Physical environment ‘key to employee wellbeing’

Businesses that fail to think about their employees’ work environment are risking the wellbeing of their staff, according to the results of a survey.

An overwhelming 92% of 342 private sector senior HR professionals questioned believed the physical working environment impacted on the wellbeing of employees.

More than 80% thought the same about its influence on job satisfaction, with only 3% thinking it had no impact on productivity.

The survey was conducted by the Spaceworks Project Team at Sheffield Hallam University.

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Jill Fortune, a senior lecturer at the university, said: “Overall, the findings suggest that HR professionals recognise the physical working environment is an important people management issue. But it transpires that many organisations were failing to consider their employees when making decisions about it.

“The research concludes that organisations that value their employees should give more consideration and actively communicate with the people who the changes will affect when changing their working environment.”