Development and field testing of a multi-dimensional tool for benchmarking knowledge worker productivity

ABSTRACT The impact of indoor environmental quality on human health and well-being has been widely documented, as has its impact on worker productivity in settings such as education, healthcare, and manufacturing. In the knowledge worker context, however, there is limited consensus on agreed metrics for productivity measurement, leading to a paucity of research regarding the impact of specific real-workplace interventions on worker performance. This paper presents an organizational benchmarking and evaluation tool to permit such tracking within an organization. Based on the results of a systematic literature review, five dimensions are used to evaluate productivity in this context: absenteeism, presenteeism, engagement, self-assessed (individual) productivity, and objective (office-wide) productivity. This data is collected from organizational reports, individual employee questionnaires, and field data. The resultant tool was refined through a series of public- and private-sector field tests and the evaluation of results was undertaken through post-analysis interviews with organizational partners who provided feedback on the clarity of data as-presented, alignment with known issues, and consistency with other studies. The evaluated tool provides a holistic means of assessing knowledge worker productivity and will support future research to evaluate and quantify the impact of specific interventions in workplace policy and environmental modifications.

[1]  J S Moore,et al.  Design and construction. , 1972, Hospitals.

[2]  Barry Haynes,et al.  The impact of office layout on productivity , 2008 .

[3]  D. Lack.  Presenteeism Revisited , 2011 .

[4]  N. Digert,et al.  Daylighting in Schools An Investigation into the Relationship Between Daylighting and Human Performance Condensed Report , 1999 .

[5]  Guido Hertel,et al.  Choosing where to work at work – towards a theoretical model of benefits and risks of activity-based flexible offices , 2017, Ergonomics.

[6]  Lisa Heschong,et al.  Daylighting in Schools: An Investigation into the Relationship between Daylighting and Human Performance. Detailed Report. , 1999 .

[7]  Barry P. Haynes.  An evaluation of office productivity measurement , 2007 .

[8]  Tom Postmes,et al.  The relative benefits of green versus lean office space: three field experiments. , 2014, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[9]  Michael A. Bruno,et al.  Quality metrics currently used in academic radiology departments: results of the QUALMET survey. , 2017, The British journal of radiology.

[10]  Peter Hosie,et al.  Does the “happy‐productive worker” thesis apply to managers? , 2009 .

[11]  Erik Brynjolfsson,et al.  The productivity paradox of information technology , 1993, CACM.

[12]  Barry P. Haynes,et al.  Workplace productivity and office type: An evaluation of office occupier differences based on age and gender , 2017 .

[13]  A. Zbrozek,et al.  The Validity and Reproducibility of a Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Instrument , 1993, PharmacoEconomics.

[14]  Joseph G. Allen,et al.  Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers: A Controlled Exposure Study of Green and Conventional Office Environments , 2015, Environmental health perspectives.

[15]  Raymond J. Cole,et al.  The changing nature of workplace culture , 2014 .

[16]  Ronald C. Kessler,et al.  The World Health Organization Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HPQ) , 2003, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[17]  H T Juslén,et al.  Lighting level and productivity: a field study in the electronics industry , 2007, Ergonomics.

[18]  A. Rosenfeld,et al.  Estimates of Improved Productivity and Health from Better Indoor Environments , 1997 .

[19]  Mark Attridge.  Measuring and Managing Employee Work Engagement: A Review of the Research and Business Literature , 2009 .

[20]  David Faulkner,et al.  Control of temperature for health and productivity in offices , 2004 .

[21]  Paul Roelofsen.  Performance loss in open‐plan offices due to noise by speech , 2008 .

[22]  Rachel Riter,et al.  Book Review: Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us , 2016 .

[23]  Thomas L. Saaty,et al.  DECISION MAKING WITH THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS , 2008 .

[24]  Brian Purdey,et al.  A preliminary study of cognitive failures in open plan offices , 2012 .

[25]  K. Zaman,et al.  Impact of Interior Physical Environment on Academicians’ Productivity in Pakistan Higher Education Institutes Perspectives , 2012 .

[26]  J. J. McArthur,et al.  Measurements of workplace productivity in the office context: A systematic review and current industry insights , 2018, Journal of Corporate Real Estate.

[27]  Shinichi Tanabe,et al.  Workplace productivity and individual thermal satisfaction , 2015 .

[28]  Tad T. Brunyé,et al.  Effects of four workplace lighting technologies on perception, cognition and affective state , 2012 .

[29]  Petra M. Bosch-Sijtsema,et al.  Managing projects with distributed and embedded knowledge through interactions , 2014 .

[30]  J. Pope,et al.  Self-rated Job Performance and Absenteeism According to Employee Engagement, Health Behaviors, and Physical Health Learning Objectives Methods Population , 2022 .

[31]  Joon-Ho Choi,et al.  Impacts of indoor daylight environments on patient average length of stay (ALOS) in a healthcare facility , 2012 .

[32]  Luke Fletcher,et al.  The Meaning, Antecedents and Outcomes of Employee Engagement: A Narrative Synthesis , 2017 .

[33]  If Price,et al.  Quantifying the complex adaptive workplace , 2004 .

[34]  M. Sugimoto,et al.  The Association between Meditation Practice and Job Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study , 2015, PloS one.

[35]  Michael Pitt,et al.  Healthy, productive workplaces: towards a case for interior plantscaping , 2011 .

[36]  B. Amick,et al.  Comparison of Employer Productivity Metrics to Lost Productivity Estimated by Commonly Used Questionnaires , 2016, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[37]  R. Ozminkowski,et al.  Reliability and Validity of the Stanford Presenteeism Scale , 2004, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[38]  Eziaku Onyeizu Rasheed,et al.  The Productivity Paradox in Green Buildings , 2016 .

[39]  P. Fanger,et al.  The effects of outdoor air supply rate in an office on perceived air quality, sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms and productivity. , 2000, Indoor air.

[40]  J. Endicott,et al.  Endicott Work Productivity Scale (EWPS): a new measure to assess treatment effects. , 1997, Psychopharmacology bulletin.

[41]  Marc L. Berger,et al.  Stanford Presenteeism Scale: Health Status and Employee Productivity , 2002, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[42]  D P Wyon,et al.  The effects of indoor air quality on performance and productivity. , 2004, Indoor air.

[43]  Presenteeism revisited. A complete review. , 2011, AAOHN journal : official journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses.

[44]  Jeffrey T. Howard,et al.  The Problem of Absenteeism and Presenteeism in the Workplace , 2012 .

[45]  H. Randolph Thomas,et al.  Benchmarking Construction Labor Productivity , 2015 .

[46]  Clas-Håkan Nygård,et al.  Relationship Between Perceived Work Ability and Productivity Loss , 2012, International journal of occupational safety and ergonomics : JOSE.

[47]  K. Bungay,et al.  The Work Limitations Questionnaire , 2001, Medical care.

[48]  Peter Boyce,et al.  Lighting quality and office work: two field simulation experiments , 2006 .

[49]  Michelle C. Vigeant,et al.  Balancing the detrimental effects of office noise annoyance and distraction on work performance , 2017 .

[50]  C. Westerman,et al.  Employee communication, job engagement, and organizational commitment: A study of members of the Millennial Generation , 2017 .

[51]  P Wargocki,et al.  Perceived air quality, sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms and productivity in an office with two different pollution loads. , 1999, Indoor air.

[52]  Petra Bosch-Sijtsema,et al.  Knowledge work productivity in distributed teams , 2009, J. Knowl. Manag..

[53]  R. Wiik,et al.  Indoor productivity measured by common response patterns to physical and psychosocial stimuli. , 2011, Indoor air.

[54]  Patricia S. Jones,et al.  Cultural differences in responses to a Likert scale. , 2002, Research in nursing & health.

[55]  Agis M. Papadopoulos,et al.  Occupants’ thermal comfort: State of the art and the prospects of personalized assessment in office buildings , 2017 .