Plants have always been a way to bring calmness, life, and serenity to any place – especially offices. According to research conducted by Andrew Naber in 2007, the average person spends a third of their life at work. The shocking statistic shows what a mighty portion of our lives is taken up in the office – so why not make that time the most productive, calm, and harmonious as we possibly can by using plants!
From calming anxiety in high-pressure offices, breathing better air all the way to healing faster! We will discuss the benefits of indoor plants in the office.
1. Indoor Plants Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety
An office can often be a stressful place. Deadlines, work pressure, and a demanding boss are some of the factors that contribute to a stressful workplace. Plants in the office have been shown to actually help reduce stress! As a matter of fact, a study conducted by the University of Technology, Sydney in 2010 saw remarkable results after plants were introduced in the office. Anxiety fell by 37%, anger fell by 44%, a mighty 58% decrease in depression, and a 38% fall in fatigue!
Just the color green has previously been shown to calm the human mind. The Spider Plant is one of the easiest to maintain in an office while gives you peace of mind and helps reduce stress.
2. Boosts Productivity
Productivity is nowhere as crucial as it is in an office. Whether you’re working at a friendly startup or a high-demanding multinational corporation, the one thing your boss will expect from you is productivity. A study done by the University of Exeter in 2014 found that the addition of a single indoor plant per square meter helped memory retention! Once employees have their minds at ease and can retain more information, productivity rockets.
Plants in the office may be a great idea for employers who want their employees in their healthiest state of mind. Many indoor plants including one known as the Peace Lily help boost productivity and it even helps eradicate mold!
3. Numerous Health Benefits
Employers will notice one of the first effects of having plants in the office is the drop in employee’s sick days! Indoor plants can naturally filter out numerous toxins from the environment that will otherwise cause you to get sick. Indoor plants like the English Ivy can prove very helpful to people with asthma, allergies, and other breathing problems because it reduces benzene, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde from the air. Plants such Also Vera can be used to help heal skin irritations and sunburn.
4. Improve Air Quality
Scientists generally agree that indoor plants help improve air quality. Hence having plants in the office not only leads to a healthier workplace but also fights Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). Plants in the office can help reduce carbon dioxide, dust, carbon monoxide and trichloroethylene. The better ventilated your office is, the better they work! Plants that help air quality include the Chinese Evergreen, Bamboo Palm, English Ivy, Snake Plant, and many more indoor plants!
5. Better Creativity
This is for people working in the creative fields. It can often become taxing to be able to extract creative ideas out of your mind while sitting in a 4-walled room. However, indoor plants have been shown to help with that! A Human spaces report conducted in 2015 showed a 15% jump in the creativity of employees with plants in the office.
The incredible phenomenon of nature is explained by the Attention Restoration Theory – where it’s explained that just by simply looking at an indoor plant our minds shift gears into a different thinking mode hence boosting creativity and room for original thought.
6. Encourages Responsibility & Accomplishment
If anything, responsibility is one of the top traits everyone should have in their life and especially in the workplace. Nurturing, watering, and taking care of a plant in the office can go a long way. It instills the idea of responsibility that you have for the indoor plant and which can then translate into your work and personal life!
Employees who put time into their office plants and then see results, such as growth and blossom, then get the feeling of accomplishment, which is one of the main factors of motivation.
7. A Form Of Therapy
As amazing as it may sound, plants help enhance therapeutic care and even loneliness! Taking care and playing a part in the growth of an indoor plant can also affect someone’s personal recovery process, it’s called Horticulture therapy! Having plants in the office can help the employee measure their success with the growth of their plants. Furthermore, studies have shown that taking care and nurturing an indoor plant forms a bond where employees can feel less lonely and that can even increase their sense of accountability!
Summary
Plants in the office really do have numerous positive aspects to them, some of them were discussed but there are many others! Anyone who has ever worked in an office will agree that it can be quite a demanding working environment and plants in the office are one of the most effective ways to deal with this problem.
If you’re facing any of the issues mentioned above or simply feel to experience what an uplifting experience plants in the office can make then head down to the co-working space at Iconic Workspaces and experience it for yourself!
