Some offices think that having plants in the workplace isn’t worth the trouble of buying, placing, and maintaining it; seeing it more of a chore and a superficial aesthetic add-on. However, there’s more to office plants than meets the eye. It can have significant benefits to one’s office and employees:
Aesthetic. With the right plant, proper placement, and incorporation into the office setting, adding green to the office can do wonders in cutting through the almost artificial feel of a busy workplace. The key word here being “right plant and placement”, as not all plants may suit your office.
Cleaner Air.
No matter how good your HVAC and ventilation system is in the office, there is no substitute for plants when it comes to reducing indoor pollution and improving workplace air quality. This helps keep your employees healthy and happy.
Stress and Overall Health.
One of the most common yet worst things to plague office employees is stress, which can lead to low morale, poor health, sickness, and absenteeism, among others. Luckily, having a piece of nature to your office can help reduce stress and increase employee contentment. There’s a study showing that nature contact (which includes adding plants to the indoor office, natural lighting, fish tanks, etc.) can significantly reduce employee stress and other health complaints.
Recommendations When Adding Office Plants
Now that we’ve seen how indoor plants can positively affect the office, we’ll be taking a look at tips when adding office plants. Reaping the benefits of these plants isn’t just as easy as buying any random plant and placing in every square foot of the office, after all, and requires some planning and considerations to be cost-effective and efficient.
Ask Your Employees.
First off, you’d want to give your employees a say when you decide on adding plants to your office. This allows your employees to have a sense of ownership when contributing their ideas to your plan of putting some green into your office.
Be Natural.
We’ve mentioned earlier that plants shouldn’t be selected and placed randomly. To a point, that is correct, but you’d still want to make sure that the placement is still randomised to make it feel and look natural instead of having a very uniform design of putting plants beside ever door or on every wall, nature is, after all, very random.
Get Low-Maintenance Plants.
Unless you have the resources to hire a professional or have enough time to do so, it would be hard to maintain all the office plants, especially if they require constant maintenance (pruning, watering, etc.). That said, you’ll want to have easy-care plants which can survive a day or two without watering because of a hectic week or month at work.
Safety.
Some people are allergic to certain types of plants and plant pollen, which is why you should be very careful in selecting your plants to avoid triggering workers’ and even clients’ allergies. You should also take note that plants require watering; and water, paper, or electricity don’t mix well — so always consider the placement of the plants and ensure that they’re not placed near plugs, wires, appliance.
Go all in.
If you’re serious about having a green workplace, consider looking for interior design services in Melbourne that specialise in or have had previous projects incorporating plants into the office design to make the introduction of plants and greenery into your office more seamless.
Conclusion
No doubt adding plants to your office can go a long way towards its beautification as well as improving employee morale and health, but only if you do it right. As such, make sure that you follow these simple tips when you’ve finally decided to add some green into your office.
