The Impact of Coworking Spaces on Workplace and Employee Wellness
In the workplaces of today, employee wellness is becoming ever more important and recognised. It’s more than just a comfortable chair or a standing desk. It’s now time to take a more holistic approach, including mental, emotional, and physical health and wellbeing.
Adapting The Workplace For Employee Wellbeing
Modern workplaces and coworking spaces are being designed to optimise employee wellness and recognising the effects of physical surrounding on mental and physical wellbeing. Offices and Coworking spaces are now including workspaces alongside recreational, relaxation, and fitness areas all under the same roof. These spaces offer workers opportunities to unwind, recharge, and engage in physical activity, contributing to improved productivity and overall better wellbeing.
In a survey by The Instant Group the top five workspace features that contributed to employee productivity and wellbeing were:
• Access to recreational / relaxation area or gym.
• Quality computer monitors.
• Personal office or quiet space.
• Excellent Wi-Fi and connectivity resources.
• Comfortable office furniture
By taking an active approach to incorporating features such as these, companies are able to demonstrate a commitment to caring about both the physical and mental health of employees, leading to enhanced job satisfaction, lower turnover rates, and being able to attract top quality talent more easily.
The Rise of Coworking Spaces and Employee Wellbeing
As remote work becomes a mainstay in today’s world of employment, coworking spaces are emerging as a tempting and promising alternative to working from home – particularly in supporting employee wellbeing.
The appeal of coworking spaces to many employees, remote workers, and freelancers lies in their versatility and adaptability to various work styles. Workers might fancy a change of scenery from their usual work location or find working from home holds too many distractions for them, in these scenarios a coworking space is ideal.
Unlike the often isolating and distraction-filled home environment, coworking spaces offer a professionally designed, flexible setting that blends quiet work zones, collaboration areas, and social spaces. This variety allows employees/remote workers/freelancers to choose the environment that best suits them and their tasks at hand. This sense of autonomy can contribute to an improved employee wellbeing and mindset.
Research shows that people who work in coworking spaces report significantly higher levels of wellbeing, thanks to better infrastructure, reduced social isolation, and access to meaning face-to-face interactions and collaborations as opposed to forced relationships with office coworkers.
Most importantly in terms of worker’s wellbeing, the availability of coworking spaces has been shown to alleviate stress. According to the survey carried out by The Instant Group, 84% of people who used coworking spaces believed that access to coworking spaces had a positive effect on relieving stress.
By offering people the freedom to choose where and how they work, businesses enable individuals to strike a healthy balance between professional responsibilities and personal wellbeing.
Coworking spaces have a wide variety of benefits, not just focused on wellbeing. To find out more about the benefits of coworking spaces, read our blog on the topic here.
For businesses navigating the future of remote work, supporting access to coworking spaces may be a strategic investment in employee happiness, productivity, and engagement.
Workspaces can wield a profound influence on employee wellness. At Dash Spaces, as a rural coworking space, we focus on creating a calm and inviting space for remote workers, freelancers, the self employed and more. To view our variety of spaces available to you and your businesses, click here.