“Sometimes I get the feeling my employees are just waiting for the clock to hit half past six in the evening to get up and leave.” That's what my friend Toni told me recently. Toni had just been promoted to manager at a multinational company based in Barcelona.
According to 2015 data, countries such as France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Germany have higher productivity rates than Spain. This will not surprise many and appears to align with the stereotype held abroad. What is interesting is that, according to the OECD, despite having higher productivity, all those countries work fewer hours annually than Spain. In some, considerably fewer, as is the case with Germany (1,371 hours compared to the average of almost 1,700 hours per worker in Spain). The main cause of this low productivity is the existence of unhealthy and inflexible working environments that produce stress and decrease motivation. According to the IV Adecco report, in 2015, absenteeism alone associated with a stressful work environment resulted in losses in Spain exceeding 9 billion euros.
There is a clear relationship between an individual's physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, and their ability to commit to a common goal and perform to their full potential.
There is a clear relationship between an individual's physical, mental, and emotional well-being, and their ability to commit to a common goal and perform to their full potential. If we want to improve the productivity rates of our companies, it seems obvious that we must change the current work model, and this involves increasing the well-being of our employees. The implementation of well-being measures or Wellness (as this trend, which has been established in the US and Northern European countries for two decades, is known) has to do with generating healthy habits at work, and also with adapting spaces to promote our health. The result will be not only an increase in productivity, but also a reduction in stress with a consequent increase in morale, a reduction in talent flight, and even a prolongation of your team's lives.
The WELL Building Standard
These issues have been faced by the International Well Building Institute which, after 7 years of medical-scientific research, has launched international certification Well Building Standard with the aim of establishing well-being guidelines for built environments. At CBRE’s headquarters in Los Angeles, the first Well-certified offices, following the refurbishment, 94.1% of employees said the new space had had a positive impact on their work performance, and 92.1% said it had had a positive impact on their health and wellbeing.
In the first Well-certified offices, 941% of staff said that the new workspace had had a positive impact on their work performance.
These are some of the measures included in the certification Right:
- The improvement of air quality through the optimisation of ventilation systems, the installation of filters, and the use of materials that do not contain elements harmful to the human body
- The use of circadian lighting systems that mimic solar cycles to prevent the disruption of our biological rhythm
- The increase in individual comfort through improvements affecting acoustics, thermal sensation, and ergonomics in workplaces
- Optimising the design of the environment to improve our perception of the place where we work. Design can also contribute to promoting physical activity.
- The implementation of labour policies that promote a healthier life through improvements in areas such as nutrition or work-life balance, thereby also improving employees' commitment to the company.
If you want to know more about how the Wellness it can help your company to be more productive, contact us and we will help you put it into practice. Toni and the multinational he works for have already done it.
