You might think that adding a few plants to your office would have no worthy effect on your office whatsoever, and that they are just another expense that could cause further distraction to your employees.

However, plants in the workplace have a bigger effect than you might think, a bit of foliage in the office can impact everything from productivity, employee health, stress, happiness and even the temperature of the office, the cumulative effect of all of the plants placed in an office can have a positive effect on costs too.

Introducing plants in general to the work environment is great but different plants carry their own benefits, so here a few tips on what plants to choose and how to change your office for the better.

Productivity

The presence of plants in the office helps to decrease the levels of carbon dioxide in the air, this reduction of CO2 in the office can increase the focus levels of employees. The effects of plants on productivity have been well researched over the years, and in one particular study carried out by researchers from Washington State University found that productivity increased by 12 percent when workers were in an office with plants.

Participants in the study had to complete a task on a computer in a room with plants while another group carried out the same task in a room without plants, those who were in the presence of plants reported that they felt about 10 percent more attentive to the task compared to those who were not.

Stress level reduction

As humans we are typically hard-wired to appreciate nature, even though we live in a technologically advanced age where there is a lot less nature and vegetation than there was 10,000 years ago, we still enjoy it and find green spaces calming and they make us feel more relaxed.

In a study carried out by the Nursery and Garden Industry Australia in 2010, they found significant reductions in stress including a 37 percent reduction in tension/anxiety and a 58 percent reduction in depression/dejection. Plants don’t just have psychological effects they do more than just make us feel less stressed, they have physiological effects too, our bodies are actually less stressed.

Helen Russell from Surrey University carried out a study to prove this physiological effect plants can have on our bodies, she found that plants can reduce our heart rate, blood pressure but mostly our skin conductivity, and in areas with lots of plants we can recover from stress a lot more quickly than where there is less or no plants.

Air quality improvement

Golden pothos are the perfect office plants for purifying the air, pothos can withstand low light environments which make them ideal for office desks or dingy cubicles that get little natural light or gets artificial light only.

As well as surviving in low light, pothos can live with little attention and maintenance too so they won’t even take up much of your time to care for them, they like slightly drier soil so you won’t have to remember to water them too often and if they’re in a good sized pot they won’t even need to be re-potted when they grow.

NASA names the golden pothos as one of the top plants for cleaning the air, in a study they carried out they found out that they can remove up to 73 percent of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and other pollutants when they were inside a sealed chamber for the study. If you want a bit of variety in your office plants, philodendrons and spider plants are also great plants for upping air quality.