All signs seem to indicate that we are now emerging from a period of unprecedented disruption to the office paradigm that has been in ascendance for over 70 years. Work has changed, people have changed, and workplaces are having to adapt.
For one thing, remote and hybrid working are not going away. Remote or partially remote working arrangements are perfectly appropriate for some office jobs, and are preferred by some workers. They are particularly suited to knowledge work in companies with a geographically distributed workforce, but they are also favored in smaller companies that want to give their employees some flexibility and the chance to have a better work/life balance.
Even though we will likely never go back fully to “the way things were,” many employers are looking to find ways to entice their people back into the office. This is often more than simply nostalgia for the good old pre-pandemic days. Some studies have shown that remote working has its downsides.
A recent study published in Nature, for example, finds that virtual communication can hinder group creativity. It turns out that there is a physical difference in communicating through video that is psychologically disadvantageous.
In-person teams operate in a fully shared physical space, whereas virtual teams inhabit a virtual space that is bounded by the screen in front of each member. Data suggests that this physical difference in shared space forces virtual communicators to narrow their visual field by concentrating on the screen in front of their eyes, filtering out peripheral stimuli that are not visible or relevant to other attendees. This narrowed focus constrains the associative process underlying idea generation, where thoughts “branch out” and combine to form new, creative ideas.
For some employers, findings like these argue in favor of doing work in the workplace rather than from home. The challenge, then, is to create in-person working environments that offer important advantages over remote working. One way to do this is with office lighting that supports employee well-being and contributes to a comfortable, productive day followed by a relaxing evening and a good night’s rest.
A properly designed lighting system that deploys tunable LED luminaires according to human-centric lighting principles supports visual and biological comfort as well as employee engagement and productivity. According to a study published in the Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, mentally and emotionally engaged employees are likely to be top performers who miss 20% fewer workdays than their peers. Harvard Business Review reports that an analysis of 1.4 million employees conducted by the Gallup Organization showed that organizations with high engagement levels report 22% increase in productivity.
Proper melanopic light levels clearly supports office workers’ well-being, and therefore may support the strength of an organization as a whole.
Continue reading part 4 of our 4-part series on lighting for health and well-being.
