Smells affect the way that we feel and work. So, start baking cookies and percolating coffee in your serviced office or commercial property and watch performance improve.
Well, perhaps it’s not quite that simple. Experiments have shown that contact with pleasing fragrances considerably enhances performance on work-related tasks. Particularly, arousing fragrances such as peppermint, which increase alertness, have been found to perk up performance.
An experiment using the Remote Associations Test – in which subjects must see associations involving words that ordinarily do not seem to be related – showed that pleasing odours can improve performance on creative problem-solving tasks.
One Japanese company uses citrus scent to motivate its workers at the start of the day, floral scents to enhance their concentration in the late morning and early afternoon and woody scents such as cedar and cypress to alleviate tiredness at lunchtime and in the evening.
We may not be astounded to find that disagreeable odours negatively affect work performance. But, it is fascinating to note that some pleasing odours can significantly impair performance on tasks requiring concentration, even at levels below the detection threshold.
In one experiment, exposure to sub-threshold levels of Galaxolide – a musk-like odorant – doubled the average amount of time subjects took to find an object in a visual search task.
Unpleasant odours also have their use in the business world. In 1991, Bodywise researchers found that people who receive bills scented with androstenone, a pheromone produced by male sweat which is almost universally perceived as very unpleasant, were 17% more likely to pay up than those who received unscented bills.
The company is said to have patented its androstenone derived odorant, and put it on the market to debt-collection agencies at about, £3000 per gram.
Companies wishing to minimise the shock experienced by their customers on receipt of an unexpectedly large bill, however, might want to consider scenting their unwelcome communications with vanilla, which has been shown to reduce the startle-reflex and to relieve stress and anxiety.
So, if you need to increase the productivity in your serviced office, maybe you should think of using these techniques.
Previous Post
Asia-Pacific Investors Set To Become Top Investors In London’s Commercial Property Market
