Offices have historically been thought of as places for clerical work and therefore the focus has been on the efficiency of the physical space. In other words, if what an employee is doing is mindlessly repetitive then physical comfort is important. However, if you pay people to create ground breaking insights, discoveries and inventions then surely there is an opportunity here? Surely employers should be spending a bit more time thinking about how people react to physical spaces and what makes people alert and mentally productive?

According to Jeffrey Pfeffer, a Professor of organisational behaviour at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, construction costs represent a mere 2% of costs for a building over a 30-year operating period. Operating expenses come to another 6% but a whopping 92% of costs over this period come from people. Surely some deeper thought, and a bit more expenditure, on getting peoples’ heads in the right mental spaces might pay dividends?