Plants help create happy office vibes

Enriching an office with plants makes for happier staff and increases productivity by 15%,.

A collaborative study, which included Professor Alex Haslam from the University of Queensland and colleagues from Cardiff University, the University of Exeter and the University of Groningen, assessed the long-term impacts of plants in an office environment and found that employees were more physically, mentally and emotionally involved in their work when surrounded by office greenery.

Adding plants to an office also improved employee satisfaction and quality of life. 

“Office landscaping helps the workplace become a more enjoyable, comfortable and profitable place to be,” Haslam said.

“It appears that in part this is because a green office communicates to employees that their employer cares about them and their welfare. Employees from previously lean office environments experienced increased levels of happiness, resulting in a more effective workplace.”

The research team compared the effects of ‘lean’ versus ‘green’ office space on employees from two large commercial offices in the UK and the Netherlands.

Staff productivity levels were monitored over a two-month period and employees were surveyed to determine perceptions of air quality, concentration and workplace satisfaction.

“Employees were more satisfied with their workplace and reported increased concentration levels and better perceived air quality in an office with plants,” Haslam said.

Haslam also said the findings challenge modern business philosophies that suggest a lean office is a more productive one.

“The ‘lean’ philosophy has been influential across a wide range of organisational domains,” he said.

“Modern offices and desks have been stripped back to create sparse spaces. Our findings question this widespread theory that less is more - sometimes less is just less.”

The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.