tips to see positive results in your business and higher overall productivity.
1. Adopt a standing desk
A standing desk is an increasingly popular option in the workplace and comes with several health benefits. Standing desks come in various shapes, sizes, and mechanisms. A standing desk can help burn more calories, decrease the risk of certain cancers, reduce the risk of heart disease and help stabilise blood sugar.
Standing upright is considered a very effective way of maintaining body posture. It balances the connection between the body and the brain and reduces the risk of aches, injuries, and cardiovascular disease.
Standing desks are one of the best ways to improve the work environment. With this innovative product, workplaces can become healthier and more productive. All in all, it promotes better efficiency, which increases the employee’s productivity. Even if an employee uses your standing desk for only part of the day, it makes a big difference over time.
2. Choose an ergonomic chair
Posture is key when sitting at the desk. Your office needs a proper ergonomic office chair to help employees with alignment and correct posture. A good chair can reduce back pain and other complaints that come with sitting all day.
The ergonomic chair keeps the user’s body in a safe and upright position to reduce stress on the spine, neck, and hips. An ergonomic chair’s headrest supports the neck and shoulders, and the backrest supports the spine.
Most muscle pain issues are caused by how people sit and move around. If you don’t consider the natural alignment of the body when buying furniture for your office, employees will ultimately suffer from lower back pain and other muscular issues. If you change your choice of a chair from a regular one to an ergonomic computer chair, employees will feel much better at your workplace. It would also pump up their productivity and energy.
3. Check your monitor height
Sitting at a computer for an extended period requires ergonomic considerations. For instance, if the desk is too high compared to the chair, it may cause suffering from shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand pain. Additionally, when one uses a keyboard and mouse at a low desk, they will have to lean forward, placing additional strain on their neck and back. As a result of this strain, severe injuries may develop over time.
Due to a lack of proper knowledge, many have their computer monitors sitting too high or too low at their computer desks. Place your monitor around 50-100cm away, with the top of the screen at eye level. You should be able to rest your hands between your keyboard and should level the edge of the desk and the desk height with your elbows.
Plenty of ergonomic desks, chairs and accessories provide a more permanent solution to inappropriate monitor height. These are the top 5 ergonomic trends you shouldn’t overlook if you plan to create a great work environment.
4. Snack right
Snacking helps maintain blood sugar levels and energises the mind. Health professionals recommend snacking time and again in a healthy manner while at work or home. Things like nuts, fresh fruit, and herbal tea are all great options for snacking right.
Many employees are guilty of hiding sneaky snacks on their desks and aren’t always particularly healthy. Unhealthy snacking is undoubtedly bad for you and can result in obesity, fatigue and decreasing intelligence.
Healthy snacking helps improve nutrition and provides satisfaction between meals, making them an essential part of any healthy lifestyle. It also helps in enhancing productivity and maintaining high energy. Most people already practice snacking, but if few people in your office don’t, encourage them to snack healthily from time to time while they work.
5. Move around throughout the day
Workspaces should have spaces for employees to move around freely or do minor exercises or body stretching activities. They also should encourage their employee to stretch out their body, exercise, and take a quick break once in a while.
It’s vital to incorporate movement throughout the workday to maximise energy and performance and reduce the significant health risks associated with sitting or standing for an extended period.
Employees need a break, both mentally and physically. It will help if they get up for a quick walk to stretch their limbs at least once every hour or two. No matter how busy your employees are, taking some time away from their desks and getting their muscles moving is always worthwhile. Encourage your employees to take regular breaks and move around the office. You can also suggest they try some simple stretches or go for a long walk during lunch break.
These solutions help create a productive work environment and promote safety, especially in the long run, by considerably reducing physical and mental injury risks.
Why A Health Conscious Workplace Is Important
People spend most of their lives at work, so their environment can significantly impact their health and performance. Having healthy practices in the workplace can bring about many positive changes in employees and organisational performance simultaneously.
People with healthy minds and bodies are more optimistic, creative, motivated, and productive. As employee health and productivity go hand in hand, your business can perform to optimum capacity only when your employees are healthy.
Therefore, a health-conscious workplace is essential not only for overall employee health and boosted morale but also for raising the profit margins of your business at a sustainable and consistent level.
Get The Experts On Your Case
If you’re looking to incorporate ergonomic office equipment to boost workplace health, Interia can help you through our specialised office furniture and equipment. We also offer free consultations, whether it be on-site or online. Call us on 1300 784 816 or contact us today to discuss your workspace requirements with our office space experts.
We would love to help your office get from good to great, so we leave you with an infographic of more tips to stay healthy in the workplace!
