Relationship with labor productivity

Health is a basic condition for work productivity. Companies and other organizations face significant costs of absenteeism and non-productive presence of their employees. Recent research, published in the leading scientific journal PLOS ONE, analyzes the consequences of the indoor climate in the office for the health, well-being and job satisfaction of people who work there. The research uses a natural experiment in which 70% of the employees of the medium-sized Dutch municipality Venlo have moved from a conventional building to a building designed and built to the highest standards of sustainability and health. The other 30% of the employees did not move: the control group.

Lower absenteeism

All these people participated four times in a survey about the quality of the indoor climate and their health: the first just before the move and the other three spread over the two years after the move. The results show significant improvement in the perception of the indoor climate, especially in terms of air quality, temperature and light for the group of employees in the healthy building. They also have 50% fewer symptoms of sick building syndrome, such as dry eyes, fatigue and headaches. The health improvement is greatest for older employees. The latest finding is of great importance to employers: employees in the healthy have a two percent lower absenteeism rate.