Post-occupancy what? Evaluating active workplace design, with Jo Yarker

Different workplace experts are interested in different elements of workplace, so it follows that workplace change projects featuring interdisciplinary teams can yield innovative methods and diverse insights. In episode 11 of Workplace Geeks, Chris and Ian are joined by health and wellbeing expert Dr Jo Yarker, Reader in Occupational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London, and Managing Partner of Affinity Health at Work.

The episode explores her 2021 paper entitled ‘Evaluation of a natural workspace intervention with active design features on movement, interaction and health’,  co-authored with Fehmidah Munir et al, which evaluates an ‘active workplace design’ intervention case study. In this study evaluating an organisation moving into a new workspace designed with ‘active design features’, a range of qualitative and quantitative methods – including individual activity tracking – found that the move led to both individual and organisational benefits.

All episodes of Workplace Geeks can be found here.