Welcome to Business Briefs! The world of academic publications features fascinating findings from real-world experiments in business and the marketplace. Here are some key takeaways and applicable nuggets of knowledge that may be helpful for your business.
Workplace Mental Health
The people with whom we work can have a profound impact on our mental health. But the environment itself – the physical space – that can have an impact as well. Even if we’re remote, the physical conditions in which we work can affect how we feel and perform. Researchers recently collected 196 studies about the effects of physical workplace environment
Their conclusions include:
- Workplace exposure to daylight or light increases productivity and mood, and reduces fatigue.
- Cooler colors (think blue) improve productivity, concentration, mood, well-being and reduce fatigue, depression and stress.
- Plantlife in the visual field (in office or outside the window) increases productivity, concentration and well-being. It can also reduce stress and depression – BUT too many plants are perceived as chaotic and uncomfortable.
- Suboptimal air ventilation reduces productivity and concentration, and increases stress and fatigue.
- Increased background noise and reduced acoustic privacy reduces productivity, concentration and well-being, and increases stress and fatigue.
- Private offices stimulate productivity and concentration and reduce stress, while open-plan offices reduce productivity and concentration and increase stress – BUT allowing employees to switch desks for different tasks increases productivity and well-being.
Upshot: Paint your office blue, ventilate well, have lots of light and a good door to keep out noise. Get a plant. Figure out how to switch desks for different tasks while maintaining private offices.
The Physical Office Workplace as a Resource for Mental Health – A Systematic Scoping Review – Lisanne Bergefurt, Minou Weijs-Perrée, Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek & Theo Arentze, Building and Environment
LinkedIn Errors
Based on earlier research that 95% of job recruiters leverage LinkedIn as a tool for collecting and previewing candidates for a position, a research team assessed the quality of 340 publicly posted LinkedIn profiles.
The profiles represented students from 89 colleges, and while the selection criteria was limited to college students, the findings are informative for users across the board.
The researchers determined that “key sections” for recruiting were often left blank; in 75% of the studied profiles, the experience section was poorly described. Further, the profiles of the unemployed and job-seeking were “significantly worse” than profiles of the happily employed.
LinkedIn Blunders: A Mixed Method Study of College Students’ Profiles – Ruby A. Daniels, Sara D. Pemble, Danielle Allen, Gretchen Lain & Leslie A. Miller, Community College Journal of Research and Practice
How to TikTok
While businesses are still trying to figure out good TikTok Marketing strategies, a researcher has been studying user engagement with advertising. Subjects were presented with 15 TikTok videos. Clips with higher engagement scores were lauded for:
- Good use of memes
- Humor
- Editing
Clips with lower engagement scores were criticized for
- Poor editing (including sound issues)
- Failure to understand memes
- Too long
Based on subject engagement, the best clips ran for nine to 15 seconds.
Creating Engaging Marketing in TikTok for Football Teams– Aarni Reunanen, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences