According to a study from the University of Cambridge that surveyed 34,000 UK workers, long commutes impacted the overall health of productivity of respondents. In fact, workers with commute times less than 30 minutes gained seven days of productive work time annually. Additionally, those with longer commutes had higher rates of depression, obesity and financial stress.
So is there a solution to end this continuous problem that several workers have to endure every day? To start, employers should start offering flexible work schedules so they can manage work on their own time.
Instilling this sort of trust in employees can be nerve racking as it is hard to be sure that workers will be available when necessary. To combat this worry, companies should consider altering their physical workplaces in order to make them desirable and help employees make the most of out their work day.
Hyperconnectedness, design thinking and agile teams are becoming a prominent part of several companies across the board, and have led to the transformation of workplace design.
Now, several workplaces are adapting to a team-oriented environment. This means creating a space that supports sharing information, capturing solutions, focusing on work, connecting remote workers and supporting temporary teams.
Still, these concepts can be difficult to adopt in a traditional office, so workplaces should find ways to be able to reconfigure their space as needed, such as the inclusion of a multipurpose space in a high-traffic area of the office that allows workers to connect and collaborate.