The Colors of Productivity
Can painting your office in a certain color really help productivity? How do you know what type of color has a positive effect on your employees? Some of you may know that colors have an effect on our mental state. For example, blue is recommended for bedrooms of children because it’s relaxing, while yellow makes you energetic. So, what is the best color for the workplace? That depends on the kind of work. For a quiet office, you would want something that isn’t too calming but gets productivity up. Interior designers would say that the colors and design of a room have everything to say about how we feel when we are in one. You might wonder if this really can be true, that something as simple as colors can affect the mind. Well, science knows.
There have been many tests on the colors in our environment and our brains. For example, most people would agree that dark gray and black get us down. So, this is not a good color for office painting! You could take any color and people would claim it has an effect one way or another. But there are some main factors that create nuances in every color. These are:
- dark
- light
- strong
- weak
- warm
- cold
A cold yellow feels very different to the eye than a warm yellow, like in a sunset. Klemens Knöferle is a professor of the Norwegian Business School and lets us know that it is our culture that shapes our reaction to all the colors in the spectrum and gives an example: a mix of color like green and yellow is disliked in the United Kingdom, but in some places in Africa, it is considered beautiful and decorative. So what works for us in our culture, and particularly in the office?
Choosing office painting is something that is best when not taken too lightly. You don’t want to do it often because it takes time, money and the office needs to move for a few days. The feelings you want to provoke in employees, visitors and yourself are positive ones. When you all come into the office in the morning, the atmosphere you meet is best if it is inviting and soothing. Through this, the employees can find peace of mind to focus and concentrate well on the work in front of them.
Colors can have the opposite effect too. Imagine walking into a room and your first thought being that the look of the office is depressing. The painting on the walls gives you a negative feeling through the atmosphere it creates. I am sure you can think of places that are not pleasant, and the reasons are because of how they look and nothing else. By hiring commercial painting contractors, you can get professional help in the choice of color. American Painting & Decorating in Philadelphia, PA, helps you in the process.
A good place to start is to get everyone out of the office for a second. Take a picture of the place. Show it to your employees. What does it look like when no-one is there? Is this what I want to show customers, clients, employees and myself? When looking at many choices, try to note your first, impulsive association. Ask your colleagues and employees what the first word that came to their mind was, and you have a great tool in choosing the office complex painting.
So, hopefully, you find a color everyone agrees on! The office should have the highest productivity possible and be a nice place to be. After all, your employees spend probably half of their day or more in this place, and you do too. After this is completed, you can move on the other spaces in your company’ workplace. You might wonder: do all these rooms have to match? No, they don’t. You can create different atmosphere through different colors. The rooms can be independent of each other. In fact, it’s preferable that they are. Wouldn’t it be nice to walk from the happy and fun break room, and suddenly find yourself in a whole other room that gives you a new feeling? Also, the other way around: going from your desk and computer and entering a funny and happy lunchroom. Change and variety throughout the day make the day shorter, gives you a boost of motivation, and this does wonders on productivity. The importance of employee’s well-being cannot be underestimated. People who love their job will do more to keep it and grow in it. So, let us walk through all the rooms in a typical office:
- Breakroom
- Conference rooms
- Bathrooms
- Kitchen
- Hallways
- Reception
- Entrance
For starters, the receptions. The first impression! This where people will look around the first time, they come in. The future employees, the partners, and the clients. People wait for a minute or two in the reception, so it’s a great opportunity to give people an idea of what your office does and why it’s great at it. Make sure people remember the place when they leave. A professional and practical look, obviously, but not boring. The same goes for the entrance. It’s best for making visitors feel welcome. Color and some decor, like flowers by the door, is a good way to stay far away from the industrial building look. No matter the sector your company is working in, a place where clients and other visitors come to talk to you should give the impression that you are welcoming them inside.
Now, moving on to the hallways: forgotten spaces. Don’t let the hallways be like in most offices: a place that doesn’t matter at all. Grey, a little worn, maybe even lacking in every kind of decoration and color. People should also feel good walking from one conference room to another! More importantly, clients and guests will walk here too. If the hallways aren’t up to the same standard as the rest, it looks unfinished and this impression can move on to the company itself. The bathrooms shouldn’t look like white stalls at a cheap diner. Bathrooms look best in a nuance of white, but perhaps not the fluorescent kind.
The conference rooms: softer and smoother colors than in the other rooms. The paint and design of the room should focus on not being distracting or attention-grabbing, as focusing and concentrating in a meeting where several people talk, requires more of the employees than working at their desks.
Break room: completely free from all the other spaces. It should keep the meaning in its name: a break. Hopefully, it takes everyone out of their working mindset, and they suddenly find themselves somewhere else. Again, variety and change throughout the day increase production. You don’t have to worry about focus and concentration in this room, so that opens up for a lot of freedom. What is the age group in your company? From there you can figure how to best design the place where you meet to eat and talk. Are they mostly male or female? All companies benefit from showing that they know what is trendy and keep up with the times. It is also a way of confirming that you are modern, and even if your actual business is not fashion, you are able to keep up with everything around you and doing so without making an effort. The same ideas apply for the kitchen.
It’s Time to Speak to an Office Painting Expert
Ask American Painting & Decorating in Philadelphia, PA, about colors, as we have more than 30 years of experience in helping offices reach their productivity potential.
