Administrative Professionals Week is April 19-25
Administrative Professionals Week is April 19-25
Previously known as Professional Secretaries Week, Administrative Professionals Week is always the last full week of April, and Administrative Professionals Day is the Wednesday of that week. It’s a time set aside to recognize support staff for their accomplishments and contributions to business success.
Research from Texas A&M University reveals that flowers and plants will naturally lift an employee’s mood, create a lasting memory and boost productivity, according to a news release from the Society of American Florists and aboutflowers.com. The research demonstrates that flowers and plants also enhance peoples’ ability to generate ideas and solve problems.
“Our study shows that adding flowers and plants to a work environment can be very meaningful to businesses in the modern economy,” said Roger Ulrich, Ph.D., lead Texas A&M researcher, in the release. “People’s productivity, innovation and creative problem solving improved — which in certain circumstances could mean the difference between mild and great business success.”
The eight-month study at Texas A&M University explored the link between flowers and plants and workplace productivity.
Participants performed creative problem-solving tasks in a variety of common office environments or conditions. The conditions included a workplace with flowers and plants, a setting with sculpture and an environment with no decorative embellishments.
During the study, both women and men demonstrated more innovative thinking, generating more ideas and original solutions to problems in the office environment that included flowers and plants. In these surroundings, men who participated in the study generated 15 percent more ideas. And, while males generated a greater abundance of ideas, females generated more creative, flexible solutions to problems when flowers and plants were present.
A gift of flowers yields many dividends and Rebecca Cole, author of “Flower Power” and host of Discovery Channel’s “Surprise by Design” offered an additional perspective: “Giving flowers is a loud, proud, sophisticated way of saying ‘I appreciate all you do.’ They’re a great way to build a strong, lasting, professional relationship,” Cole said.