Wellness at Work: Relaxation Room Ideas to Increase Productivity

Whether you're the employer of hundreds of employees at a big office or you work from home, promoting wellness at work is important. Too much stress in the workplace is bad for you, your employees, and your business. One way to combat tension and fatigue at work is to create a wellness space where you or your employees can go to relax. Keep reading for some relaxation room ideas you can implement to encourage office wellness and boost productivity at your workplace.

What Is a Wellness Room?

A wellness room is a quiet, private space where employees can go to temporarily escape work-related stressors without leaving the workplace. Ideally, it is a room that is separated from the main work area, but it can also be a curtained-off alcove or corner. These spaces should be comfortable and free of work-related items.

While wellness spaces are beneficial to all employees, they are especially valuable to working mothers who may need to nurse while on the job. By law, any workplace that employs a breastfeeding staff member must provide a lactation room – a private space for nursing.

By accommodating your employees' or your own relaxation needs, you can promote productivity and improve the health and morale of everyone at work.

Relaxation Room Ideas

Comfort is key when creating a relaxation room, so keep that in mind when designing yours. Below are a few tips to help you create an office wellness room as well as a few lactation room ideas.

Comfy furniture is a must. Tired employees or employees who feel unwell will greatly appreciate comfortable furniture on which they can lie down and rest. Consider a futon or convertible sofa that can do double duty as a couch and a bed – it'll be just as functional for sitting as it will be for sleeping.

Keep the space free of work-related distractions. Employees will go to a relaxation room when they want to briefly escape from work, so the last thing they need is computers, printers, and other office machinery around to remind them they're at the office. Encourage them to escape through meditation by filling the space with floor mats, throw pillows, and poufs.

Decorate with serene accent pieces. An office wellness room is the perfect place to embrace Zen decor. You can decorate with live plants to improve the air quality, but artificial plants will have a similarly relaxing visual impact. Salt lamps provide beautiful ambient light while also purifying the air. If you work from home, candles are excellent for creating ambient light and soothing aromas. You can even use a small indoor fountain as a coffee-table centerpiece – there's nothing more tranquil than the sound of a bubbling creek.

Install dimmable lighting. Bright office lighting and screens can be harsh on employees' eyes. Give them a break by installing adjustable lighting that they can dim with ease.

Keep nursing mothers in mind. Breastfeeding at work without the proper accommodations can cause a new mother even more stress that she doesn't need. Make sure she is taken care of by ensuring that she has access to electrical outlets and comfortable seating. Keep a small refrigerator in the space for milk storage. If your relaxation room doesn't have a lock or if you think many employees will use it at once, consider putting up privacy dividers or curtains.

The physical toll of work isn’t the only health-related concern for workers. Mental health awareness has become a forefront figure in the ever-changing workplace culture. Increasing demands at work have exacerbated the rise in mental health-related problems among workers. Thus, mental health has become a relevant concern in maintaining a humane and healthy work environment for your employees.

One of the best and easiest ways (not to mention cheapest) to address this concern is to set aside a quiet space for employees to retreat to as needed. When their stress levels at work have peaked, a calm space can go a long way in providing them an avenue to decompress before going back to work. They could also take short naps there and wake up refreshed and full of new ideas, maybe a more effective solution to a problem.