How often do you think about the air you breathe? More specifically, how often do you think about how the air that you breathe could be affecting the health of you and your employees?

It is probably not the top item on most manager and business owners minds, but the quality of the air we breathe has a big impact on employee productivity and wellness.

Many studies indicate that ventilation is critical to employee health. Good ventilation has been shown to reduce sick building symptoms (Headaches, Sore throats etc.), cut absenteeism and even reduce infectious disease transmission.

New research from the Harvard Business Review has now shown that it has a big impact on our cognitive abilities.

Harvard researcher Joesph Allen, along with a team of researchers set out to find out what impact, if any, does building ventilation have on our ability to think and reason.

They found that breathing quality air leads to significantly better decision making, and higher test scores across nine out of ten cognitive function domains. The biggest areas of improvement were shown in strategic decision making and managing a crisis.

It is clearly worth thinking about the quality of the air we breathe when optimising spaces for wellness. Read the full article here.