Feel-good furnishings: Setting the stage for wellness in the workplace

Outfit your office for comfort, calm, and cleanliness

Your work environment can help demonstrate your organization’s commitment to employee well-being. This includes everything from choosing fabrics that can help fight the spread of office germs to equipping your space with ergonomic furniture to designating tech-free areas for calming and focus.

But where do you begin? Here are three key steps you can take to help promote wellness at work with furniture, décor, and allocated spaces — and ODP Business Solutions^® Workspace Interiors can help you every step of the way.

1. Don’t take workplace germs sitting down

Whether it’s the height of cold and flu season or any other time of year, your furniture — from its structure to its fabrics — can make a positive impact in helping you reduce the spread of germs.

Avoid traps

Seams and folds in furniture have the potential to trap bacteria. Selecting furniture with solid surfaces can help make cleaning and disinfecting more effective and accessible.

Choose your textiles wisely

Some textiles are designed to be stain resistant and can stand up to more frequent or stringent cleaning than others. Choosing these textiles can help you make your furniture investment last longer while still allowing you to maintain cleaning protocols. In addition, fabrics with antimicrobial treatment can help your furniture stand up to germs on its own.

2. Put comfort and flexibility to work for your staff

Working comfortably doesn’t mean replacing your task chairs with loveseats. It’s about providing adjustability and flexibility. Since everyone has a unique height, build, and posture, it can be beneficial to equip your workplace with furniture that can adjust to different body types and preferences throughout the workday — especially for co-working and flex spaces.

Enlist the help of ergonomics

When it comes to ergonomics, your seating may be the first thing that comes to mind. Using chairs with lumbar support, adjustable armrests, and reclining positions can play a major role in employee comfort. But ergonomic desks with adjustable height and tilt — as well as accessories such as monitor arms — can also factor into overall comfort and accessibility.

Get active

Your teams don’t have to remain sedentary throughout the workday. Sit-stand desks, kneeling chairs, desk pedals, exercise balls, treadmill desks, and wobble stools can all contribute to helping your employees get up and moving. Want to introduce active furniture gradually? Consider adding balance disc cushions to your current chairs to start.

3. Create places of calm

Being able to periodically unplug in the workplace can have its benefits. Occasional heads-down work can enable employees to dig deeper into ideas by breaking the impulse to check emails and notifications, rethink and innovation.¹

Take away the tech

Don’t worry. We’re not suggesting you go back to typewriters or manual printing presses. But having some designated tech-free zones in your office can help give your employees a digital detox and provide areas for focused work and relaxation, free from digital distractions. Just remember, if employees have to travel far to access them, these zones might be used less often.

Keep it natural

Merriam-Webster defines biophilia as “a desire or tendency to commune with nature.”² Whether it’s a wall covered in green leaves, an atrium area with soft seating, a Zen fountain, or the infusion of simulated natural finishes such as wood and stone, bringing the outside in can help break up a sterile office environment and foster a connection with the great outdoors.

Bring hospitality to work

Workplace hospitality involves viewing employees not just as staff — but also as valued guests. This perspective can be put into practice by creating a work environment where your employees feel well taken care of.³ This is why hospitality-informed and spa-like elements such as calm technology and listening rooms are being incorporated into the workplace. By leveraging architecture, sound design, and technology, you can help create sensory experiences that support human well-being and connection.⁴

Sound it out

Audio can also play a role in workplace wellness. Office noise can be irritating and distracting to employees and even impact their productivity. Identify sources of excessive noise such as HVAC systems, traffic sounds from open windows, and noisy office equipment. Then consider implementing noise-dampening solutions such as acoustic tiles and white-noise machines as well as replacing hard floors with sound-absorbing carpeting.

Rely on Workspace Interiors

Looking to help equip your workplace for wellness? Look no further than Workspace Interiors. Not only do we have extensive knowledge about select fabrics and finishes, furniture selection, and the types of spaces that can be incorporated into space planning, but our designers can also help you put these spaces together — whether updating a current space or creating a new one. Best of all, Workspace Interiors is a full-service resource, so you can even order everything from us and we’ll install it for you.

Find out how we can help you promote wellness in your work environment. Contact Workspace Interiors today.

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All content provided herein is for educational purposes only. It is provided “as is” and neither the author nor publisher warrant the accuracy of the information provided, nor do they assume any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein.