How can you make your co-working space healthy for employees?
- Create a “break” room
- Get an air purifier
- Offer foldable standing desks
- Have “bring your pet” days
Business owners, in co-working spaces in the Philippines, are legally responsible for the health of their employees. They commonly fulfill this responsibility by offering sick leaves and health insurance. While these benefits help employees heal from their sicknesses, they do not address the factors which led to workers getting sick in the first place.
Sadly, a lot of these factors come from the office itself. The health of workers gets negatively affected by the mental stress and the dirty indoor air they deal with every day. Additionally, there is little space for any form of physical activity. Companies can simply solve these issues by adding health-boosting adjustments to the workspace.
If you want your co-working space to be healthier, these are the adjustments you can add to it:
Create a “break” room
In the office, it can be hard for employees to actually relax during their work breaks. A lot may just want to nap for 15 minutes, but the surroundings just seem too bright and loud. They end up pursuing other “relaxing” options that end up increasing fatigue. Drinking more coffee, stress- eating, complaining to other co-workers.
When employees find it hard to rest, they will also find it hard to be productive
Work breaks are the only times have to replenish the motivation and focus that was lost from working hard. A true break will let our brains to detach from office-related thoughts, do things that make us feel more positive, and actually move away from our desk.
To make your employees rest properly, you can turn an unused space into a “break” room. Since this lounge will be far away from their desks, just going there will allow your staff members to physically stop thinking of work-related issues. It does not have to be extravagant or filled with amenities.
What matters is that it is designed to be relaxing. For example, a start-up renting in an events space at BF Paranaque can make a rest space for their employees just by renting one small room. Then, fill that room with bean bags or a few mattress pads. Your employees can easily sleep, meditate, read, and do other energy-replenishing activities with zero disturbances.
Get an air purifier
Most people underestimate how dirty offices, such as some co-working spaces in the Philippines, can be. Even if you clean and wipe the floors till they shine, you cannot physically clean the air you breathe. In the office, indoor areas are unclean due to a lot of factors.
- Air-borne illnesses from fellow coworkers
- Outdoor pollution
- Chemicals from workspace computers, carpet, and cleaning products
The indoor chemicals in your workspace, especially, can make employees develop “occupational allergies”, where they seem to only develop headaches and rashes in their workspace. Your employees may be allergic to these chemicals without their knowledge. While you can’t really remove illnesses and outdoor pollution from the office air, you can do something about the chemicals.
Air purifiers in the office can clear the air of these allergic-triggering chemicals. Additionally, you have options to choose from:
- Activated carbon filters
- Air purifiers using UV light, ozone, or ionization
- Molecule air purifier
Offer foldable standing desks
More and more foldable standing desks are appearing in Philippine office spaces.
The standing desk looks like a flat board at first, but when you open it, a table and adjustable legs suddenly appear. Since it is small, it will easily fit in your work table and its height will push you to stand up while typing.
These structures were created so employees can add more physical activity to their work routines and its popularity grew thanks to studies highlighting the damage caused by too much sitting. Sitting for 8 hours straight can make you gain weight, more anxious, and prone to different diseases.
Because of these risks, employees are recommended to stand for 15 minutes after sitting for 45 minutes straight every hour in the office.
Have “bring your pet” days
Having animals at work every day can be a distraction at an events space in BF Paranaque. But, allowing them inside your workspace for a number of days can be beneficial for employees’ health. Allowing your staff to bring their pets can benefit them because animals are known to improve morale, employee satisfaction, workplace communication, and lower stress.
To make sure these pets don’t cause a mess in your office, you can do these things:
- Plan with your staff, what are the most appropriate days for pets
- Tell employees which rooms are “pet-free zones”
- Create a pet committee to make things easier.
Key Takeaway
Businesses should not only focus on helping their employees when they get sick but also focus on making the office as sick-free as possible. Employees can become ill with different diseases because they have to deal with so much stress, physical inactivity, and indoor pollution on a daily basis.
Companies don’t have to spend a lot of money to fix these different issues. Just making space for relaxation, utilizing air purifiers, or simply allowing pets in the office on certain days can make a world of difference.