Consider your company's needs

Being close to natural sunlight can make or break an employee’s experience. 

Productivity gains (and losses) are connected to employees’ environmental conditions, so companies that create ideal office environments with abundant natural light and unobstructed outdoors views will reap the dividends.

Creating motivation and making your team feel appreciated is a critical part of long-term productivity.

Encourage your team to keep gratitude journals - writing down a couple of sentences about what you are currently grateful for a couple of times a week. This practice improves productivity by increasing happiness.

If people can't focus on their work, they are less effective in areas like collaboration and learning, and they are less likely to be satisfied with their jobs.

Workplaces with a balance between individual focus and collaboration are more innovative, creative and encouraging.

For clarity, stability and better mental health, meditation (or mindfulness) is a universally recognized training activity.

Breaks and time-outs lead to better productivity, as they allow the mind to form connections and help in creativity and even relationships.

• The best kind of light you can have in your office is natural light. It helps our bodies maintain our internal "clocks" or circadian rhythms which affects our sleep and energy. 
• Poor lighting, whether it's dim lighting or harsh lighting from overhead fluorescent lights, can cause eye strain, stress, and fatigue.
• Don't sit with your back to a window unless you can shade it.
• Don't sit facing a window because that will make reading a monitor difficult. 
• If you use a task lamp at your desk, position it so the bottom of the lampshade is at about the height of your chin when it's on.

• Indoor plants prevent fatigue during attention-demanding work. 
• Even just having a window view of live greenery can be restorative and keep us focused.
• A peace lily plant requires little sunlight to survive and you only have to water it when the soil is dried out and is also great for cleaning the air.
• Cacti and aloe plants are other low-maintenance plants to consider.

Just after WW2, there was a rise in corporate headquarters and larger office spaces and cubicles. During this time, the 8-hour workday was established.

Then came the advancements in computers and technology that lead to remote workers of today. The internet and public WiFi allowed employees to do everything they would in their cubicle, but outside the office. They can also work all hours of the day.

4.3 million people currently work from home in the United States at least half of the time, and this figure has grown by 150% in the last 13 years.  

Remote workers tend to have higher engagement rates and higher productivity levels. Once they switch to remote work, they rarely want to become office bound again.

Before the pandemic, only 4 percent of the US workforce worked from home at least half the time. However, the trend of working from home had been gaining momentum for years.

It is estimated that within a couple of years, 30% of people will work from home multiple days per week.

• Before the pandemic, a lot of company management and leaders were skeptical regarding remote work. But the skepticism will go away because companies recognize that remote work does work.
• The economic impact of the pandemic will likely force employers to cut costs. They may reduce their rent by letting workers work from home instead of layoffs.
• Employers had to spend money on new technology and equipment to work from home - a departure from the norm.
• Employees themselves are also spending more money to create better home offices.
  

Some individuals like a certain office ambient noise, even music, as it makes them concentrate more, or provides a distraction, which is also needed.

Others have an extreme aversion, a sort of panic attack to distracting sounds, which is called Misophonia.

Extroverts seek and find noisy environments comfortable, while introverts are the opposite, and run away to solitary comfort after interacting with people.

Intentionally design for the same interactions that would otherwise happen if people were in the office.

• Culture is what naturally happens when a group of people gets together for any period.
• A great culture happens with intentional design and influence. It's the reason you should make your company's mission, vision, values, operating principles, standards, and agreements visible. 
• Culture is experienced through emotions, including how your employees feel about the company, you, other leaders, and peers. That feeling is developed through human interaction at the water cooler, kitchen, or hallway conversations.

Your people need to feel your presence as a leader as they will have fewer opportunities to see you face to face when they work remotely.

• Regularly show up in a variety of forms that can include weekly video meetings, periodic company-wide emails, or presence in public channels.
• Err on the side of more communication rather than less.

• Develop an equal opportunity policy.

• Be transparent about hiring criteria.

• Improve retention of minority workers.

• Analyze problems and adapt. Train managers to spot their biases and avoid communicating in ways that unconsciously deter minority candidates.

• Implement workplace flexibility.