Workplace design for the senses


Subtly appealing to the five senses can have unconscious benefits for business, but a good intuitive support team can add a sixth sense into the equation...


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By Anthony Bennett

There are few assaults on the senses quite like a cheap flight. The cabin is usually too hot or too cold. The branding colours are brash and in your face, just like the seat in front of you. And the smell of the inflight food, and the toilet if you're sitting near it, can have you reaching for a sick bag. It's hard to imagine how cabin crew can be satisfied with their workplace. And yet somehow they keep smiling.

Fortunately most offices don't put staff through this kind of full-on sensory smorgasbord, and few staff would be smiling if they did. A flickering light above a desk is enough to have everyone reaching for the phone to report the fault. And rightly so. Staff in workplaces that get the lighting wrong commonly suffer from eye strain, headaches and postural problems, which can lead to sick days, lost productivity and mistakes. In fact, according to research by City University London's Centre for Performance at Work, there is a strong association between lighting and work performance, including innovation and productivity.

A proper cup and saucer, as opposed to a faceless paper cup, can make people feel more comfortable and at ease

Too often though the workplace is just focused on the sense of vision, with aesthetics (and functionality) being the primary focus of the design team. But we shouldn't underestimate the importance of accommodating the other senses - hearing (audioception), taste (gustaoception), smell (olfacoception), and touch (tactioception) - which play a vital and complex role in forming our mood, thoughts and behaviours, and can have a huge impact on our wellbeing in work. So how can workplaces appeal to all our senses?

Smell
Fast-food chains are all too aware of the powerful impact of activating potential customers' olfactory nerves. Smell is the most primitive sense, being processed first by the limbic system, responsible for memory, perceptions and emotions. So it plays a big part in influencing our emotions and decisions. Which is why some people walking past a fast-food outlet catch a whiff and cross the street and others find themselves, minutes later, wolfing down a burger.

A proper cup and saucer, as opposed to a faceless paper cup, can make people feel more comfortable and at ease

In his book Emotional Branding, Marc Gobe points out the success of firms that incorporate scent into their branding strategy to build a deeper emotional bond with the consumer. For example Thomas Pink, the shirt seller, scents its stores with 'line-dried linen'. Workplaces too can positively influence our emotions through smell. Having a gorgeous smelling (and looking) bouquet of flowers in reception undoubtedly contributes to people's positive perception of the space, even if they don't consciously register the flowers as they rush past. The same is true of there being a quality scented hand wash and moisturising lotion in the bathroom. The little touches really go a long way and make people feel valued.

Some workplaces even diffuse scent into rooms as a way of helping to increase alertness and productivity and to reduce stress. In tests of perfumed offices, typists made 14 per cent more strokes on the keyboard an hour and committed 21 per cent fewer errors than they did in odourless rooms. But be sure to use fragrances in context. You don't want to be pumping out purifying and calming rose on a City trading floor.

A proper cup and saucer, as opposed to a faceless paper cup, can make people feel more comfortable and at ease
A proper cup and saucer, as opposed to a faceless paper cup, can make people feel more comfortable and at ease

Often the absence of an offending smell is just as important. A room reeking of synthetic pine air freshener or bleach might turn stomachs and make people feel uneasy about what bad smell is potentially being covered up.

Sound
Sound too can have a huge impact on emotions and wellbeing. Anyone who has tried to work with a pneumatic drill going nearby, knows all too well how sound can negatively impact productivity.

On the other hand, a moderate level of ambient noise - such as music - can trigger our minds to think more creatively, say researchers. A team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign tested the effects of varying levels of noise on participants' creative thinking. Each of four groups was subjected to a different level of background noise while completing a test of creative thinking. Those in the moderate level of ambient noise group significantly out-performed those in the other three groups.

Food and beverages can have a big impact on a person’s mental clarity, energy, stamina and productivity
Food and beverages can have a big impact on a person's mental clarity, energy, stamina and productivity

If you work in an open-plan office you will no doubt have muttered to yourself on occasion that you can't hear yourself think, never mind work. A survey by The Center For The Built Environment, in Berkley, found that some 50 per cent of people in open-office environments think that acoustics interfere with their ability to get work done, with people talking on phones at the top of the list of distractions. And yet there are others who think that working in a buzzy environment motivates them to do better work. The lesson? If the office is open plan, build in quiet spaces and other spaces that accommodate as many needs as possible.

Workplaces should also give consideration to the acoustics of each room. A reception area where the sound echoes off the walls is unlikely to feel particularly welcoming.

Touch
Having gorgeous fabrics around the workplace might serve not only to soften the acoustics of the place, but also to engage people's sense of touch. Having chairs and rugs in breakout spaces make people feel relaxed and comfortable enough to chat to each other, which helps with the sharing of information and the fostering of team spirit. On the other hand, it goes without saying that having a workplace full of furniture made of cheap, synthetic fabrics, punctuated with stains, germs and odours, will have people fleeing for the door of your nearest competitor.

Giving staff something to touch can also impact their wellbeing and creativity. Progressive tech companies, especially, provide employees with onsite massage rooms, video games, billiards, table football, and more, to help to promote relaxation or creativity and playfulness. Even something as basic as giving employees a stress ball to squeeze can have benefits. Squeezing it with the left hand activates the right hemisphere of the brain, which is dominant in dealing with colour, images and creative thinking. Soft, luxurious hand towels in the bathroom will make people feel more valued than harsh paper towels.

Taste
A restaurant or cafe in the workplace can appeal to all of the senses, particularly taste and smell. A sizzling bacon roll on seedy bread might be just the thing for some people to start the day with. Others might make a beeline for a colourful fresh-fruit bar. Curries are a popular lunchtime offering in British staff canteens. And it goes without saying that the smell of freshly brewed coffee at 3pm might be just the thing to help staff counter any post-lunch slump. In addition to engaging the senses, food has a big impact on mental clarity, energy, stamina and productivity.

Not to forget aesthetics, of course. Areas that are filled with colour, modern design and interesting structures, compositions and fabrics can really help to activate a person's right creative brain and sense of wellbeing. Different colours are thought to affect people in different ways. Blues and greens, which are great for productivity and can have an anti-stress effect, might be great for a breakout area where people relax. Whereas orange motivates, yellow encourages optimism and red can induce enthusiasm, so might be better for creative zones. When it comes to appealing to the senses, there is no set-in-stone answer. Ask the workplace what's best for them, while also taking into account how visitors will perceive the office and how it matches the company's brand and ethos. Staff spend at least eight hours a day in the workplace, so it should serve their needs.

Food and beverages can have a big impact on a person’s mental clarity, energy, stamina and productivity

Workplace support services can even offer a type of sixth sense to increase the workforce's level of wellbeing. From providing food, maintaining printers, helping with room bookings and printer jams to helping with passes that don't work, finding available hot desks for people and helping those who have just joined or are visiting to find their way around, good office support staff can be on hand to accommodate needs of the workplace as they arise.

A senior manager may have been in back-to-back meetings for most of the day and is now running late for another meeting. A member of the support team, familiar with the particular individual, might intuit that they could do with a sandwich and a glass of water before their next meeting and that they could use some help getting a presentation printed. By helping out in this way, the support takes some of the stress off the manager and refuels them so that they can perform as well as possible in their meeting.

You could liken an office services team, providing this level of personalised and anticipative service, to a butler service in a high-end hotel, with staff feeling like valuable hotel guests. And who doesn't like to be looked after and treated like a VIP? By anticipating and fulfilling people's needs so intuitively, support teams almost have a sixth sense as to what people need, again contributing to wellbeing and satisfaction. In the words of Carl W Buehner: 'They may forget what you said - but they will never forget how you made them feel.'








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