7 Overhead Office Lighting Features to Look for to Enhance Productivity

From energy efficiency to aesthetics

Any lighting designer worth their salt will tell you that the key to great office lighting is using a mixture of sources. Task lighting such as desk lamps can help employees focus. Accent lighting under a painting can make the office feel dynamic. But ambient lighting—especially overhead office lighting—is the backbone of productivity.

Overhead lighting provides the most practical light. It also sets the baseline ambience for the space. The rest of your lighting will play off of the palette it creates, and can make employees more comfortable and productive at work when deployed with thought and care.

If you’re looking for office ceiling lighting that best supports your workers, these are the seven features to keep in mind.

Key features of overhead office lighting

1. Full-spectrum light

Not all light is created equal. In fact, the color (or temperature) of a light source can have a huge effect on how it makes you feel. Warmer lights, such as from candles, tend to help people relax and enter a creative headspace. Cooler lights, on the other hand, can improve focus.

Color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin. Warm lights sit at the low end of the spectrum, around 2,200K. Daylight clocks in between 5,000K and 6,500K. Using a mixture of color temperatures can help you get the most from your employees.

But color is just one piece of the puzzle. Most bulbs used in overhead office lighting only emit a small portion of the visible light spectrum. Sunlight, on the other hand, does it all. That’s part of why it helps improve employee mood and productivity.

Full-spectrum lights have been shown to produce similar results, including lowering levels of stress among workers. Consider using them wherever you might use cooler lights for a bump in employee satisfaction.

2. Adjustable color

One way to get the most out of your lighting is to keep it as flexible as possible. If you can program your lights to specific colors and temperatures, you can meet the needs of any work scenario.

Experts say that using different lighting temperatures at different times of day can help you feel better and work harder. Mimicking bright sunlight during the day can be helpful, but keeping lighting cool into the night can hurt your sleep.

As the sun sinks and its light starts to warm, color-changing lights can warm along with it. That can help employees relax at the end of the day, making them more comfortable and promoting the kind of healthy sleep they need to do their best work.

3. Sufficient brightness

It goes without saying that employees need to be able to see their work. But what’s less intuitive is that too much light can get in the way of that. Going too bright can make employees uncomfortable, while also producing screen glare (more on that later).

Brightness is typically measured in lumens. When you’re buying office lighting fixtures for ceiling space, keep in mind that the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) recommends 50-100 lumens per square foot.

But remember: your office overhead lighting is only part of the equation. Pushing for the upper end of the range can lead to over-lighting once you add task lighting and accent lighting to your space.

4. Glare reduction

Before the advent of backlit screens, glare made some devices impossible to use in direct light. Engineers have largely solved that problem, but glare itself remains a threat to employee productivity.

Not only does glare simply make it hard to see a computer screen, but it can also lead to injury. Approximately 67% of office workers worldwide experience symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS). That can include blurred or double vision, light sensitivity and even changes in color perception—not exactly conducive to work productivity.

If you can see your reflection in your monitor, you likely have a glare problem. To avoid it, look for low-glare bulbs or bulbs covered with glare filters. Also, be sure to keep any office pendant lighting from hanging low enough to appear within workers’ fields of view.

To further reduce glare, consider using monitor lights or other desk lighting.

5. Dimmability

Another way to reduce glare is to modulate the brightness of your lighting. Using lights that provide a gradient of brightness can let you dial in the precise amount of light you need at any point in the workday.

That can mean less artificial light when the sun is at its peak, and then more as it starts to sink. Alternatively, lowering the brightness of your overhead lights can allow task lighting to create powerful focus zones at employee desks. Dimmable lights can also be used during presentations to create a pleasantly dark (rather than pitch black) presenting environment.

6. Energy efficiency

Of course, energy efficiency is about much more than whether or not a light bulb can dim. And while it’s not strictly related to employee performance, it is tied to overall workplace efficiency.

LED bulbs are generally considered the most energy-efficient option on the market. These bulbs use at least 75% less energy than their incandescent counterparts and last up to 25 times longer. They’re also 44% more efficient than fluorescent tube lights. These benefits can add up to significant cost savings, both on electricity and bulb replacement.

You can push your energy efficiency even further with lights that integrate motion sensors. These can turn the lights on when rooms are in use, and then turn them off once everyone has left. That ensures no light is wasted.

7. Style

Whether it’s office track lighting or standard light panels, overhead lights play a huge part in how an office looks and feels. They can make the space feel edgy and innovative (think bright LED strips) or elegant and sophisticated (via a well-placed chandelier).

Making an office beautiful is its own reward, but it also leads to more satisfied employees who turn out better work results. When you invest in style, you’re also investing in substance.

When shopping for office overhead lighting, seek out options that balance both your practical illumination concerns and your aesthetic ones. 

Let Walmart Business be your light bulb moment

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¹ Excludes most Marketplace items, freight and certain location surcharges.

² Restrictions apply. Additional fee applies for Express delivery.

³ Exclusions apply. See full terms for details.

⁴ Savings based on 1 free $35+ delivery order vs. $9.95 fee and 1 free shipping order under $35 vs. $6.99 fee biweekly, plus 2% Walmart Business rewards on monthly order >$250 (average value of $400).