Australian researchers have found that an office with plants can make staff happier and boost productivity by 15 percent.

Office plants significantly raise productivity

Australian researchers have found that an office with plants can make staff happier and boost productivity by 15 percent.

Image: Lexa_1112/Shutterstock

For the first time, scientists have assessed the long-term impacts of plants in an office environment. Led by Alex Haslam from the University of Queensland’s School of Psychology, the study investigated how the presence of plants in an office contributed to the satisfaction and quality of life of the staff who worked there. 

What they found was that plants helped the staff to be more physically, mentally and emotionally engaged in their work. “It appears that in part this is because a green office communicates to employees that their employer cares about them and their welfare,” Haslam said in a press release. “Employees from previously lean office environments experienced increased levels of happiness, resulting in a more effective workplace.”

As part of the study, the team looked at the impact of a ‘lean’ - in other words, not decorated - versus ‘green’ office space on staff in two large commercial offices in the UK and the Netherlands. The productivity levels of the staff were monitored over a two-month period, and they were surveyed about what they thought of the office's air quality, as well as their own concentration levels and workplace satisfaction.

“Employees were more satisfied with their workplace and reported increased concentration levels and better perceived air quality in an office with plants,” Haslam said. “The findings suggest that investing in landscaping an office will pay off through an increase in office workers’ quality of life and productivity.”

He also added that it challenges the notion that some people might have that a lean, undecorated office is a more productive one. “Modern offices and desks have been stripped back to create sparse spaces - our findings question this widespread theory that less is more – sometimes less is just less,” he said.