As the temperature is dropping and winter is in full swing, now is the perfect time to get your office space ready for winter.
Your employees dedicate lots of their time to being in the office, so it is important to create an environment which is warm, safe and productive.
In this blog, we share our top tips for preparing your office space for winter.
Why Do You Need to Prepare Your Office for Winter?
While you might think that turning on the heating is the only thing you need to do to prepare your office for winter, there are actually a few more things you can do to do to ensure your employees are kept as happy and comfortable as possible during the winter.
In addition to the frostier weather, the darker days of winter can also bring feelings of melancholy or symptoms of SAD (Seasonal Effective Disorder) into the office. This is a type of depression that tends to occur in the colder months, leading many to theorise that it’s caused by a lack of sunlight.
This is why it’s a good idea to make some changes to your office to try to create a work environment that is warm, fun, light and safe, which will help to minimise these symptoms.
How to Prepare Your Office for Winter
Now that we have covered the reasons for making some changes to your office, it’s time to put them into action! Here are our tips to transform your office and get it ready for winter.
Bring plenty of light and warmth into the office
The first step to creating a winter-ready work environment is to bring plenty of light and warmth into the office. This will help to eliminate symptoms of SAD while optimising work productivity and keeping your employees happy.
It is more important than ever to choose a heating solution that has minimal impacts on the environment, which is why we recommend installing one of our air-source heat pumps.
These help to reduce power consumption and keep a building operating in greener territory, which can make your heating system operate much more efficiently while contributing to a brighter, greener future.
In terms of lighting, try to make the most of a limited amount of daylight as this can offer limitless benefits for employees’ health and wellbeing. To maximise the amount of daylight you get in your office, make sure that the windows aren’t blocked by thick blinds and large objects, and use clever design hacks to trick the mind into thinking the room is more illuminated than it is. This includes adding mirrors (which reflect light around the room) and painting the walls a bright colour.
LED lights are a great choice for offices because they are both environmentally friendly, low energy and long-lasting.
You should also consider investing in SAD lamps which can be powered by LED lights. These lights produce a powerful white light that mimics the sunlight’s optimal colour temperature and helps to minimise symptoms of SAD.
Prevent slips, trips and falls
With icier weather and slippy surfaces, comes a higher risk of tripping and falling. Slips, trips and falls pose a considerable risk to your employees, as well as any visitors to your premises.
It is also the most common type of workplace injury, so it’s important to implement the necessary safety measures to prevent anyone from slipping on your property.
Removing snow and ice from external paths can help prevent falls, so consider reaching out to a professional team for assistance. This will help to ensure that the paths are completely free of snow and ice.
As well as making sure that external paths to your building are regularly cleared of ice snow and other debris, ensure you have suitable entrance mats and matting systems in place to dry your visitors’ shoes and remove debris from them. In particularly icy conditions, external paths leading up to the building’s entrance may also need to be gritted.
Provide hand sanitiser, disinfectants and PPE
Winter is home to many nasty, contagious colds and flu which you want to avoid bringing into your workplace. It only takes one person to bring in an unpleasant cold to leave a whole team in your company bedridden, especially if your office is open-plan.
This is why it’s important to provide the necessary office safety supplies including hand sanitiser, disinfectants, wipes, tissues and protective equipment. In addition to providing cleaning supplies on each workstation, remind employees to stay home when they are ill to prevent the spread of contagious diseases.
Encourage employees to wash their hands regularly by putting signs up in the kitchen and bathrooms and ensure that your surfaces and equipment are wiped down regularly.
Boost employee morale
One of the best ways to prepare your office for winter is by boosting employee morale. It’s natural for employees to feel a bit down as the weather turns gloomy and the days begin to get darker, so it is a good idea for you to come up with fun and different ideas to boost staff morale.
There are a number of ways you can do this.
- Staff Christmas party – What better way to boost employee morale than by announcing that you are hosting a staff Christmas party? It’s much easier to motivate staff through gloomy winter days if there is a fun, treat at the end of all of the hard work. You can either take employees out to a fancy restaurant or pub or even just host it in your office. Consider hosting a Christmas-themed quiz during the party to encourage staff to celebrate, mingle and let their hair down.
- Play Christmas music – Most companies have a radio or sound system in the office. Playing Christmas songs is a great way to lift employees’ spirits and get them excited for the season ahead.
- Rewards – Another great way to boost employee morale is by rewarding employees’ hard work. The award can be based on all sorts of things from the employee who is always on time to the employee that boosts everyone’s moods. Having an incentive will help to make employees more motivated.
- Social events – Similar to a Christmas party, hosting regular social events is a great way for employees to strengthen their bonds and get to know each other better. If employees know that they have a fun, social event at the end of a hard day’s work, they are more likely to want to push through.
- Host a secret Santa – Hosting a secret Santa is an undeniably fun way for employees to strengthen their relationships. Simply write or type out each employee’s name, print it out, cut it up and place it in a stocking and allow each employee to pick a name. The name they pick they must buy a present for under an allocated budget. This is a great way for employees to find out more about each other which in turn, can boost productivity in the workplace.
Decorate your office
Decorating your building with Christmas decorations is an undeniable way of preparing your office for winter. While you might not see it as a necessary step, decorating your office is a great way to boost morale and increase productivity.
Here are some tips for decorating your office for Christmas:
- Add a Christmas tree – No office is complete without a Christmas tree. You can find miniature Christmas trees that do not take up too much of your office space but still add that charming splash of festivity which your employees are guaranteed to love.
- Snow-capped office – For the more adventurous office owners, snow-capped decorations can instantly transform your business into a gorgeous winter wonderland. All you need is plenty of cotton wool to create a snow effect and stick snowflakes to desks or walls.
Mitchells: Heating engineer Gloucester
If you are looking for an environmentally friendly air-source heat pump and reliable heating services in Gloucester to keep your office warm this winter, then look no further than Mitchells.
At Mitchell’s, we offer a range of services including air conditioning repair, commercial fridge installation and air conditioning maintenance in Gloucester.
Leave the commercial building services to us so that you and your team can give your full attention to your own business operations. From construction projects to remodelling and routine maintenance – the experts at Mitchell’s are standing by to assist.
For additional information on the wide range of services we offer at Mitchell’s, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of our friendly and professional team here today for more information. We are always on hand to answer any questions or queries you may have.