How Can Data-driven Strategies Support The Evolution Of Workplace Design? – Construction & Planning

Our relationship with work has changed significantly since the
pandemic. While remote work continues to be an option for some,
many people are returning to physical buildings with a set of
expectations beyond the traditional office. These new norms can
include a new balance between closed and open offices with adequate
lighting and better boundaries. Clients and employees have come to
understand that when it comes to work, one size does not fit all.
To fulfill expectations and create an optimized workplace for
employees, clients need a design strategy. And that requires a
data-driven and evidence-based approach.

In the last five years, more than 150 peer-reviewed papers have
been published globally with the focus on workplace Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) and design strategies. But until recently, there
was no way to share this critical data with the people who need it
most, designers and their clients.

In a new initiative, Arcadis has narrowed the results to the
most relevant findings and created an interactive KPI-driven
workplace design toolkit that bridges the gap between research
findings and their applications in the architecture industry. To
make this award-winning tool as user-friendly and practical as
possible for clients, the first phase focuses on KPIs around
productivity. The next iteration of the tool will spotlight
additional areas including well-being, engagement, and
neurodiversity. The available data will serve as a valuable
resource for designers and clients to address an evolving landscape
and design spaces where occupants can thrive.

How KPIs inform workplace design

Due to changes in the workplace post-COVID, clients and
employees have become more knowledgeable and conscious about
workplace design and how it impacts their lives. These changes have
also inspired questions about the validity of design strategies
that are proposed and implemented by architects. Clients and
employees know that for a workplace to succeed, design solutions
must be tailored to satisfy individual requirements.

Designers must also consider a mix of KPIs when developing a
strategy. In the first phase of Arcadis’s KPI-driven workplace
design toolkit, identified KPIs were divided into two categories:
subjective KPIs, which reflect employees’ perceptions of their
workplace experience, and objective KPIs, which illustrate
employees’ performance through cognitive tests and sensors. We
focused solely on categories that designers have full control over
such as lighting, sound, layout, and biophilia.

Overlooking KPIs and their connection to design strategies can
be costly for businesses. We reviewed several studies that
highlight how high noise levels can negatively affect
concentration. For example, one peer-reviewed study shows that a
workplace with a lack of quiet space will cost the business
an estimated $670,000 USD annually per 100 people. Conversely,
focus rooms have been shown to enhance workplace
performance.¹

Research findings in support of all four categories can help
move projects in the right direction, creating a more profitable
and productive environment for clients and their occupants.

Return to office backed by the latest research

Arcadis has designed a tool with an easy-to-use interface that
can be an important resource for multiple groups. The tool helps
internal design teams understand clients’ KPIs in workplace
design, drives ideation and educates junior designers about
workplace design strategies and their impacts on KPIs. It enables
designers to provide support to marketing teams for proposals
during the pursuit process, and in client and team meetings. The
tool also aids the early stages of the design process by giving
designers and clients confidence in their decisions. Arcadis is
using the toolkit to educate its own designers on how to design an
efficient, optimized workplace beneficial to its clients’
organizational goals, and employees’ experience in the
workplace. This is the first step in what it means to design for
work.

And we went a step further. To measure how the KPIs we’ve
chosen are achieved by the design, Arcadis also developed a
standardized and customizable workplace pre- and post-occupancy
evaluation framework that clients and designers can easily use upon
occupation. These tools facilitate the use of data-driven and
evidence-based design in our industry, rather than assumptions,
which improves architecture practices and help clients address new
norms that meet employee expectations in the workplace.

Photos by Ben Rahn / A-Frame Studio.

Footnote

1. Jahncke, H., Hallman, D.M. (2020), “Objective
measures of cognitive performance in activity-based workplaces and
traditional office types”, Journal of Environmental Psychology
72: 101503.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.