Employee health and office buildings go hand-in-hand

“Healthy buildings do not exist.” Wim Pullen, director of the Center for People and Buildings, believes that there is still far too little evidence to justify claims about healthy offices. Together with TU Delft, he is investigating how buildings influence our job satisfaction, vitality and productivity.

He does say that buildings do affect people's health. "Task disruption, noise, temperature and light are major disruptors in creating a good and productive working environment, with sound being the clear number one. In an open plan office, there is an average of one disruption per minute; think of someone walking by, making a phone call or dropping something. That is disastrous for most people's concentration. Stress levels increase, people perform worse and some even drop out because of it."

Create a healthy working environment
To promote job satisfaction, it is important to work on a good working environment. “Learn, experiment and talk to each other.” Pullen then outlines examples of positive influencers regarding employee satisfaction, health and productivity: “create sufficient privacy and meeting places, set up sit-stand desks and ensure that people take the stairs for the necessary physical exercise. In addition, do not place more than eight people in one room, to reduce distractions. Soundproof ceilings and measures to increase speech intelligibility in the workspaces contribute further to this. Sufficient daylight and an adjustable temperature also help to improve the working environment.”

Technology as a tool
According to Pullen, the role of technology in improving health is limited. “Health consists of three aspects; physical, psychological and social. About 80 percent of 'office ailments' are socially related. Think of a burnout. Technology cannot solve this, but it can make a contribution. By using nudging - a method to encourage certain behavior with a little push - you can make a big difference with small adjustments. Take the piano stairs for example, where you hear a sound with every step. People are more likely to take the stairs. Fun plays an important role in this. But walking meetings (“weetings”), where a walking route is linked to your agenda, are also used more often and encouraged by management. Weeting helps to get more out of a meeting, stimulates creativity and employees become healthier.”

Organizations are increasingly taking up these kinds of initiatives, but according to Pullen there is still a world to be won. He will talk about this in his lecture 'Are 'healthy' buildings necessary for health?' during Smart Homes & Intelligent Buildings. “Technology still offers so many opportunities and can provide solutions at a micro level. As a company, enter into discussions with students and designers and make the office a place where people become healthy.”

Pullen speaks on November 22 in the Jaarbeurs Utrecht during the lecture program of Bits, Bricks & Behaviour.

Source: Sh-ib.nl