Impact of sustainable office buildings on occupant's comfort and productivity

The reverse buffering effect of workplace attachment style on the relationship between workplace bullying and work engagement

Using the Job Demands-Resources model, this study investigates workplace attachment styles as predictors of work engagement and moderators of the well-established disengaging effect of workplace bullying. As a personal resource, we hypothesized that secure workplace attachment would foster work engagement, whereas both types of insecure workplace attachment (i.e., avoidant and preoccupied) would do the opposite. Previous work also led us to expect the relationship between workplace bullying and engagement to be stronger when targets expect it to act as job resource (i.e., secure workplace attachment) and weaker when their working model is consistent with workplace aggression-i.e., reverse buffering effects. Using the PROCESS macro, we tested these hypotheses in a convenience sample of French office employees (N = 472) who completed an online survey. Secure workplace attachment was associated with higher work engagement while insecure workplace attachment and bullying perceptions related negatively with work engagement. Supporting our hypotheses, feeling exposed to workplace bullying was most associated with disengagement in employees with a secure workplace attachment style and less so in others. Far from recommending insecure bonds as protection, our results rather highlight the need to prevent all forms of workplace aggression, thereby allowing employees to rely on their work environment as a job resource.

A bibliometric analysis of the first 20 years of the Journal of Corporate Real Estate

Purpose

Journal of Corporate Real Estate (JCRE) is an international journal of repute. JCRE is an interdisciplinary journal focusing on corporate real estate management and caters to the needs of real estate owners and end-users. The journal's scope includes private and public sector corporate real estate owned and used by businesses to run their operations. This paper aims to analyze the journal's impact using bibliometric analysis from 1998 to 2017 on 380 publications.

Design/methodology/approach

The network analysis is performed using VOSviewer software and Biblioshiny R studio. The mapping presents citation structures, coauthorship patterns, bibliographic coupling and other network analyses.

Findings

The results show that the journal is growing in terms of citations and impact. The findings document various mapping criteria and their summaries. Seven major clusters are identified to delineate the underlying themes of publications in JCRE.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper offers the original and first bibliometric analysis of the journal’s impact over the first two decades. The findings are relevant for researchers and real estate stakeholders.

The PBC Model: Supporting Positive Behaviours in Smart Environments

Several behavioural problems exist in office environments, including resource use, sedentary behaviour, cognitive/multitasking, and social media. These behavioural problems have been solved through subjective or objective techniques. Within objective techniques, behavioural modelling in smart environments (SEs) can allow the adequate provision of services to users of SEs with inputs from user modelling. The effectiveness of current behavioural models relative to user-specific preferences is unclear. This study introduces a new approach to behavioural modelling in smart environments by illustrating how human behaviours can be effectively modelled from user models in SEs. To achieve this aim, a new behavioural model, the Positive Behaviour Change (PBC) Model, was developed and evaluated based on the guidelines from the Design Science Research Methodology. The PBC Model emphasises the importance of using user-specific information within the user model for behavioural modelling. The PBC model comprised the SE, the user model, the behaviour model, classification, and intervention components. The model was evaluated using a naturalistic-summative evaluation through experimentation using office workers. The study contributed to the knowledge base of behavioural modelling by providing a new dimension to behavioural modelling by incorporating the user model. The results from the experiment revealed that behavioural patterns could be extracted from user models, behaviours can be classified and quantified, and changes can be detected in behaviours, which will aid the proper identification of the intervention to provide for users with or without behavioural problems in smart environments.

Indoor Environmental Quality Assessment and Occupant Satisfaction: A Post-Occupancy Evaluation of a UAE University Office Building

As occupants spend almost 90% of their day indoors, especially in the workplaces, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) plays a primary role in health and wellbeing, productivity, and building energy consumption. Adopting the IEQ and Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE), data has been gathered from nine multilevel open offices within a university building located in Al Ain, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for three winter months. Physical parameters were monitored using data loggers to record the main IEQ factors. In parallel, POE questionnaires have been distributed to obtain occupants’ satisfaction with the IEQ and health-related symptoms experienced in the workspaces. The IEQ and POE data have shown slightly above or below the recommended ranges with the occupants similarly and slightly dissatisfied with the building. The thermal comfort revealed concerns with 99% of temperatures below international standards where 55% of the survey respondents reported “too cold”. The IAQ measurements showed 45% and 30% of the respondents reporting “stuffy air” and “headache” which indicated symptoms that could be tracked to other parameters or a combination of several, and the findings have been discussed in detail in this paper. This research contributed to identifying correlations between measured data and occupant satisfaction and identifying common IEQ defects and their sources to better communicate with facility managers and architects.

CREM perspective on home office—a consideration of the workplace and its mechanisms of action

The effect between the workplace and work success is a black box whose mechanisms have so far received little theoretical substantiation. In the explanation of the importance of corporate real estate and its management for the success of companies, the influence of real estate on the work productivity of employees through the physical workplace is shown. However, the overall picture has not yet been fully elaborated and the fragmentary knowledge is only partially suitable for attributing organizational outcomes to the characteristics of the physical working environment. Without sufficient empirical data and a solid theoretical foundation for physical working environment studies, it is not possible to draw conclusions with sufficient certainty about the impact of working environments on organizational outcomes.

The fact that millions of people worldwide are working from home for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic provides an unprecedented opportunity to explore the impact of the home office environment on business success.

This study aims to contribute to filling this research gap by further investigating the impact of the physical working environment at home on productivity by building on the Environmental Demands–Resources model. Therefore, the research goal is to determine which of the four included demands and resources (isolation, family–work interference, equipment/facilities, and building) have an impact on employee burnout and satisfaction, and how this impact affects employee productivity. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze a German survey sample (n = 429).

The results suggest that the four included workplace characteristics have significant influence, with equipment/facilities and building increasing satisfaction and isolation and family–work interference increasing burnout. Equipment/facilities is identified as the most important factor affecting productivity in the home office.

Through this study, a contribution is made to establish a more inclusive and integrative framework for physical working environment research. In addition, the results show that workspace characteristics have an impact on productivity. Far beyond the pandemic, the impact of changes in workspace design on employee perceptions and organizational performance will be important to corporate real estate management practice.

A Creative Concept to empower office workers addressing work-related health risks

Among office workers, the sedentary work-related health challenges are mainly associated with the fact that they often sit for up to 10 hr a working day. Members of the Research Group conducted a research program to assist the office workers of an international telecommunication company's affiliate in Budapest to enhance comfort levels in the office work environment. The data collection included a Comfort Survey to reveal employees' sense of comfort related to Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) components and the characteristics of employees' feelings and behavior during working hours. Moreover, a measurement of IEQ components was carried out and focused on air quality, lighting, sound exposure and thermal comfort parameters. Based on the survey's results, a Creative Concept was developed to empower office workers to address work-related health risks, notably sedentary work risks. The Creative Concept consists of five elements: a Comfort Map as an IEQ-related application to select a suitable workplace, redesigning concepts to increase the use of lounges, a newly developed work pad to improve personal hygiene in an office environment, recommendations for creating a health-enabling work environment and a workplace training program to raise health awareness. After validation, our Creative Concept can function as a multi-component workplace health promotion method to offer assistance for a wide variety of offices to create a health-enabling working environment.

Assessing Employee Engagement in a Post-COVID-19 Workplace Ecosystem

This article has aimed to better understand employee engagement in a post-COVID-19 workplace ecosystem. We identified a knowledge gap in the relationship between employee engagement and the physical workplace environment through an interdisciplinary literature review. We subsequently tested this gap by comparing employee engagement metrics proposed by leading academics in the field of organisational psychology with a sample of commonly used real estate industry approaches to monitoring workplace design/management. We focused specifically on industry-projected post-COVID-19 workplace ecosystem scenarios, and the results suggest that traditional employee engagement metrics and industry approaches to monitoring workplace design and management do not fully reflect the recent shift to hybrid work patterns. We shed light on the implications that this can have on our existing knowledge of “sustainable” property markets in a wider city context.

Evaluating the Connection between Thermal Comfort and Productivity in Buildings: A Systematic Literature Review

The thermal environment is one of the main factors that influence thermal comfort and, consequently, the productivity of occupants inside buildings. Throughout the years, research has described the connection between thermal comfort and productivity. Mathematical models have been established in the attempt to predict changes in productivity according to thermal variations in the environment. Some of these models have failed for a number of reasons, including the understanding of the effect that several environment variables have had on performance. From this context, a systematic literature review was carried out with the aim of verifying the connection between thermal comfort and productivity and the combinations of different thermal and personal factors that can have an effect on productivity. A hundred and twenty-eight articles were found which show a connection between productivity and some thermal comfort variables. By means of specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, 60 articles were selected for a final analysis. The main conclusions found in this study were: (i) the vast majority of research uses subjective measures and/or a combination of methods to evaluate productivity; (ii) performance/productivity can be attained within an ampler temperature range; (iii) few studies present ways of calculating productivity.

The Comfort Map—A Possible Tool for Increasing Personal Comfort in Office Workplaces

Previous studies have shown that indoor environmental quality (IEQ) parameters may have a considerable effect on office employees’ comfort, health and performance. Therefore, we initiated a research program to help occupants identify IEQ parameters they perceive as risk factors for their health in an office and enhance their comfort levels in an office environment. Since we assumed that office employees might have different indoor environmental quality expectations related to their work area and that these differences could be measured, our objective was to develop an office ‘comfort map’ based on occupants’ individual IEQ preferences. Thus, the goal of the comfort map would be to help tailor office spaces to their occupants’ health and comfort expectations. The comfort survey was developed to assess the comfort-related opinions of the occupants, based on IEQ parameters (visual comfort, acoustic comfort, air quality and thermal comfort) of a chosen open-plan office building. The survey also assessed the degree to which the given IEQ parameter was considered a health risk factor by occupants or caused a negative comfort sensation for them. The survey was filled in by 216 occupants. The answers were then analyzed with the help of a frequency table depicting relative frequency. The measurements of IEQ parameters took place in an open-plan office in the chosen office building (a Hungarian subsidiary’s office building belonging to an international company in Budapest). The occupants had different opinions regarding the perceived effects of the IEQ parameters on their health and comfort. Almost two-thirds of the respondents (64.8%) were dissatisfied with the adjustability of the noises and sounds IEQ parameter at their workstation. Furthermore, half of the respondents (50.1%) were dissatisfied with the adjustability of ventilation. Most of the occupants (45.8%) considered noises and sounds as the IEQ parameter that had a negative effect on their health. There were also IEQ differences between different areas of the office space. Based on these results, a comfort map was developed for the office. The comfort map contains information about the IEQ characteristics of each workstation by depicting the thermal comfort, carbon dioxide, visual comfort and acoustic comfort characteristics of a given workstation on a relative scale. Based on the thermal, air, acoustic, and lighting differences between the workstations, occupants can select their preferred workstations when a desk-sharing system works. Although still in its pilot phase, the comfort map could increase the chances for office employees to find the workstation best suited to their IEQ expectations. This could improve occupants’ overall comfort level, which could in turn enhance occupants’ productivity and mental as well as physical health.

Effects of relocation to activity-based workplaces on perceived productivity: Importance of change-oriented leadership

Activity-based workplaces (ABWs) are becoming popular in Western countries and were implemented at four office sites of a large Swedish government agency. A fifth office was used as a control group. The study aim was to examine the effects of relocation to ABW on perceived productivity among employees and to determine if perceived change-oriented leadership behavior prior to relocation moderates potential effects. Data were collected three months prior to relocation, and three and 12 months after. 407 respondents were included in linear mixed regression models. Perceived productivity decreased significantly after relocation compared to the control group and these effects persisted 12 months after the relocation. However, the decrease in perceived productivity was significantly smaller among employees perceiving high change-oriented leadership before relocation. Our results point out the importance of a change-oriented leadership behavior during the implementation to avoid productivity loss among employees when implementing ABWs.

Biometric Data as Real-Time Measure of Physiological Reactions to Environmental Stimuli in the Built Environment

The physiological and cognitive effects of environmental stimuli from the built environment on humans have been studied for more than a century, over short time frames in terms of comfort, and over long-time frames in terms of health and wellbeing. The strong interdependence of objective and subjective factors in these fields of study has traditionally involved the necessity to rely on a number of qualitative sources of information, as self-report variables, which however, raise criticisms concerning their reliability and precision. Recent advancements in sensing technology and data processing methodologies have strongly contributed towards a renewed interest in biometric data as a potential high-precision tool to study the physiological effects of selected stimuli on humans using more objective and real-time measures. Within this context, this review reports on a broader spectrum of available and advanced biosensing techniques used in the fields of building engineering, human physiology, neurology, and psychology. The interaction and interdependence between (i) indoor environmental parameters and (ii) biosignals identifying human physiological response to the environmental stressors are systematically explored. Online databases ScienceDirect, Scopus, MDPI and ResearchGate were scanned to gather all relevant publications in the last 20 years, identifying and listing tools and methods of biometric data collection, assessing the potentials and drawbacks of the most relevant techniques. The review aims to support the introduction of biomedical signals as a tool for understanding the physiological aspects of indoor comfort in the view of achieving an improved balance between human resilience and building resilience, addressing human indoor health as well as energetic and environmental building performance.

Coping strategies and perceived productivity in open-plan offices with noise problems

Purpose

To study effects of different sources of noise in office environments on perceived productivity, how different types of employees cope with different noise sources, and the perceived effect of different coping strategies on individual productivity.

Design/methodology/approach

Data on coping behavior and noise perception was collected through a survey among 150 employees of 3 organizations with an office in the Netherlands. These were analyzed with X2-tests and the lift-ratio.

Findings

When coping with noise, people are most inclined to either “Make even a greater effort” or “Discuss the noise problem with colleagues,” despite the expectation that this does not have a major positive effect on their productivity. Overall, approach coping strategies were chosen less often than the avoidance coping strategies. There are clear preferences for specific coping strategies when exposed to specific noise sources. Personal differences did not appear to relate to the perception of noise sources but did show differences in coping behavior as well.

Originality/value

This study adds insights about preferred coping strategies for specific noise sources, differences in these preferences related to specific personal characteristics, and how successful these strategies are perceived to be with regard to support of individual productivity.

An Innovative GIS-Based Territorial Information Tool for the Evaluation of Corporate Properties: An Application to the Italian Context

The financial transmission of the USA’s housing price bubble has highlighted the inadequacy of the valuation methods adopted by the credit institutions, due to their static nature and inability to understand complex socio-economic dynamics and their related effects on the real estate market. The present research deals with the current issue of using Automated Valuation Methods for expeditious assessments in order to monitor and forecast market evolutions in the short and medium term. The paper aims to propose an evaluative model for the corporate market segment, in order to support the investors’, the credit institutions’ and the public entities’ decision processes. The application of the proposed model to the corporate real estate segment market of the cities of Rome and Milan (Italy) outlines the potentialities of this approach in property big data management. The elaboration of input and output data in the GIS (Geographic Information System) environment allowed the development of an intuitive platform for the immediate representation of the results and their easy interpretation, even to non-expert users.

Recognizing and realizing the value of customer-focused property management

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the value that can be derived from embracing customer service and ensuring tenant satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

This literature review synthesizes the results of research conducted around the world to examine the value proposition of customer-focused property management. The literature was identified through a search of academic journal articles and industry publications, together with the authors' experience of working with industry practitioners. Drawing on these sources, the authors identify five emerging trends that are likely to make customer service an even more critical part of property managers' jobs and propose best practices to help property managers actualize the benefits.

Findings

Three themes emerge from the literature. First, property managers can add significant value to real estate portfolios by delivering high-quality customer service to tenants. Second, emerging trends in the real estate industry are creating new opportunities for property managers to participate in the value creation process. Third, there are a number of steps property managers can take to leverage customer service to benefit the real estate investors they represent.

Practical implications

Real estate investors, and the property managers working on their behalf, can realize the advantages of customer-focused property management by adopting a series of straightforward best practices, which are discussed in the paper.

Social implications

The trends identified and practical steps proposed are likely to be all the more relevant in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Originality/value

This research should increase awareness of customer-focused property management and the mechanisms through which it can affect real estate returns. The ten best practices proposed should help property managers deliver effective service to tenants and achieve the associated financial benefits for investors.

The work environment pilot: An experiment to determine the optimal office design for a technology company

Over the past few decades many corporate organisations have moved to open-plan office designs, mostly due to financial and logistical benefits. However, recent studies have found significant drawbacks to open plan offices and it is unclear how office designs can facilitate the best work output and company culture. Current design practice aims to optimise efficiency of space, but no previous research has tested the effect of office design experimentally in a working office. This paper describes an experiment comparing four different office designs (Open-plan, Zoned open-plan, Activity based, and Team offices) against a suite of wellbeing and productivity metrics in a real world technology company. Results suggest that two very different designs (Zoned open-plan and Team offices) perform well compared to Open-plan office designs. Zoned open-plan and Team office designs improved employee satisfaction, enjoyment, flow, and productivity, while Activity based and Open-plan designs performed poorly by comparison. The Open-plan office design was rated more poorly by employees, had higher levels of unsafe noise, and once employees no longer had to be in the Open-plan office design of the experiment, they spent more time at their desks.

Facility management services and employee well-being

Purpose

Although a large number of studies have examined the relationship between the physical work environment and employee performance, the relationship between employee well-being and facility management (FM) has received limited attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between FM services and employee well-being in terms of job satisfaction, satisfaction with the workplace, job affect and engagement within the context of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, distinguishing between soft FM services and hard FM services.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on the responses of 1,390 employees, who responded to all the relevant items used in this analysis. In addition to the linear estimations, the research uses an instrumental variable (IV) estimation, the Lewbel IV estimator (Lewbel, 2012), to establish a causal relationship between FM services and employee well-being.

Findings

The findings of this paper suggest that there is a positive relationship between the FM index and the four well-being proxies. In addition, the findings indicate that the effect of soft FM on employee well-being is generally weaker than the effect of hard FM, especially with regard to job affect and engagement.

Originality/value

The current research treats FM services as a resource instead of a cost and goes beyond the financial value of FM by providing a quantitative analysis on the added value of FM services in terms of employee well-being. Most importantly, this study incorporates FM services in the JD-R model and uses an alternative approach to linear regression and traditional IV regression to solve for endogeneity issues.

From Happiness Orientations to Work Performance: The Mediating Role of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Experiences

In organizations, psychologists have often tried to promote employees' well-being and performance, and this can be achieved through different pathways. The happy-productive worker thesis states that 'happy' workers perform better than 'unhappy' ones. However, most studies have focused on hedonic well-being at the expense of the person's eudaimonic experience. This study examines whether orientations to happiness (i.e., life of pleasure/meaning) are related to hedonic (i.e., perception of comfort) and eudaimonic (i.e., activity worthwhileness) experiences that, in turn, improve performance. We applied multilevel structural equation modeling to diary data (68 office workers; n = 471 timepoints). We obtained significant effects of: life of pleasure on self-rated performance through activity worthwhileness, life of meaning on performance (self-rated, rated by the supervisor) through activity worthwhileness, and life of meaning on performance rated by the supervisor through perception of comfort. Results show more significant paths from/or through eudaimonia to performance than from/or through hedonia. The results suggest that the pursuit and/or experience of eudaimonic happiness is more beneficial for work performance than the pursuit and/or experience of hedonic happiness. Theoretical and practical implications for organizations are discussed.

Open creative workspaces impacts for new product development team creativity and effectiveness

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to further explore the relationship between new product development project teams and their workspace regarding the impact of the physical (space variety, indoor environmental quality, large meeting room, workstation) and sociotechnical environments (project commitment, IT environment) on their creativity and effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors gathered data on an enterprise’s ten multidisciplinary teams operating in diverse workspaces by four means: over 40 interviews and four months of observation, secondary data and a survey with 645 responses.

Findings

For teams co-located on site and abroad, employees express that proximity in open space is paramount even considering the augmented density. The relationship between team effectiveness and team creativity is strong and bidirectional (correlationβ = 0.40****), but the patterns of relationship between these two variables and certain dimensions of the physical and sociotechnical environment are different. There is a positive and direct impact on team effectiveness, but to a lesser degree on creativity which, in turn, positively influences team effectiveness. Moreover, creativity intervenes (mediator variable) between project commitment, satisfaction with large meeting rooms and the IT environment on their relationship with team effectiveness. When the authors added a direct link between the variables and team effectiveness, the model explains 47.1 per cent of the variance.

Research limitations/implications

The scope of the data is somewhat limited by the time that the company and its teams could allocate to this paper.

Practical implications

The arrangement of space reinforces employees’ sense of belonging to their team as measured by project commitment which along with satisfaction with the large meeting rooms and IT environment influence both team effectiveness and creativity. Managers could consider these three elements as levers for action. Space variety (or balanced layout) is also a way to support team creativity.

Originality/value

Even if open spaces are frequently used, the literature on creative spaces is dedicated mainly to an individual. This paper delivers some results and evidence on the concrete and simultaneous impacts of the workspaces on creativity and effectiveness of multidisciplinary new product development (NPD) team.

Impact of employee satisfaction with facilities on self-assessed productivity support

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the relationship between satisfaction with buildings, facilities and services and perceived productivity support and to test whether the findings from a similar study of Batenburg and Van der Voordt (2008) are confirmed in a repeat study after 10 years with more recent data.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were traced from a database with data on user satisfaction and perceived productivity support. These data were collected through the work environment diagnostic tool WODI light. The data include responses from 25,947 respondents and 191 organisations that have been analysed by stepwise multiple-regression analyses.

Findings

In total 38% of the variation of office employees’ satisfaction with support of productivity can be explained by employee satisfaction with facilities, the organisation, current work processes and personal- and job-related characteristics. The most important predictor of self-assessed support of productivity is employee satisfaction with facilities. In particular, psychological aspects, i.e. opportunities to concentrate and to communicate, privacy, level of openness, and functionality, comfort and diversity of the workplaces are very important. The findings confirm that employee satisfaction with facilities correlates significantly with perceived productivity support. Other factors that are not included in the data set, such as intrinsic motivation, labour circumstances and human resource management may have an impact as well.

Originality/value

This research provides a clear insight in the relation between employee satisfaction with facilities and the perceived support of productivity, based on survey data collected over almost 10 years in 191 organisations.

Knowledge mapping of office workspace: a scientometric review of studies

Purpose

Office workspace is more than a place but one of the essential resources in business organizations. In recent years, research in office workspace management has become an increasingly important scholarly focus. However, there is a dearth of bibliometric studies to date on the subject. This study aims to explore a scientometric analysis of office workspace field.

Design/methodology/approach

The title/abstract/keyword search method was used to extract related papers from 1990 to 2018. A total of 1,670 papers published in Scopus were obtained and subjected to scientometric data analysis techniques via CiteSpace software.

Findings

The results revealed the active research institutions and countries, influential authors, important journals, representative references and research hotspots in this field.

Practical implications

While this study focused on office workspace management, the findings hold useful implications for the built environment in general and facility management in particular, being a sector that encompasses multiple disciplines involving building, office assets, people, processes and technology, which enable effective functioning of the built facilities.

Originality/value

This is probably the most comprehensive scientometric analysis of the office workspace field ever conducted. This study adds to the so far limited knowledge in the field and provides insights for future research.

User-focused office renovation: a review into user satisfaction and the potential for improvement

Purpose

This paper highlights the importance of user satisfaction in office renovation. A user-focussed renovation approach can enhance user satisfaction in offices and their functional quality while meeting energy performance goals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate users’ needs and the physical and psychological factors affecting user satisfaction, as input to office renovation projects.

Design/methodology/approach

The selected articles are collected from Scopus, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. Searching was limited to the main key terms of office, work environment, and user satisfaction and comfort. The important factors were searched through empirical-based international literature mainly. Based hereupon, a guide will be developed for the analysis and evaluation of user satisfaction in office renovations.

Findings

From a comprehensive overview, the findings present ten main factors to increase user satisfaction in office renovation. These are associated with physical and psychological satisfaction and comfort. In addition, the influential factors were categorised into three levels based on needs theories to organise the hierarchy of priorities.

Practical implications

This research adds to the body of knowledge about which factors are important for user satisfaction, based on what previous research has found in that field. This is important to improve the sustainability in use.

Originality/value

User satisfaction is often studied through separate aspects: health and indoor climate vs functionality and productivity. This paper examines overall user satisfaction of workplaces by integrating the perspectives of physical and psychological conditions, and by providing insight into the priority of satisfaction factors.

Healthy workplaces: what we know and what else we need to know

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the impact of buildings on the creation of healthy workplaces (HWs) and end users’ physical and mental health and well-being. The paper presents available research on the impact of workplace layout, interior design, indoor climate and “green” offices. It ends with reflections on the main lessons learned, gaps in our current knowledge and suggestions for further research.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature research has been conducted of all papers in four corporate real estate management and facilities management-oriented journals from 2008 to 2017 that discuss health and well-being and related topics such as satisfaction, productivity and creativity.

Findings

A conceptual model to analyse impact factors for HWs covers the influence of many different variables. Most papers only discuss a particular influencing factor, mainly plants and indoor climate. Various papers show that the spatial layout, in particular the level of openness and opportunities for communication, concentration and privacy and interior design have an important impact on user satisfaction, perceived productivity support and creativity. These factors may have a positive impact on HWs as well and can also be benefits of HWs.

Practical implications

The paper identifies, which factors are important to consider for creating HWs and potential benefits of HWs.

Originality/value

This paper discusses the role of CREM and FM in creating HWs and reflects on the available knowledge, current omissions and the need for transdisciplinary follow-up research.

Technical, Financial, and Social Barriers and Challenges in Deep Building Renovation: Integration of Lessons Learned from the H2020 Cluster Projects

With a low rate of new building construction and an insufficient rate of existing building renovation, there is the need to step up the pace of building renovation with ambitious performance targets to achieve European Union (EU) climate change policies for 2050. However, innovative technologies, including, but not limiting to, plug and play (PnP) prefabricated facades, information and communications technology (ICT)-support for building management systems (BMS), the integration of renewable energy systems (RES), building information model (BIM) and building performance simulation models (BPSM), advanced heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), advanced geomatics, 3D-printing, and smart connectors, cannot alone solve the problem of low renovation rates of existing buildings in Europe that is hindering reaching of EU-wide targets. A workshop was held at the Sustainable Place Conference 2018 to present, with an integrative approach, the experiences from four H2020 innovation actions, i.e., 4RinEU, P2ENDURE, Pro-GET-OnE, and MORE-CONNECT, which were united by their central aims of improving building energy performance through deep renovation practices. This article presents the outcomes of the joint workshop and interactive discussion, by focusing on technical, financial, and social added values, barriers and challenges, in the context of the building renovation processes tackled by the four projects. Conclusive remarks converge on the identification of open questions to address future innovation opportunities, as well as some recommendations to be used at a policy level and/or in future implementation projects.

Measurements of workplace productivity in the office context

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive survey of workplace productivity key performance indicators (KPIs) used in the office context. Academic literature from the past 10 years has been systematically reviewed and contextualized through a series of expert interviews.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors present a systematic review of the literature to identify KPIs and methods of workplace productivity measurement, complemented by insights semi-structured interviews to inform a framework for a benchmarking tool. In total, 513 papers published since 2007 were considered, of which 98 full-length papers were reviewed, and 20 were found to provide significant insight and are summarized herein.

Findings

Currently, no consensus exists on a single KPI suitable for measuring workplace productivity in an office environment, although qualitative questionnaires are more widely adopted than quantitative tools. The diversity of KPIs used in published studies indicates that a multidimensional approach would be the most appropriate for knowledge-worker productivity measurement. Expert interviews further highlighted a shift from infrequent, detailed evaluation to frequent, simplified reporting across human resource functions and this context is important for future tool development.

Originality/value

This paper provides a summary of significant work on workplace productivity measurement and KPI development over the past 10 years. This follows up on the comprehensive review by B. Haynes (2007a), providing an updated perspective on research in this field with additional insights from expert interviews.

The effectiveness of physical office environments for employee outcomes

Purpose

This study aims at understanding academic practice in the field of physical office environment research and providing recommendations for further enhancement of the field. It shows which effects of the physical office environment on employee outcomes are studied by which disciplines, and which methodologies are used by whom and on which variables. Existing gaps in research that are confirmed by these analyses are discussed and “assigned” to obvious, best suited combinations of future multi-disciplinary research projects to call for studies that would help practice in better decision-making.

Design/methodology/approach

After a systematic search and selection of studies, an exploratory analysis of 134 empirical studies from 50 different journals (and other sources) was performed. The selected studies were entered into a database with information on the empirical parameters of the study, the methodology and author information. From this database, cross-tables were built and tested with Canonical Correspondence analyses.

Findings

Results of the analyses showed that each discipline has its preferred topics and methods of research. In general, questionnaires are preferred over hard data from physical and physiological recordings. Still many important gaps exist in fully clarifying workplace effectiveness. This paper suggests which disciplines would be capable of taking up which challenges in future studies through interdisciplinary cooperation to further advance the field and corporate real estate management/FM in practice.

Originality/value

The Correspondence analyses not only confirmed important gaps for future research but also identified which disciplines would be best suited to take up these challenges.

Perception of hospital environment before and after relocation

Purpose

This study assessed employees’ perceptions of their hospital work environment, its quality and functionality, as well as their satisfaction and well-being both before and after relocation within the hospital campus.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was carried out in a Finnish University Hospital. Employees from the anesthesia, orthopedics and physiatrics department took part in the study. The data were collected from the employees with online questionnaires before and after the relocation. The statistical differences between the questionnaire variables were analyzed using the Chi-square test.

Findings

Remarkable improvements in the quality of the new workplace included ability to adjust temperature, ventilation and furniture, ability to see out of windows, accessibility, number of meeting rooms, places to discuss confidential matters, quality of interior design, improved work satisfaction and desire to implement Lean. Significant deteriorations after relocation included unsettled work environment, impaired quality of cooperation and decreased interaction between employees.

Originality/value

This study discovered several improvements in the new facilities that had a visible effect on the assessed employee satisfaction and well-being parameters. The paper contains new, significant information that is relevant to the hospital facilities management and provides insight about the pros and cons of relocation and wherein their focus should be placed.

Productivity drivers of knowledge workers in the central London office environment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the drivers that allow for enhanced personal productivity of knowledge-based workers in Central London focusing on the physical and social environment as well as worker’s individual preferences.

Design/methodology/approach

A closed-ended questionnaire was sent to employees of eight professional companies (Consultancy, Financial and Media Services) based in Central London. Of the 500 questionnaires sent, 213 were successfully completed and returned, representing a response rate of 42.6 per cent.

Findings

The findings from this trial study show that comfort, convenience, IT connectivity, good design and working to a specific time scale were strong drivers of personal productivity. Knowledge workers prefer a flexible range of office settings that enable both a stimulating open and connected work environment, knowledge sharing, collaboration, as well as quiet concentration locations, free of distractions and noise. It was also found that moves of knowledge workers into open-plan office space (and especially fee earners) is normally met with initial resistance. However, there is normally greater acceptance of open space after experiencing an actual move into open-plan, with benefits improving teamwork and communication being highlighted. The research also stresses that office design considerations need to be closer aligned with knowledge worker’s overall well-being and individual psychological needs.

Research limitations/implications

Limited to Central London offices and self-assessed evaluation of productivity drivers within the knowledge worker’s office environment.

Practical implications

Corporate real estate managers and office occupiers, designers and facilities managers can use the findings as part of their workplace strategy by providing a range of flexible workplaces that allow the knowledge worker a place for greater personal productivity through the provision of a well-designed collaborative office environment alongside private and quiet working spaces. Developers and landlords should also be aware of these requirements when taking their decisions.

Originality/value

This paper focuses specifically on the high-productivity knowledge-based work environment, demonstrating that there is a need to consider the collaborative physical and social environment and the individual preferences of knowledge workers to ensure enhanced personal productivity and well-being within the office. This can be achieved through the provision of a well-designed office space that allows for open, connected and comfortable work environments, as well as opportunities to use dedicated concentration spaces that are free of distraction. It was also shown that hot-desking was unanimously disliked by knowledge workers.

The impact of the ambient environment and building configuration on occupant productivity in open-plan commercial offices

Purpose

This paper sets out to understand the impact of the ambient environment on perceived comfort, health, wellbeing and by extension productivity in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

The research combined an occupant survey considering satisfaction with the ambient environment, health and wellbeing and workplace behaviour with the monitoring of ambient environmental conditions.

Findings

The paper demonstrates that the ambient environment can have a significant impact on occupant comfort, health and wellbeing, which in turn has implications for built asset performance. Within the ambient environmental factors considered, a hierarchy may exist with noise being of particular importance. Occupant behaviour within the workplace was also found to be influential.

Research limitations/implications

The research was limited to a single commercial office building, and a wider range of case studies would therefore be of benefit. The research was also limited to the summer months.

Practical implications

The findings show that an active approach to asset management is required, by continuously monitoring internal environment and engaging with occupants. This must carefully consider how ambient environmental factors and workplace behaviour impact upon occupants’ comfort, health and wellbeing to ensure the performance of the built asset is maximised.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates that both occupiers’ workplace behaviour and ambient environmental conditions can have an impact on occupant comfort, health, wellbeing and productivity. The paper strengthens the case for the active management of the workplace environment through environmental monitoring and behaviour change campaigns supported by corresponding changes to workplace culture.

Examining the perception of tenants in sustainable office buildings

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to address two major challenges faced by sustainable building owners: first, address the gap between an occupant’s expectations of sustainable building outcomes and what the building actually provides and second, overcome the lack of user knowledge about sustainability design and operation for a particular with regards to performance.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study used a focus group approach to investigate the gap between: user expectations and sustainable building performance. The study surveyed occupants of sustainable office buildings in Melbourne, Australia.

Findings

– There is no significant relationship between users’ expectations and users’ experience of sustainable building performance and users’ knowledge about sustainability and the building they were worked in.

Research limitations/implications

– The research was limited to sustainable office buildings. New office buildings seeking to incorporate sustainability which need to focus on the needs of tenants in order to maximise value.

Practical implications

– There is an urgent need to ensure sustainable office buildings meet the needs of present and future occupiers without compromising short and long-term occupier satisfaction levels with regards to sustainability and operation of the building.

Social implications

– Increasing the level of sustainability in office buildings has been a major trend over the past decade however the tenants need to be consulted in the post-occupancy phase.

Originality/value

– Little attention has been given in the property management literature to sustainable office buildings and value drivers. This is an original and innovative study, partly due to the recent developments in sustainable buildings.