April 15, 2020
Behavioural insights combine psychology, neuroscience and behavioural economics with empirically tested results to understand and influence how people behave. These insights can be used to implement new policies more efficiently and successfully by nudging individual’s behaviour and shaping collective norms. More →
April 13, 2020
A number of progressive workplace issues have crossed into mainstream thinking over the past few years, and perhaps none more so than biophilia. It is now a principle that has become an issue talked about in the mass media, as shown by a recent CNN interview with one of Europe’s leading proponents of biophilic office design, Oliver Heath. The interview explores how biophilia taps into our embedded love of nature to evoke certain behaviours and emotions.
In turn this mainstream interest in biophilia is a sign of how organisations are looking at sophisticated ways of meeting a number of interrelated business challenges, not least engaging with employees and looking after their wellbeing while improving productivity. Biophilic office design has shown itself to have a number of demonstrably beneficial outcomes in this regard, both anecdotally and backed up by evidence.
It is also a very contemporary way of addressing issues of productivity and wellbeing. The approach adopted by enlightened employers is no longer focused on creating cultures and environments that do no harm, but rather on creating an environment and culture that fosters engagement, improves wellbeing, address stresses and pressures and helps them be more productive. It is now common for firms to have well defined wellbeing strategies in place. Nearly half of UK employers have a strategy already in place and 60 percent of CEOs say that the mental health of employees is their top priority, according to the Employee Wellbeing research report for 2018 from the Rewards and Employees Benefits Association.
Salutogenesis
Biophilic design plays an important role in this regard, but it is part of the wider of how spaces are created to improve people’s health and wellbeing. Because so many firms are now addressing this question in increasingly sophisticated ways, as well as biophilic office design we may be hearing a lot more about salutogenic design in the near future.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The traditional dichotomy people had applied between health and illness was not sufficient to describe the constantly changing continuum of outcomes people experience in their daily lives[/perfectpullquote]
Salutogenesis is a term coined by the medical sociologist Anton Antonovsky and describes his research in the 1970s and 1980s into the links between stress and physical and mental health. He found that the traditional dichotomy people had applied between health and illness was not sufficient to describe the constantly changing continuum of outcomes people experience in their daily lives. He derived the term as an antonym to pathogenesis which describes how ill health is treated after a condition has become evident.
He was particularly focused on how different people respond to the ubiquitous presence of stress. He noted how certain people not only did not suffer the ill effects of stress that others found disabling, but enjoyed good health in spite of it. He explained this by suggesting that the issue was one of an individual’s sense of coherence, defined as “a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that the stimuli deriving from one’s internal and external environments in the course of living are structured, predictable and explicable; the resources are available to one to meet the demands posed by these stimuli; and these demands are challenges, worthy of investment and engagement.”
He went on to conclude that ‘beyond the specific stress factors that one might encounter in life, and beyond your perception and response to those events, what determines whether stress will cause you harm is whether or not the stress violates your sense of coherence.’
According to Antonovsky the three factors that are essential for a sense of coherence are:
Comprehensibility: the sense that things happen in predictable ways and can be understood in a way that means the future makes sense
Manageability: confidence in an ability to respond to take care of things and respond to them appropriately and meaningfully and in a controlled wa
Meaningfulness: an understanding that things are worthwhile and have meaning and that we have good reasons for doing what we do and a sense of purpose
Salutogenic office design
It’s interesting to note that within the definition of sense of coherence there is a role to play for the external environment. In other words, it is possible to help people develop a sense of coherence in their surroundings, which we can take to mean both their physical and cultural environment. This subject has already been explored by designers and researchers but the current focus on wellbeing and design may mean that its real time is yet to come.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Many designers are already adopting this approach whether they understand the salutogenic principles behind it[/perfectpullquote]
Alan Dilani, the Founder of the International Academy for Design and Health (IADH) and Co-founder of the journal World Health Design published a 2008 study into the link in the journal Design and Health Scientific Review, called Psychosocially supportive design: A salutogenic approach to the design of the physical environment, concluding that ‘while clinical practice focuses on treating illness, there’s also a raft of research to suggest that the quality of our everyday surroundings has a highly important role to play in sustaining wellness.’
Similarly Jan Golembiewski came to the same general conclusion in his 2012 paper Salutogenic design: The neural basis for health promoting environments from World Health Design Scientific Review. This kind of research is laying the foundations for a new way of considering building and workplace design in a way that focuses on wellbeing outcomes. Indeed, many designers are already adopting this approach whether they understand the salutogenic principles behind it.
When they make the workplace more manageable in terms of activity based working, control over ambient conditions, the ability to relax, the provision of ergonomic products and access to natural light and fresh air, they are adding to an individual’s sense of coherence.
When they make work meaningful with a sense of community, an understanding of how an individual’s role affects the organisation and wider world and how the firm cares for the environment, they are adding to an individual’s sense of coherence.
When they make the workplace and work comprehensible with wayfinding clues, colour, branding, landscaping, acoustics and sightlines, they are adding to an individual’s sense of coherence.
Biophilic design has already achieved mainstream understanding and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see salutogenic design as the next idea to cross over.
March 30, 2020
New research by Hays Talent Solutions claims workplace technology has had a significant impact on businesses and organisations when it comes to development, automation and growth; continuing to shake up the modern workplace and workforce in 2020. Paving the way for the change, younger workers are arguably redefining what workers want from their employers, while employees struggle to adapt to a technological workplace. More →
March 19, 2020
Betteridge’s law of headlines declares that “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no”. And so I simultaneously ask and answer the question of whether the coronavirus pandemic will really lead to the death of the office. So it goes. Of course, I’m not the first person to raise the question over the last few weeks as the world adapts to the threat of the pandemic. But it’s worth reminding ourselves that the demise of the office has been predicted for at least a quarter of a century, although never in such circumstances. More →
March 10, 2020
New research from Aon, claims that 94 percent of employers believe their employees’ expectations of work experience are changing. In Aon’s Benefits and Trends Survey 2020, employers say their employees expect flexible working hours, the ability to work from home, better awareness and handling of mental health, better approaches to diversity and inclusion and better parental policies. A surprise in this year’s report is the strength of opinion on environmental and sustainability policies, coming in at the seventh most important expectation in its first year in the survey. Fifty-four percent of employers believe that employees want clarity and positivity on this subject.
February 28, 2020
When it comes to creating an office to call home, all of the usual challenges are magnified by several degrees for a company like Siemens. It can’t afford to skimp on the building’s services, green credentials, integrated technology and all-round smartness then hold meaningful conversations on the same subjects with its clients. So, the new Siemens Campus in the Swiss town of Zug has to showcase the best the firm has to offer as well as delivering for the people who work there. More →
February 27, 2020
Following the recent report outlining the mental health benefits of spending time outdoors, The National Trust has published its own research on the wellbeing impacts of the natural world in partnership with the University of Derby, which shows those with an active ‘engagement’ with nature enjoy significant health benefits and are more likely to address environmental issues. The research has prompted a new initiative focussed on a series of activities that will help people engage more with their natural surroundings. This includes a new weekly guide to every day nature connection and a public awareness campaign, including billboards by roads and in railway stations, on the first day of spring. More →
February 5, 2020
Organisations are currently operating against a backdrop of environmental, social, political and technological upheaval. Changes in the way people work, buy, communicate and live their lives abound while the communications narratives become ever more complex. The zeitgeist dictates how an organisation’s purpose and communications should match the growing expectations placed on it by its identity and need to address its engagement with staff and the outside world. More →
February 4, 2020
If you don’t like some of the stories we publish on Insight, you should see the ones we reject. It’s something I catch myself saying a lot and underlying it is an awareness that bullshit can be appealing. We should apply the smell test to stories and go in search of what might best be described as the facts, contradictions and nuances that are characteristic elements of some sort of truth. More →
February 4, 2020
Outdoor workers in the capital are exposed to 15 percent more pollution than the average Londoner, new research has claimed. Over six months, the Canairy app developed by King College London gathered data from two groups of Londoners, some mostly working in offices and others mostly working outside. Both groups were exposed to high levels of air pollution but those working outside fared worst, being exposed to air pollution breaching guidelines for NO2, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and ozone. Some maximum exposures were nearly two thirds higher than recommended World Health Organisation (WHO) limits. More →
January 31, 2020
This is the second of six special episodes of the Workplace Insight podcast in which we consider what are the most important facets of workplace wellbeing. The guest in this episode is Anna Davison who is head of workplace wellbeing at ukactive. Anna says her mission is to develop “the value of physical activity in all workplaces, delivering value to our members aligned to our wider mission of More People, More Active, More Often.” More →
March 24, 2020
A shift in the workplace axis might be a welcome outcome of this crisis
by Luke Munro • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design