Do you have tropical plants in your office or are you thinking of adding plants to your work environment? Here is yet more proof that the plant near your desk is more than just a pretty face! The October issue of Canadian Business magazine (volume 87, issue 10) has a sidebar in the MGMT section entitled “The Five Minute Fix: Plants Make Us Smarter”. This article is referencing research recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology by a group of researchers affiliated with several British and Danish universities. The researchers found that having a living green plant in view increased employees’ scores on memory tests and tasks. Below is an excerpt from the University of Oxford website announcing the findings:
‘Green’ offices with plants make staff happier and more productive than ‘lean’ designs stripped of greenery, new research shows.
In the first field study of its kind, published today, researchers found enriching a ‘lean’ office with plants could increase productivity by 15%.
The team examined the impact of ‘lean’ and ‘green’ offices on staff’s perceptions of air quality, concentration, and workplace satisfaction, and monitored productivity levels over subsequent months in two large commercial offices in the UK and The Netherlands.
Lead researcher Marlon Nieuwenhuis, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, said: “Our research suggests that investing in landscaping the office with plants will pay off through an increase in office workers’ quality of life and productivity.
“Although previous laboratory research pointed in this direction, our research is, to our knowledge, the first to examine this in real offices, showing benefits over the long term. It directly challenges the widely accepted business philosophy that a lean office with clean desks is more productive.”
The research showed plants in the office significantly increased workplace satisfaction, self-reported levels of concentration, and perceived air quality.
Analyses into the reasons why plants are beneficial suggests that a green office increases employees’ work engagement by making them more physically, cognitively, and emotionally involved in their work.
Conclusion>>>>Add more plants!!!
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2014