Good office design can alleviate stress and increase productivity

We are going through a workplace crisis. Stress has reached epic proportions with just under a fifth of Britons suffering from anxiety or depression, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The stuttering economy means a lack of job security, and with it, extra pressure to perform. Our physical health is suffering too. The World Health Organisation now lists inactivity as the fourth-biggest killer of adults as our sedentary lifestyles bite back – turns out sitting at a desk all day staring at a monitor is more dangerous than it looks.

The impact of all this is multiplied as people spend more time at work than ever before, with the boundaries between the work-life balance becoming more blurred. For some people, the office is becoming more of a home than home, as shown by the numerous features in Google's Mountain View HQ : from a gym, to a laundry, to a hairdresser. The definition of the workplace is changing and so are its responsibilities to people's health and wellbeing.

Chained to the desk

Before moving to the UK, I worked for the Department of Justice in Florida with convicts on death row and witnessed the debilitating effects of a destructive daily habitat. The design of these prisons was thoroughly considered, right down to deliberately excluding natural light from inmates. This had devastating effects on mental health and wellbeing.

With so much thought going into prison design as a punitive measure, it seems strange that so few organisations apply the reverse logic to how their office affects the health and wellbeing of their staff. Especially when – while we aren't chained to our desks or locked in the building – many of us spend so much time there that we might as well be.

Making an office work for your employees isn't rocket science – natural light, well-monitored temperature, good facilities – even the smallest changes show you value your people and their wellbeing. This will be mirrored in how they feel about their job.

Beyond this though, an innovative and healthy office means thinking about encouraging movement, getting people out of their chairs and around the office, bumping into colleagues to share thoughts or gossip. It means creating an environment that stimulates people and responds to who they are. Create an office atmosphere that people love and you'll have a happy – and healthy – workforce.

Every decision in the workplace has a profound impact on workforce wellbeing, and an office is the living, breathing representation of a company. It should be the duty of any socially responsible employer to create a healthy, engaging environment for their staff. And, while the recession has tightened purse strings, showing people how they are valued in hard times results in less sickness, higher retention and ultimately better performance.

We can't all be as cool as Google

People seem quite content to buy into these concepts. Feedback to talks on these subjects often goes along the lines of, "OK, great, we all want Google's offices but I have a business to run." The implication: keep the frills for those with cash to burn; office playgrounds won't help me balance the books.

The mistake here is thinking that this somehow isn't a business decision, when happier staff is the essential starting point of a sustainable business. Reduction of sickness absence and higher productivity are major factors that hit the bottom line. Retention, too, is likely to become more important; we won't always be in the economic doldrums and when the global economy makes a change for the better, employees will want to do the same.

Being a leader in responsible business means putting people first – not just in wages and a good benefits package – but with a deeper consideration of their needs and challenges.

From office prisons to offices that inspire

Workplaces have changed and with new offices come new types of employees, new ways of working and new responsibilities for employers. Embracing this early will benefit companies in two important ways. Firstly, engendering innovation into your company's lifeblood, creating a team that thinks differently and works creatively, to help make a company a leader. And secondly, and most importantly, ensuring you have a healthy, happy workforce.

The battle to place employee wellbeing at the centre of business strategy is gaining momentum. A person's surroundings impact on their mood in dramatic ways; indeed, it was Churchill who said "we shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us". While some seem to have grasped this, with Google, Apple and other technology giants leading the way, now is a good time to consider what the office of the future might look like – and whether it will be more like a prison or a playground.

Monica Parker is head of workplace consultancy at Morgan Lovell.

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