All work and all play will make your employees very dull individuals- and that’s a fact traditionally, workplaces used to be all work and no play. However, things are done differently in modern offices today with all the best and most successful of businesses opting to incorporate play areas in the office interiors.
This trend originated in Silicon Valley not so long ago when the decision was made to leave behind the rat race-inducing-white-washed office interior that we had come to accept for a fun, upbeat office space that invokes joy for anyone within. In the transformation, donuts and stale coffee were replaced with organic breakfast bars.
What was once empty sad lobbies with artificial plants was replaced with graffiti-covered walls with a series of video arcade cabinets. Not only was this what was needed to attract top-tier talent in a world where talent is getting harder and harder to find, but it also worked to boost employee happiness and productivity.
Including these mindless distractions, offering staff free meals, and availing an array of gadgets for all personality types and interests, as it turns out, can be incredibly effective at improving a company’s bottom line, as well as keeping employees engaged, motivated and loyal.
Whether you are launching a startup or running a huge corporation and are looking for ways to boost morale and productivity, here are the benefits of adding a playroom in the office:
Fun elements make work tolerable
Silicon Valley offices have made ping pong tables, Legos, beanbags, and such fun elements the norm. such companies sometimes require their workers to be away from their families for days at a time. However, these companies go out of their way to make the extra hours at work as endurable as possible.
Whether you want to admit or not, there are days your employees simply wish that they didn’t have to show up at work. On such days, you want to make sure that they find a good enough reason to keep. Even though they may not want to. If your employees continue to feel stuck in a rut, it will definitely impact their productivity and overall work performance, which is the last thing that you want to happen.
Happy employees are more productive
You may or may not know this, but businesses all over the world lose considerably because of absenteeism, which is a huge problem. We all know that unhappy employees are more likely to claim non-genuine absences simply because they do not want to show up at work. Adding fun elements that your employees can interact with can help you cut down absenteeism by half.
Happy employees that know that they’ll have fun at work are more likely to show up and show out. Happy employees are also less likely to suffer from stress and depression, which will go a long way towards bringing your health care costs down. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Fun can help improve communication and collaboration between team members
Adding fun components such as Foosball tables and such items can help you to create a fun and relaxing ambiance that encourages open and transparent discussions between employees. If your employees are friends with one another, instead of simply being colleagues, then they are more likely to work together and communicate with one another more effectively.
Creating environments that allow people to have fun together is also a great opportunity for your staff to learn each other’s likes, dislikes, and traits so that they can in turn cultivate unsaid but understood habits and rules that assure a mutual understanding between them. This will go a long way in helping them to create and respect boundaries, as well as acknowledge one another’s strengths and weaknesses.
Fun environments are creative environments
Social play is one of the best ways to ensure that your team remains creative throughout. Playrooms in the office can invoke relaxed moods, stimulate the imagination as well as help your staff members adapt and come up with creative problem-solving.
Creative and fun environments easily stand out; there is typically a buzz in the air, the staff is always happy and peppy, and there is always lots of chatter happening. Such a creative culture can only be created by injecting fun components in the office interior. And we all know that your employees’ most creative ideas aren’t going to magically come to them while they’re staring at a computer monitor bored out of their minds.
Fun is a morale booster
Perhaps the most obvious advantage of adding playrooms in the office is that they are a morale booster. The long term benefits of boosting your employees’ morale levels include reduced nonattendance, enhanced productivity, and reduced levels of stress. Whenever your staff is under stress, their middle and higher mental capacities are diminished greatly.
Mental functions like moral awareness, effective communication, as well as emotional balance are all necessary for an employee to perform at their best. Incorporating play areas in the office can help your employees to interact with one another a lot more easily. Some of the most creative ideas and insights usually come from casual conversations that take place near the water cooler and other fun areas within the workspace.
Fun is good for branding
The opportunity that having a playroom at work provides an organization is considerable. Sharing images of your fun and upbeat workspace can help you create a compelling brand story that ensures that you attract just the right type of talent needed to help your organization grow.
Plus, nothing can help you garner the attention that you need from social media quite like showing the human or fun side of your organization. It’s a sure way to boost your engagement online whether it’s with a potential client or passive talent.
Final Thoughts
Are your employees worn out and looking a bit downtrodden? Who said office spaces should just be boring? Successful and well-known companies all over Silicon Valley changed the game and the very idea of what a modern office should look like.
Such companies know the value of happy employees so they’ve worked hard to incorporate lots of fun elements designed to keep employees happy and engaged. There will always be challenges to deal with within the business and personal world that makes us unhappy, however, having a fun playroom at work can help your staff cope and recover faster so that they can concentrate on their important tasks.