What effect does the air conditioning system have on the creativity of the employees?
Recent research has shown that air conditioning has a direct impact on creativity, concentration, information retrieval and memorization. According to a Harvard study, exposure to extreme heat causes physical disabilities (such as cardiovascular muscle), difficulty retrieving and remembering information, and even emotional problems (such as motivation and Negative feelings about activities and tasks.
Employees in a work environment also struggle with such issues and depend on environmental conditions such as temperature and air quality. Since the proper room temperature is between 22 and 25 degrees Celsius, it is also important to keep the temperature constant. Because temperature fluctuations affect both the health and efficiency of employees. When the indoor air is different from the desired temperature conditions, both the physical and mental efficiency of the employees of a building decreases. This will not be a new topic for those in their work environment who are busy concentrating in a crowded and overly hot environment, as they experience and understand this.
Decreased productivity and efficiency increase the imbalance and fatigue of the same people, prolong the necessary reaction time and reduce the amount of work done. In addition, an uncomfortable work environment can lead to conflicts between employees and disruption of working relationships. Thus, rising temperatures and humidity have a direct effect on the efficiency and productivity of employees at any level. If the work environment is too hot, employees become frustrated and their level of concentration drops dramatically! On the other hand, if the work environment is very cold, it also has a negative effect. For example, low workplace temperatures increase the risk of disease.
But why can air have such an effect on one’s abilities? For example, when the weather is not good enough to do something serious and it is too hot or too cold, the brain constantly reminds the body to do something about the condition. It will be harder to concentrate because of the disturbance caused by the brain itself.
Temperature and humidity control in the workplace is not easy, especially with technologies that are constantly generating heat. Today, if we simply open a window or install a fan of computer systems, we have not done enough to create the cool air needed for the workplace. This is when air conditioning systems come into play.
Proper use of air conditioning systems increases the efficiency and productivity of the work environment and, in addition, provides the environment for maximum focus and attention of employees. Numerous studies show that the salaries of the staff of an office building in developed countries are much higher than the costs incurred to maintain optimal conditions and healthy air in that building. This shows that providing favourable and fresh air and health with the right temperature leads to financial benefits.
What are the barriers to fostering creativity in the workplace?
In one of the researches on the effect of air conditioning on the efficiency and creativity of employees, 5 different types of productivity have been considered. In fact, in that research, productivity is defined in the form of five different tasks in the work environment: tasks related to typing, auditing and working with numbers, correction and editing, reaction speed, and finally, color reaction and focus.
In this way, we can guess the scope of action of unpleasant air and lack of air conditioning on the performance of employees. But in terms of creativity, we can consider the opposite path. In fact, by examining the barriers that bad weather creates to employees’ creativity, we can understand the effect of air conditioning on people’s creativity in the workplace.
mental exhaustion:
Mental fatigue is caused by a constant loss of energy over a period of time and can be both chronic and transient. Mental fatigue causes the mind to stop working and not be able to function as usual. In fact, to get rid of this tiredness, you need to re-energize your mind. One of these fuels is respiration. Breathing in harmony with light exercise can provide better oxygen to the blood. In fact, coordinating inhaling and exhaling with a variety of sports movements is the key to this feeling. Mental fatigue is one of the events that prevent communication with different parts of the mind. For example, it must have happened to you that you are doing something, but a very important point comes to your mind about the problem or work that you were previously thinking about. If tired, the mind can not relate the two, or process the point later.
Failure to meet basic needs:
Imagine a thinking room where people come up with ideas, and to see them flush it out, it’s really fun. Someone with a personal mental concern or environmental conditions is likely to be silent and unable to concentrate. The same thing happens to everyone in the group, and everyone will be quiet if they do not get fresh air and oxygen or are constantly thinking about cooling or warming their necks.
Being in a dry, unattractive and non-fun environment that does not welcome new ideas
If you’ve heard of successful startup work environments, you’ve probably heard of a game section or a designed wall, or the use of non-office colors. In this environment, people work with a more open mind and have more intact ideas than those who face a classic and serious regulation in a dry work environment. Just as decor and space design is important, so is environmental health. Air conditioning is also important for such spaces where people are supposed to stay for a long time and come up with ideas. In fact, the same decor and design can be more due to the creativity of employees and its absence will weaken their creativity.
Also, one of the ways to cultivate creativity is to go to new sports and try new games. You probably do not want to imagine a gym or the best equipment or a gym with the most active equipment without air conditioning!
How can air conditioning affect creativity?
Manipulating the air outside is not out of our reach, but there is a simple solution to changing the air inside the room: air conditioning. Humidity, temperature and indoor air quality or IAQ, which stands for indoor air quality, are items that are addressed in the air conditioning system. Installing an air conditioning system can ensure that people perform more mental activities and are more productive. The same thing leads people to have less mental conflict, their minds are more open, they think deeper about the issues ahead and with different and more open points of view, and they expose their creativity to more growth. As the installation of this system in all developed countries is one of the educational priorities of schools. Especially when summer comes, employees in a work environment are more likely to be lethargic and underemployed. Increasing the temperature and humidity of the work environment affects the creativity of people in the environment. Although there are many ways to increase the productivity of the staff of a complex, creating cool and comfortable weather is an investment that you will not regret!
Installing a quality air conditioner can be a great starting point. But know that identifying and choosing the best time to replace and upgrade such a system is not always easy. The age of the system and the amount of its operation, energy cost and the number of repairs are the criteria involved in this issue.