Office Plants May Cause Workers to be More Productive

Want your workers to be more productive? Plants may be the key. Scientists have found that "green" offices with plants actually make staff happier and more productive than offices without any traces of greenery.

In order to examine the impact of plants on an office, the scientists looked at staff's perceptions of air quality, concentration and workplace satisfaction in both "green" and "lean offices-offices with plants and no plants.

"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," said Marlon Nieuwenhuis, the lead researcher, in a news release. "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."

In fact, the researchers found that plants in the office increased workplace satisfaction, self-reported levels of concentration and perceived air quality. Not only that, but enriching a "lean" office with plants increase productivity by about 15 percent.

"Psychologically manipulating real workplaces and real jobs adds new depth to our understanding of what is right and what is wrong with existing workspace design and management," said Craig Knight, co-author of the new study. "We are now developing a template for a genuinely smart office."

The findings reveal that plants can greatly help increase productivity and satisfaction of works. The research could be used to improve the design of offices in the future. It could also be employed by managers to improve current office spaces.

"We know from previous studies that plants can lower physiological stress, increase attention span and improve well-being," said Kenneth Freeman, Head of Innovation at Ambius who was not involved in the study. "But this is the first long term experiment carried out in a real-life situation which shows that bringing plants into offices can improve well-being and make people feel happier at work.