How to Design the Best Office Lighting for Productivity

May 2, 2024

Productivity isn’t just impacted by staff’s energy levels, motivation, or community at work. In fact, lighting can play a significant role in productivity.

Well-designed office lighting systems can actually increase productivity by up to 20%! Thoughtful design and lighting ergonomics can make a big difference.

Whether you’re a commercial property manager or a business owner, here are a few ways anyone can use optimal lighting design techniques to support productivity in commercial office spaces.

How Office Lighting Impacts Productivity

On an individual level, productivity is impacted by a wide range of factors, including such as taking well-calculated breaks, propertly prioritizing tasks, and regular exercise and a healthy diet.

But beyond individual motivations, improper lighting conditions can have adverse effects on your staff’s proper productivity levels. Poor lighting, such as glare or insufficient light, can contribute to health problems, decrease workers’ well-being, and lower their cognitive function. No building manager or office owner wants that.

That’s why it’s important to ensure your offices are well-lit and optimized for productivity. Here are five key design tips to start the process.

5 Essential Office Lighting Design Tips

1. Maximize Natural Light

First thing’s first: maximize your natural light. (This can reduce office workers’ eyestrain and headaches by 84%.)

Start by maximizing natural light from windows and skylights, or by incorporating light-coloured or reflective surfaces, such as white walls, glass partitions, and mirrored finishes.

You can also add light shelves, which are horizontal surfaces installed near windows that reflect daylight deeper into a building.

Ultimately, heavy curtains, blinds, and tall furniture can block light, so try to keep the areas surrounding windows clear.

2. Optimize Task Lighting

Next, focus on task lighting.

Consider installing desk lamps and task lights above work surfaces to minimize glare and shadows. That way, employees can adjust the brightness and colour temperature to their needs. In conference rooms, consider installing overhead pendant lights, adjustable task lighting to tables, and floor lamps for collaborative spaces.

3. Minimize Glare

Now it’s time to reduce excessive glare.

Glare from overhead lights and screens can cause headaches and eyestrain, impacting your workers health and well-being, which can impact morale and reduce overall productivity levels.

To avoid this, use indirect lighting fixtures, and position screens away from direct light sources. You can also use diffusers or shields on overhead fixtures to distribute light more evenly.

4. Opt for Adjustable Controls

Now, consider adjustable lighting controls.

These and other smart office lighting solutions allow employees to dim or brighten overhead lights, adjust colour temperature, or control task lighting as they see fit.

These options are especially valuable for hybrid or shared work spaces. Adjustable lighting can not only improve your workers’ sense of comfort, but can reduce unnecessary energy costs too.

Consider installing dimmers to adjust brightness levels throughout the day, as well as tunable white lighting systems to customize colour temperature and mimic natural daylight.

5. Prioritize Energy Efficiency with LEDs

Lastly, prioritize LED.

LEDs use significantly less electricity, need fewer replacements, lower utility bills, reduce maintenance costs over time, and offer many other benefits.

But not only is this beneficial from a cost-savings perspective, by upgrading to tunable white LEDs that adjust colour temperature, your office can mimic natural changes in daylight and promote alertness during midday hours.

Products We Recommend

One of our leading suppliers, Signify, offers exceptional lighting solutions for every office space. Here are a few of our favourites:

Signify SyncLine: A Sleek Design for Slim Budgets

Boost energy savings, enhance comfort levels, and reach sustainability targets with Signify’s SyncLine office lighting solutions.

Aimed at budget driven interiors within educational, healthcare and office spaces, the new SyncLine provides a clean, modern aesthetic.

Get in touch for details on how to access it.

Signify NatureConnect: Bring the Benefits of Natural Light Indoors

Combining LEDs with intuitive lighting control, the high-end NatureConnect line mimics the natural patterns of daylight.

You can set up intuitive controls that follow the rhythm of the sun, matching the outdoor environment to your indoor one. Whether your employees want to feel energized with morning daylight or relaxed as the sun “sets,” you can customize your light settings to support this—whether your space has windows or not.

Get in touch for informating on accessing NatureConnect for your spaces.

Signify BloomBox: Performance Without Compromise

Last but not least, Signify’s BloomBox uses LED technology and optics to bring low-glare, high-quality, and sustainable overhead lighting to office spaces.

Inspired by L-Prize-winning technology, BloomBox combines breakthrough high efficacy LED technology and optics with low glare to bring quality illumination to a variety of applications.

Its focus on environmental construction and LED lighting control keeps occupants comfortable and has the potential to unlock additional energy savings.

Get In Touch

Interested in optimizing your office’s lighting? Reach out to our skilled team! With decades of lighting and design experience, we can help determine exactly what you need to improve your workplace productivity.