Take a few minutes to think about your staff rest area. Is it large, small, welcoming or clinical? Would you be happy to spend fifteen minutes or an hour there?
Most people don’t consider work one of their favourite places to be, even if they enjoy their job. However, many still spend around forty hours a week at their workplace so it makes sense to make staff rooms as comfortable as you can.
Lunch-hours and breaks are designed to give staff a boost and revitalise them for the remainder of their shift. Making the area warm, friendly and welcoming is so easy and can be done without any large decorating or renovation works.
A comfortable seating area is THE most important element of a staff room. Forget a little table and chairs, treat them to a sofa with a coffee table for the ultimate relaxing experience. They can sprawl out, put their feet up or even have forty winks. They will thank you for it by feeling energised and hopefully, up productivity.
Photo Credit: Garry Knight
Depending on the shape of the room, corner sofas are perfect and give the impression of a modern, trendy environment while providing more seating than a traditional 2 or 3 seater sofa. Go for an easy to clean material as however careful people are, there are always going to be some ‘whoops!’ moments with many people using it and stay away from light colours for the same reason.
Nabru has a fantastic selection of great value sofas with the option to even design your own – get the input of all your staff!
When the sofa is sorted, introduce a couple of house plants and dot them around the staff room, plants are great ornaments, especially when they flower, just make sure you have a watering rota or you will be plantless very quickly! Several houseplants are actually proven to improve air quality so you are also making the environment healthier as well as more attractive. Go for something like a spider plant, or Gerber daisy which produces beautiful large orange flowers. Aloe vera plants are very easy to keep and produce the age old famous aloe vera juice which can help all sorts of things, especially paper cuts and other serious work related accidents.
Something important to think about is that a staff room should be homely and a great way to do this is by allowing staff to bring in family photos and display them in the staff room. Either displayed in frames on the wall, pinned to a notice board or propped up in an allocated space. This then allows everyone to get a glimpse into their colleagues lives and reminds staff of the important people in their lives. If someone doesn’t feel comfortable doing that, no problem, they can sit this one out.
If you are feeling brave and want to redecorate while you are at it, consider the colours you use. Although wallpaper is very popular at the moment to decorate feature walls with, it is also very impractical in a high traffic room where there will be food and drink. Splashes and sprays from drinks and spillages can easily find themselves on the wall, with paint you simply retouch, not so easy with wallpaper.
Choose neutral calming colours such as browns, creams and greys all work well. Stay away from white which can be slightly too stark, cold and clinical unless you have bold artwork to display. Mix it up by painting three walls one colour and highlight the other with a contrasting colour to stay on top of the trends.
All tips are relatively simple and cheap to achieve and will have your staff smiling from ear to ear!
