Wellness at the office

The search of wellness at the office is one of the last trends in the real estate sector. The concept of a traditional office with a vertical structure and isolated offices is now far behind: today, the aim is to go for open and collaborative spaces. These more emotional offices are redefining offices.

The search of the employees’ wellness, besides having economic benefits for the companies, also helps to acquire a certain number of qualitative benefits related to commitment and talent attraction.

Why to look for wellness at the office?

Among the benefits that the search for their employees’ wellness provide to companies, the following should be highlighted:

Talent attraction and retention: wellness corporate strategies are well perceived by the employees and help to create commitment and loyalty bonds inside the company. This generates a feeling of belonging towards the company, so if the worker is trying to grow professionally, he or she will look for new opportunities inside the company rather than in the labour market. Likewise, wellness programmes also contribute to improve the company’s corporate image and generate a feeling of belonging. Companies with wellness programmes generate more attractive workspaces that help to foster creativity among employees. This is usually translated into an increase of their working productivity.

Economic return: Firms that offer wellbeing programmes to look for their employees’ wellness boosting nice office workspaces improve their employees’ health index in a 20% and reduce work absenteeism indexes, which decreases sick leaves costs to the company.

Practical examples of employees’ wellness

Next, we present some good practice examples developed for different companies to promote their employees’ wellness:

Green meeting points: Many companies apply biophilia in the workspace design and setting up. The use of natural elements and natural light has a positive impact in the employees’ health, increasing work capacity. To include typical elements of nature in rooms or spaces meant for meetings can improve work quality.

Chill Out areas: Resting areas in the office are a resource more and more established in companies’ structures. This break spaces really help employees to disconnect in their brief breaks, and spur their creativity when they meet there with other colleagues.

Sports and wellbeing programmes: With the aim to fight sedentarism in the office, many companies are introducing sports and mental health programmes within the working hours. It is increasingly common to find in-house morning yoga sessions or Mindfulness programmes set for the employees.