Returning to Work: The Benefits of Indoor Plants for the Office

As health regulations lift in a post-pandemic workforce, many employees are headed back into the office. After spending time in a remote work environment, employers are in a position of needing to create an indoor space enticing and productive for employees returning to in-person work. As humans spend 90% of their time inside indoor environments, indoor plants and interior plant design can offer much more for the office besides being visually appealing. Let’s explore the benefits of indoor plants for the office environment, including attention, stress relief, productivity, and physical health.

How Does Interior Plant Design Improve the In-Office Experience for Employees?

Indoor plants increase health

Perhaps one of the biggest concerns for employees reentering the in-person workspace is the threat of illness in a post-pandemic era. It’s the responsibility of the employer to ensure that they are providing a safe and healthy environment for their team. Thankfully, the benefits of indoor plants include not only the mental but physical health of employees. Indoor plants offer direct improvements to employee health, such as:

• 40% fewer coughs
• 30% fewer headaches
• 30% fewer sore throats

Indoor plants are stress-relievers

Biophilic design taps into our human appreciation and connection to nature. Utilizing biophilic design with indoor plants in your office gives employees a sense of tranquility and psychological well-being. In fact, studies show that interior plant design lowers tension and anxiety levels by 37%.

Indoor plants reduce fatigue

A traditional 9 am to 5 pm office job inevitably can create fatigue, loss of attention, and burnout in employees after a certain period of time. When employees are burnt out, they are more likely to be absent from work. Using biophilic design techniques, such as indoor plant walls and interior gardens, has a direct impact on employee well-being, including:

• 38% less fatigue
• 20% less absenteeism
• 19% concentration improvement

Interior plant design also creates subtle stimuli in the office that help replenish depleting attention spans during the day.

Indoor plants boost creativity and productivity

For employees headed back into the office, it’s important for them to be able to sustain high levels of creativity and productivity throughout the day. Research has shown that employees working in environments with biophilic and natural elements experienced a 15% increase in creativity and up to a 20% increase in productivity.

Get Started With Biophilic Design For Your Office Project

Despite the scientifically proven productivity and happiness benefits of interior plant design for the workplace, 58% of employees have no access to indoor plants in their offices. At Raimondi Horticultural Group, Inc., we serve designers and architects with our extensive expertise in biophilic design and biomimicry to create cutting-edge interiorscapes. Ready to learn more about the benefits of indoor plants and biophilic design for your project? Get a quote today.