PORTLAND, Maine — About a year ago, the insurance and benefits giant invested 42 million dollars into improving it's work space to make it's workers happier.. Things like a fitness center which you get to use for free as long as you go 8 times a month, a cafeteria where the healthy food costs far less than the 'regular' food... hydration stations, quiet rooms, no trash cans at your desk so you're forced to get up and walk around regularly, every employee has an electronic work station so they can sit or stand, a place to play games, and so much more...
Laurie Mitchell, the Global A.V.P. of Well-being and Health Management says, "When you think about people spending about 60 percent of their waking hours in the workplace, employers have a unique opportunity to influence health behaviors. Just to take your mind off the project you've been working on and go play shuffleboard or go work out or go to the quite room and relax, can have tremendous effects on peoples emotional health"
With about 3000 people employed in the Southern Maine Campus, the cubicle way of life restricted collaborative work efforts. This new open work space concept does exactly the opposite.
So while the bells and whistles are nice, there are clear and tangible benefits to having happy employees. Shelby Kaplan has worked for UNUM for 8 years.
"I am so much happier and brighter and more pleasant and sun-shiny in this new environment. There are times when I have been working on a project and I have hit a mental roadblock or have had a stressful environment, and I can come down here and go for a 20 minute walk, and I can take a break and get a fresh perspective, and not be confined by a cubicle, I go back to a wide open space and bright light and be more collaborative"