Designing a Safe Office Space to Boost Productivity

If you don’t have an adequate safe office space, your workers have a higher risk of encountering workplace hazards. Besides tripping and falling, some of these ergonomic hazards may be hard to notice at first, as the harm and strain they pose to your employees happens over time. Although the only signs may be sore muscles, mild pains, and other discomforts at first, long term exposure can result in severe injury or illness.

When you’re considering safety in an office environment, the presence of these hazards and other risks can have serious disadvantages. Your company’s productivity can suffer, your employees’ morale can plummet, and you may experience more insurance claims along with more absenteeism.

It’s necessary to consider safety and comfort in equal measures to office aesthetics when designing a safe and functional office space. Keeping your office safe involves many essential elements, such as proper ergonomics, environment, and safety protocols. These generally involve the office’s layout, modern office furniture, lighting, materials, and some other elements.

If you want to learn how to design a safe office space that allows you to boost your office’s productivity, this article can help you.

What Are the Benefits of Having a Safe Office Space?

The state of your workplace has a significant influence on many factors. Having a safe working environment reduces your employee’s downtime as it minimizes the chances of them suffering from ergonomic injuries.

A safe and functional office space also promotes employee involvement. When your worker feels that they have the company’s support, they are more willing to work and meet their job expectations, if not exceed them. These workers are generally more loyal and tend to contribute more to the company’s culture.

It can also promote a greater degree of organization and efficiency within the workplace. With suitable safety protocols, most workers behave appropriately to abide by them. This behavior can result in efficient teamwork among your employees.

On the other hand, a lack of safety can severely undermine productivity. When your employees work in an unsafe environment, they can accumulate stress, decreasing their productivity and focus. Having poor or cheap furniture is also a significant detriment to the worker’s well-being. It can result in discomfort, chronic pains, and more severe conditions as time passes.

Tips to Design a Safe Office Space

Creating a functional office space can be difficult if you don’t know the proper way to set up a safe environment. There are important things that you must have in mind when designing or redesigning the office space. Even home office design trends follow some of these tips to improve health and comfort.

When you’re considering your workplace’s safety as a means to boost your employees’ productivity, you must base the design around aspects such as ergonomics, environment, and even safety protocols. Here are some tips that can help you create a design that promotes safety in an office environment.

Implementing Office Ergonomics

The most straightforward method to create a safe office space for productivity is to implement ergonomic solutions. When you and your employees are working, the way the workspace is arranged has a significant impact on your bodies.

Having an adequately setup desk is an excellent way to prevent injuries while creating a space where anyone can work longer comfortably. Although you can do this with some typical office furniture, it’s better to acquire some ergonomic products.

Providing your employees with ergonomic chairs and electric standing desks can improve their health and their work performance. The ErgoChair 2, in particular, is an exceptional ergonomic chair you can acquire to create a safer and more productive office workplace, but the options are limitless. For people with a hybrid work arrangement, getting ergonomic home office furniture can help them do their job efficiently.

These ergonomic solutions encourage your employees to have a better posture, improving their well-being. However, it still requires some minimum effort to sit correctly, so try to motivate them to follow some guidelines. Keeping your knees perpendicular to your hips and your shoulders and arms relaxed on the armrest are just some of them.

Creating a Safe Work Environment

You have to follow some vital steps if you want to have a functional office space and a productive workplace environment, and most of them are related to office interior design. Among the things you have to consider, you have the office’s layout, lighting, and materials.

It’s essential to plan your office space with a layout that has wide walkways and a clear exit path. Everyone present in the workplace must be able to reach the exit quickly in case an emergency happens.

Lighting

Lighting is one of the most vital elements regarding safety in an office environment. The workplace must have ample lighting in places where your workers frequently pass through. Having proper lighting can affect many things such as productivity, mental health, and safety while reducing the risk of tripping and falling.

If your workplace allows it, try to employ as much natural light as you possibly can. People prefer natural lighting over the standard artificial option, as it positively affects the worker’s mood and helps regulate their circadian rhythms.

Wall Colors

Although it doesn’t have much to do with safety in an office environment, the color of the office’s surroundings can play a part in boosting employee productivity, creativity, and motivation. Some natural colors such as green and blue can improve your worker’s efficiency and focus, while other warmer colors may motivate them and encourage innovative thinking.

Materials

It’s important to use appropriate materials in certain parts of the office space. You should use anti-slip materials on frequently traversed places in the workplace. Applying other safety measures such as rubber padding on the stairway steps and walk-off mats at some entrances can be helpful as it reduces the number of times your workers may trip or fall.

Hiring Professional Planners

If you feel that creating a safe office space is too complicated or takes too much time, you can consider outsourcing the work to a professional office interior designer. You only need to give the planners several instructions, and they can help you efficiently design an ergonomic office considering every safety precaution and indication you gave them.