Workplace well-being is an important consideration for all companies, but how many have actually reviewed whether the office environment is healthy for staff?

We are living through a global health crisis. Autoimmune and chronic disease rates are higher than ever before, burnout is being worn like a badge of honour, and depression and anxiety now alarmingly commonplace. Within this context, there has been a much-needed focus on workplace well-being offerings across companies of all sizes. But how much of an impact are these current programmes and benefits actually having on the day-to-day lives of the employees within these organisations?

From our perspective, there is one key part of the puzzle that is largely being overlooked that has a significant impact on workplace well-being: the physical environment within which the employees are working. How many companies have used a professional to design or review the impact of their office space on the staff’s health and well-being?

According to Perkbox, disengaged employees cost UK businesses £340 billion on average each year. The formula that most companies are now following to provide ‘support’ for their employees’ well-being often involves outsourcing to companies like Perkbox for reduced gym memberships, free coffees and discounts on shopping and cinema, alongside some private health insurance. The next level is to bring specialists in like Nutritionists to provide expert advice to employees every once in a while, but how many companies are taking the design and management of the workplace itself seriously within the context of employee well-being?

How many nutrition talks are taking place in offices with sugary treats offered as the refreshments? How many burnout cases are happening within offices with unsustainable working hours and bright, sleep-disrupting lighting late into the evening? How many mental health claims are being made by those working in offices with poor access to daylight and no natural elements or planting? Hopefully you can begin to see what I’m getting at here.

A survey by slack of 9,000 workers in six countries after the pandemic found that 72% prefer a hybrid remote-office model with only 12% preferring to always work in an office setting. This suggests that the physical environment of the office is not appealing to staff as much as it could be, indicating that there is more to be done to ensure that these spaces are actively benefiting employees’ mental and physical health.

As a result of this, ostracising oneself within the comforting environment of your home can result in feelings of loneliness, blurred boundaries between work and personal hours, and a drop in motivation. Given that we now know from research published in PLOS Medicine that loneliness can affect health and longevity as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, we can see how employees slowly retreating to solo work from home may eventually lead to reduced performance and even health implications.

At Ekkist, we’ve been on a mission to improve the design and operation of office buildings for a number of years, and we’ve become global experts in the field. However, mostly this service is through the process of third-party certifications, meaning that the vast majority of our projects have been on new developments.

We know that the loss of just one staff member typically results in over £30,000 of costs for a business (Bright HR). And yet, when we look at how much a healthy building can reduce the chances of losing staff, one WELL-certified office saw a 27% drop in staff turnover and 50% drop in absenteeism (IWBI, 2018). Health-certified offices also show, on average, a 10% increase in median productivity scores alone. But still, health certifications can be expensive and time consuming, meaning they can sometimes feel elitist.

We feel passionately that these health-promoting workplaces need to be available to more people within a shorter time frame, which is why we have decided to expand our services to support those in existing offices, leased spaces and with limited budgets – because we believe that everyone deserves better.

We have therefore devised an Ekkist Office Health Review which enables businesses to get tailored, evidence-based advice on how to improve their spaces within the context of their budgets and capabilities – through a combination of on-site reviews of workplaces and staff well-being surveys focused entirely on the office environment. We envisage this as a new arm to the workplace well-being sector, that ensures that HR departments and operations teams are implementing evidence-based health-promoting improvements into their office design.

Our hope is that this will lead to higher-quality workplaces across all sectors and all regions of the country, which in turn will bring more staff back to their desks and improve their productivity, reduce absenteeism, and make them more passionate about the company they work for. Contact us at ask@ekkist.co if you are interested in booking an Office Health Review for your workspace.