Prioritise Your Employees This Winter With A Commercial Refurbishment Project

The heart of winter might not seem like the best time for a commercial refurbishment project. These coming weeks will bring with them cold weather, seasonal storms and less daylight hours to get essential building work done, but now that your employees are commuting in the dark and remaining productive despite the miserable weather, it’s time to make every minute that they spend at work more enjoyable. 

There are a few ways that you can prioritise your employees wellbeing through the winter months but the biggest and most impactful way is to adapt your workplace for winter. Improving your office with a human-centric design is a long-term investment in your team and will pay off massively in the winters to come, so read on for our insights into how you can design a welcoming workspace that your employees will want to be in throughout the cold, dark winter months.

Design Features to Look Out For 

First things first, let’s start off with the design elements that you do not want to include in your commercial refurbishment design.  

These are the features that will impact motivation, spike stress and consistently chip away at your employees' wellbeing across the working weeks. If these features are included in your new design or already present in your workplace then by the time you finally close for Christmas you’ll have a demotivated and unhappy workforce, so avoid this by addressing them today.  

• No Natural Light: If your workplace currently lets in very little natural light on even the brightest autumn day then it is time to change that for all the winters to come.  

• Harsh Lighting: Don’t overcompensate for the lack of natural sunlight with glaring overhead lights. They will only create an uncomfortable working environment and could cause eye strain or headaches.  

• Poor Insulation: This is a little harder to address and will require a commercial fit-out to deliver the best results, but if your workplace currently bleeds heat throughout the winter then it will need to be properly insulated.  

Addressing these issues in your refurbishment project will provide your employees with the workplace that they deserve, and now that you know what to avoid it’s time to take a look at what you should include.

How to Improve a Workplace for Winter 

The best workplace designs consider how they make the inhabitants feel, and throughout the entire year (although particularly during winter) you want your employees to feel comfortable, motivated, and cared for.  

To achieve this, these key design principles should inform every stage of your commercial refurbishment project: 

• Improved Lighting: Entering work whilst it is still dark in the mornings and commuting home once the sun has already set is a draining experience, which means it’s important to brighten up your workplace with lighting fixtures that support our natural circadian rhythms throughout the work day.  

  
  

  As we have already touched upon, this does not necessitate bright LEDs all over the ceiling. Walkways, entrances and communal areas will all need to remain well-lit for safety purposes, but each desk or cubicle can be improved with the inclusion of a mounted wall light that mimics the warmth of natural light.  

  
  

• Plenty of Greenery: Bring the outdoors inside this winter with plenty of greenery. Potted plants and fresh flowers are a great and cost-effective way to preserve your teams’ relationships to the outdoor world, but for a more impactful and immersive experience you should also be using natural materials across the space.  

  
  

  This includes woods, stones, natural fibres and plenty of sustainable and renewable materials. Incorporating these elements into your office design will have a calming effect all year round and will help to keep work-related stress to a minimum during the busy runup to Christmas.  

• Intentional Colour Schemes: No one wants to work inside a stark white or dull grey box all winter, especially now that the natural world is shedding its colours for another year. However, opting for bright colours on every wall can overwhelm and overstimulate.  

  
  

  The key is instead to go for a neutral colour scheme for the walls, ceilings and carpets, and to save the brand colours for the accents. This includes artwork, furniture, fixtures and even window film, all of which will celebrate the company’s visual identity year-round in a more subtle and corporate-friendly way.  

  
  

• Group Spaces: Finally, it is very important to check in with each other as much as possible during the winter months and this is much easier to do in a designated space that encourages everyone to share how they are feeling. A communal workspace is easily repurposed into a recreational zone for group catch-ups, and when it is not being used for this it is also a great place to hold weekly all-hands, brainstorm ideas, and let the creativity flow as a team.  

  
  

  If your workplace does not include these collaborative zones for shared working then now is the time to beat the winter demotivation with a commercial fit-out. An open workspace, full of flexible fixtures that facilitate different styles of working, will encourage interaction and connection across the team and also support employees to maintain their productivity and motivation through to the end of the year.  

Prioritise Your Employees With Our Commercial Refurbishment Services 

Don’t worry about our services disrupting your team in the run-up to the busy festive season. We are happy to design a project schedule that fits around your core operating hours, including evenings and weekends. After all, no one wants a wellbeing-focused workplace that comes at the cost of their focus and productivity during one of the busiest times of the year!  

Contact us today and let’s get right to the heart of how our services will give your employees the best winter working experience they could hope for.