Is office lighting making your employees less productive?

I have recently completed some work for a client where the decision to replace lighting wasn’t driven by cost savings but instead by complaints from staff about the quality of lighting in the office affecting their productivity.  

Changing work environments

 That led me to think that most businesses nowadays operate in a competitive market space and for them to grow, they’re constantly looking for that marginal 1% in every aspect of the business. 

 For example, with the Millennial generation now fully embedded into decision-maker roles, we’ve already seen changes to what we typically expect from an office space. There’s now an undoubtedly heavy focus on improving employee wellbeing as a means of maximising efficiency.

 It’s commonplace to see grass as carpet, slides instead of stairs, and many have a barista level coffee pop up. Technological advances also mean that a lot more people are working remotely from home too where the employer has no control over the environment.

 These revisions to the daily lives of employees are no accident. They have been purposely designed to help employees improve on productivity and innovation, as well as retaining top talent, and of course, improving the bottom line. 

Where’s the evidence?

 A City of London University study for Phillips looked at a wide range of studies from around the world found that “Lighting is one of several factors that combine to create healthy work environments that in turn help promote employee engagement, wellbeing and productivity”. 

 I’m currently writing this article post Winter solstice, where most employees working in an office will be turning up to work in the dark and leaving work in the dark. At this time of year, work can start to feel like Groundhog Day, living the same workday over and over again. 

As a result, many employees have reported feeling stressed and suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and often spend long hours at their desks, which is sometimes their only access to light during the day. 

A recent online survey of 7000 office workers showed”

• 25% of workers surveyed are frustrated at having to deal with poor lighting in their workplaces.
• 80% said that having good lighting in their workspace is important to them
• Two-in-five (40%) are having to deal with uncomfortable lighting every day. 
• A third (32%) said better lighting would make them happier at work. 

This must be having a negative impact on their wellbeing and ultimately, the quality of their work. 

Like many people, I sometimes look at studies like these and think that this only applies to just large organisations. With this in mind, I started to test these results by asking my new LinkedIn connections what the quality of lighting is like in their workplace.

?Here are the initial responses:

• Three responses said yes, the lighting in our office isn’t good enough (but two of those fell into the third category below)
• The majority said it seems OK 
• Those that were in serviced or rented offices generally said that there was nothing they could do even if they wanted to, generally without expressing their opinion of the quality
• A lot of my connections work from home

Overall, those that responded that they had a positive experience of their lighting had generally had the lighting replaced recently. 

 Lighting is very similar to the battery life on your new phone. It’s fantastic when it’s new, after 12 months, you would probably describe it as OK, and as it gets older, you just “put up” with the battery life gradually getting shorter and shorter. It’s only when you replace it that you realise how bad it’s actually become. 

 Conclusion

 Generally, we get used to our environment and very rarely benchmark it against others. So how are we to know if our office lighting is helping or hindering us?

 Lighting doesn’t seem to feature in the online lists of employee dissatisfaction with their workplace, Temperature control, noise, cleanliness of toilets, kitchen smells and slow repairs all appear much more regularly.

 For example, while working with a prospective client, I looked at a drawing office in a manufacturing company where they had disconnected half of the tubes in the fittings in the recession to save money but never reconnected them. 

 The light level at the desk was around 10 times lower than the CIBSE recommendation. Despite this, the people in that office had never complained in the near 10 years it had been like that.

 Don’t let your office become a victim to poor lighting. Staying ahead of the curve in promoting the wellbeing of your staff is essential for productivity and retention. Even if you don’t realise it now, better lighting makes a big difference in how you work and should be a priority to fix.

If you want to find out more or want to have an initial chat, please email me at [email protected].