Have you ever considered how your senses impact your interaction with and mood surrounding the space you’re working in? Once you sit up and pay attention to how your senses are impacting you, you may soon realise that sight, sound, smell, touch and taste all have a part to play in your temperament and how you feel throughout the day.

But did you know it can be very powerful to harness all these senses in the right way, particularly in the workplace? Some believe putting a high priority on creating a sensory experience in the office plays a big part in what makes a thriving and successful business.

Creating a sensory experience is something anyone can do, and every office will easily be able to implement these simple ideas into their space to make their workplaces more pleasant and uplifting environments to work in.

Sight

A visually pleasing space is not only lovely to look at, but it can also impact your mood. The aesthetics, colours, layout and furniture pieces in your office should all come together to create a cohesive look. Not sure how to get the balance right? A professional fitout company can help you out with this.

Visuals with positive reinforcements that motive and inspire will always add value to your office environment. Future Fitouts have done this in a number of ways such as including inspiring words like ‘Bring your best self’ in the office, both when people first walk into the building and throughout the office itself in a subtle way.

But along with inspiring words that anyone can identify with, it’s important to also bring out the individual passions and motivations of each member of the team to show that they matter. Having a team motivation and goals wall in your office where staff can print out visual representations of what they hope to achieve can help inspire them every day.

Having lots of plants and greenery in the office also helps to bring the tranquillity of the outdoors, inside. It’s in our nature to be drawn towards the natural environment. It makes us feel more at ease, and there’s no doubt that’s a feeling you want to incorporate into your own office space.

Sound                        

The right types of sounds can help calm the mind and body and assist in pain management, for example a gong. The sound made from a gong has been shown to cut through mental chatter and can create a state of meditation and deep relaxation very quickly. A gong also doubles up as a tool that can be used to share in each other’s success by hitting the gong each time a new sale is made.

And while many workers tend to listen to music at work, it also pays to have the right kind of music playing in the workplace to instill the right kind of mood and atmosphere. Playing music with a frequency of 432Hz and 528Hz  resonate in cosmic harmony, and many believe they create healing vibrations for the mind, body and spirit.

Smell

While many people enjoy the sweet scents of essential oils at home, few of us reap the benefits of these sweet scents in the workplace. Diffusing oils in the office every day can help with concentration, memory, clarity and focus.

According to the American College of Healthcare Sciences, some of the best scents to incorporate into your office include:

• Rosemary – promotes productivity and concentration
• Bergamot – mood boosting
• Geranium – mood boosting
• Lemongrass – feeling awake, awareness and increased energy
• Clove – grounding ambience

Lemongrass is popular, but any one of these will do the trick in helping to create a more positive and productive environment.

Taste

There’s no doubt good food makes us all happy, which is why taste was a must have on this list. Staff always love to get incentives for a job well done or just as a thank you for the work they do, and one of the best, easiest and most appreciated incentives is food.

Everyone would agree that having special tasty treats in the office is always going to be a morale booster. But in saying this, you also need to be mindful of the treats you share with your staff.

Too many carb filled treats can leave your staff feeling lethargic and unmotivated after having a feed. Consider having a fruit box delivered to the office for natural, nutritious and energy boosting effects. A jar of small chocolates and candies won’t do any harm either, giving everyone a good little sugar hit to keep them spurring along throughout the day.

Touch

Touch is another area you can utilise in your office. Studies show that our sense of touch is linked to our feelings of comfort and warmth. Warm and soft textures such as a plush rug under your feet and a comfortable couch you can sink into can really help to mimic a homelier feel.

Humans are also dependent on meaningful human contact. Depending on the type of team environment you foster, you could incorporate a hug corner or a stretch zone – both of which can help you feel better during a long day at work.

You could also introduce back rollers into the office which can be used as self-massage tools while sitting at the office desk. The rollers help to relieve stress and tension in back muscles.

Implementing Your Sensory Experience

We all want to work in an environment that is comfortable and uplifting, so whether you try one or two of these or decide to incorporate them all into your workplace, it’s worth the effort to get the positive effects you’re after.