The benefits of plants is one of our favourite topics and we were delighted to see even more evidence highlighting the fantastic benefits plants can have in fostering a more productive workforce.
In order to establish if including plants within working environments stimulates increased productivity, a research team led by scholars from Norway conducted two experiments.
The first study, published in 2011, randomly assigned participants to one of two working conditions: an office with four indoor plants, both flowering and foliage or the same setting but without plants. Attention capacity of participants were assessed three times during the experiment, immediately after entering the laboratory, after performing a demanding cognitive task and after a five-minute break. The results from the experiment were quite clear, participants working in an environment with plants improved their scores on the task the second time around. However, workers in the environment with no plants didn’t.
The second study, published more recently, reached similar conclusions. Once again, participants were placed in contrasting working environments. Participants completing the tests in the room with flowers and plants showed more improvement on the attention task than those sitting at an empty desk.
A collaborator on both studies, Ruth K. Raanaas of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, says “Office plants may be a simple, cost-effective way to keep workers satisfied and focused. Most people spend a large proportion of their life at work, so even small effects may have great practical significance when aggregated over employees and time of employment.”
To read more about the study, click here.