No matter your likes, dislikes, job roles, backgrounds, or any differences you may have, there is one thing that almost all people have in common- people love music!
When we discuss increasing wellbeing in the workplace we often lean towards introducing morale-boosting activities, extra benefits, flexible working, and actions and attitudes of the management - but could it be as simple as bringing music into the office.
Of course, there is a lot more to workplace wellbeing than just music, but studies show that music can improve our mood by releasing dopamine and stimulating the production of endorphins as well as reducing cortisol. These can help boost our mood, reduce anxiety, impact our perception of pain and lessen stress.
The science behind it
So many parts of our brain are active when we listen to or play music – our frontal lobe which is involved in thinking, planning and decision-making; the speech areas that help us express ourselves and communicate; our cerebellum that coordinates movement; our amygdala involved in emotional processing and our emotional responses and our hypothalamus.
Music encourages activity across the two hemispheres of our brains – the right and left – the left where words are interpreted and the right, where sound is processed. Special types of MRI brain scans have shown how these different parts of our brains “light up” with music. Having our brains that alive and active whilst listening to music can be found to help people feel more concentrated and in tune with the work they are doing.
So, get the radio out, or make it even better and get an office Alexa that allows you to pick what you want to listen to and when. This can give all employees an opportunity to pick their favourite genre, or artist to listen to. This allows employees to bond with each other over shared interests, and will automatically boost the serotonin of the people in the office - making for better wellbeing.
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