Colour scheme: can colour affect productivity in the workplace?

Colour scheme: can colour affect productivity in the workplace?

What does your workplace look like? If you’ve left it as a “blank canvas” of sorts, perhaps resplendent in white, grey and beige, consider changing that; these colours induce sad and depressive feelings, one University of Texas study mentioned by Entrepreneur has found.

You can’t afford to let those feelings creep in among your workforce; you need contented, productive employees. Could your office’s colour scheme help to make that possible? Here are some hues worth strongly considering, but be careful exactly where you layer them…

Put your productivity on red alert

According to research into colour psychology, red can be just the right colour for workplaces where employees are always on their feet. That’s because the sight of red demonstrably increases the heart rate and blood flow while also flaring emotion and passion.

It’s no mistake that red has been chosen for fire extinguishers and fire engines, as it’s a colour especially conducive to alarming people to the sight of something that, quite simply, must be seen.

It actually is easy being green

Ever noticed how soothed you feel after even just a few minutes spent in nature? Mother Nature is indeed kind to our mental health, and much the same could be said even just of the colour green, as it promotes calmness and efficiency without causing eye fatigue.

Blue is another common colour of nature, a point to which we will soon return – but green is the significantly better hue for spurring creative thinking, says Businessing.

We can’t guess why they call it the blues

Elton John might sound rather despondent when he sings “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues”, but we wouldn’t hazard a guess – because, as it turns out, blue actually has many productivity merits.

Added to your office’s colour palette, it can make your staff feel more orderly, confident, calm and formal, thereby helping to increase concentration.

However, with many firms worldwide using the colour, you might see the need to differentiate your own firm with luxury office design from Maris, one good example of a workplace design company.

Yellow, is it me you’re looking for?

If your business is in the creative sector, prioritise painting your company’s interior spaces in yellow – a warm, happy and fun colour. Hence, it could provide just the spark that your employees, whether artists, writers, designers or other creative professionals, need to produce innovative results.

Still, be wary of using yellow in a more varied environment, as psychotherapist Amy Morin warns in a Forbes piece that it is “the least likely favourite colour for most people”.

Should your workplace be in the pink?

If that workplace is a boardroom or lawyers’ office, perhaps it should be. One particular type of pink, Baker-Miller pink, is capable of calming people down for roughly 30 minutes, according to the environmental psychologist Sally Augustin.

People who stay calm for that long can often remain so afterwards, making this variety of pink well-suited to settings where conversations could get a little heated.

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