SINGAPORE — To improve productivity in the office, place plants within view of employees, a recent study has found.

In the first field study of its kind, researchers found enriching a “lean” office with plants could increase productivity by 15 per cent — contrasting with the widely-accepted business philosophy that a lean office with clean desks is more productive.

The study involved academics from the University of Exeter, the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, and the University of Queensland, Australia.

The team examined the impact of “lean” and “green” offices on staff’s perceptions of air quality, concentration, and workplace satisfaction, and monitored productivity levels over subsequent months in two large commercial offices in the UK and The Netherlands.

The research showed plants in the office significantly increased workplace satisfaction, self-reported levels of concentration, and perceived air quality.

“Our research suggests that investing in landscaping the office with plants will pay off through an increase in office workers’ quality of life and productivity,” said Lead researcher Marlon Nieuwenhuis, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology. “Although previous laboratory research pointed in this direction, our research is, to our knowledge, the first to examine this in real offices, showing benefits over the long term.”

In the study, three experiments were conducted in commercial workplaces in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The first study found that participants — highly-paid consultants in a swanky London office — who had direct view of at least two plants said they were able to concentrate better and were shown to have increased productivity, compared to workers who could not see a plant.

The second study examined Netherlands-based health insurance advisers who were less senior than the first study’s participants. Employees who could see a plant also reported higher concentration levels and workplace satisfaction. The third leg of the study found that “green” workers took less time to complete a task — controlling for a rise in errors — compared to their “lean” colleagues, reported The Daily Telegraph.

Professor Alex Haslam, from The University of Queensland’s School of Psychology, who also co-authored the study said: “The ‘lean’ philosophy has been influential across a wide range of organisational domains. Our research questions this widespread conviction that less is more. Sometimes less is just less”.

Mr Kenneth Freeman, Head of Innovation at interior landscaping company Ambius, who were involved in the study, said: “We know from previous studies that plants can lower physiological stress, increase attention span and improve well-being. But this is the first long term experiment carried out in a real-life situation which shows that bringing plants into offices can improve well-being and make people feel happier at work. Businesses should rethink their lean processes, not only for the health of the employees, but for the financial health of the organisation.”