How Poor Lighting Affects Productivity

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Does your office have poor lighting? Bad lighting could be having a negative impact on the physical and mental health of you and your employees. This in turn could be harming the productivity of your business. Here are just a few tips for getting the lighting right in your workplace.

Get more natural light

Many modern offices are built to maximize natural light. This is because exposure to sunlight helps our bodies to produce vitamin D – which boosts our skin health, bone health, energy levels, immune system health and mental wellbeing. 

Being cooped inside a building with no natural light could be causing you and your workers to get demotivated and ill. This is most likely to be a problem in an older office building – many older offices were not constructed with natural light in mind. You may be able to let more light through windows by removing obstacles such as trees outside or cabinets in front of windows. Alternatively, if you own the property, you may be able to add in windows. 

Going outside on your lunch break could be another way to get your fix of vitamin D. You could also encourage employees to do the same. 

Opt for soft artificial light

While natural light is the healthiest and cheapest form of light, you’ll still need to rely on artificial light now and again. When installing artificial lighting, it’s important to consider the intensity and the placement. Don’t rely solely on strong overhead lighting – consider also offering desk lamps and ambient lighting to reduce glare. Lighting should be cool to help promote concentration (warmer lighting is more relaxing, but could make you and your employees feel sleepier).

A commercial electrician will be able to install any new lighting and may be able to recommend changes that are necessary within your office. In some cases, updating your artificial lighting could save you money as well as making your team more productive – if you currently use old incandescent lighting, it could be worth switching to LED lights to save energy

Reduce blue light

Blue light comes from screens such as computers and smartphones. Studies have found that staring at a computer all day can cause blurry vision, headaches, dry eye, macular degeneration, sleep issues and even cataracts.

There are many ways to protect you and your employees’ eyes from blue light. It’s possible to use software that changes the tone of your computer lighting depending on the time of day – this can reduce issues caused by blue light when staring at a screen in the evening or morning when it is still dark. You can also buy glasses that reduce damage by filtering out blue light. 

Encouraging employees to get away from their computer screens during their lunch break could also have a positive impact. Breaks could be particularly necessary when it comes to work that requires intense concentration on a screen such as writing and graphic design.