Recommendations

This set of recommendations for architects and developers is taken from Welcoming Workplace: Designing office space for an ageing workforce in the 21st century knowledge economy (IBSN: 978-1-905000-76-0), supported by Kinnarps and the British Council for Offices.

General

Changes to office design should be aligned to a management strategy for retaining and recruiting older workers as well as improving their business performance.
The impact on user satisfaction and business performance should be measured through evaluation before and after design changes are implemented.
Facilities management should be more attuned to the needs of older knowledge workers. There are clear benefits to be derived from encouraging the participation of staff in the process of redesigning the workplace.
Suggested improvements to the quality of the office environment should go hand-in-hand with a drive for a more efficient use of space. User-responsive design can successfully permit higher densities of occupation and increased desk utilisation.
An inclusive design approach should be developed as it can often produce tangible benefits for the whole workforce while simultaneously addressing the specific improvements required
by older workers.

Lighting

Natural light is generally preferable to artificial lighting. In designing office buildings, careful consideration should be given to the quantity of glazing and its orientation. It is important to be able to control glare. Ideally the means to control lighting admission should be incorporated into the external envelope or glazing systems.
Ambient lighting should be provided at an appropriate level for the tasks being undertaken. It is helpful if ambient light levels can be controlled on a zonal basis around the office.
It may be beneficial to reduce ambient levels (for example to 200 Lux) supplemented by individual task lighting at the desk. Ambient lighting might be designed to suit the viewing of computer screens, with much brighter task lights for reading small print in documents.
Wherever possible, lighting solutions should correspond to individual needs. Older staff particularly appreciate the ability to personally control artificial light sources.

Acoustics

Activities that create a lot of noise, for example printing and photocopying, should be separated from quieter work areas through careful space planning or partitioning.
Disruptive levels of noise can be partially controlled by reducing reverberation within an open-plan office. Acoustic ceilings, carpeted floors and sound-absorbing panels can reduce reflection of sound waves. The quality of the ambient acoustic environment is more important to older people who will generally find background noise more disruptive.
In open-plan offices, workstations can be designed to reduce noise effects and improve acoustic privacy. Sound absorbing barriers are very important for noise reduction: without them, speech can be heard 50 to 70 feet away, which is reduced to 25 to 35 feet with acoustic panels. For the best results, screens such as systems furniture panels should be at least 65 inches high. Lower-height screens have no significant impact on acoustical control. Increasing the distance between adjacent workstations is also beneficial.
The acoustic environment will need to be adapted to the tasks being performed. This is particularly important where speech privacy is required by commercial confidentiality, by good practice or by the law, such as for medical records or credit card information.
Choice of material is important. In general, the best materials for reducing reverberation are lightweight and absorbent, whereas the best sound-blocking materials are dense and heavy. For meeting rooms, sound seals or retractable door bottoms help to seal a door once it’s closed.
Providing people with alternative spaces such as booths or small meeting rooms for private conversations or telephone calls can be beneficial.
An alternative strategy could be to designate some open-plan areas as quiet work zones with protocols discouraging phone calls, informal meetings and other interruptions.
Sound masking or sound conversion technologies can also improve noisy backgrounds for individuals or enhance the overall acoustic quality of the office environment.

Ergonomics

Consideration should be given to creating clear lines of circulation for movement within an office building and through an open-plan space. There may be additional opportunities for encouraging more physical activity, for example by planning vertical circulation so that stairs are equally visible and as easy to access as lifts, or by giving access to an outdoor space.
Staff should be encouraged to move around between a range of designated settings for knowledge work, so ensuring regular exercise and breaks during the working day and avoiding a sedentary workstyle.
Adjustable furniture such as ergonomic chairs and height-adjustable desks should be provided which give the opportunity to change working positions during the day according to the task.
Adjustable furniture should have controls that are obvious, simple and intuitive to use.
Furniture specification should explore higher levels of ergonomic comfort – for example sofas that fold down into day beds.

Navigation and wayfinding

In more complex work environments, everyone – not just older workers – will benefit from clear space-planning with effective signage, colour coding, land-marking and layout differentiation that facilitates finding your way around in an intuitive way.

Training

Any training, especially in relation to IT, should be adjusted for the needs of older workers. In many cases, computer-based learning is less successful with older staff than face-to-face, one-to-one tuition.

Health and wellbeing

An inclusive office building can be important to maintain a healthy social atmosphere at work.
The provision of places within the office for moments of recuperation during the working day can improve mental and physical wellbeing and reduce tiredness and sick-leave.
The provision of alternative workspaces for certain tasks and the ability to change or adjust an individual’s workstation can be beneficial to personal health.
The provision of a gym or café can provide additional amenities that improve general physical and mental health. This depends on the size of the company and its location in relation to the city.

Spaces for different workstyles

Recent office design has emphasised the benefits for communication and cost offered by open-plan and hot-desking. However the Welcoming Workplace research demonstrated the importance of actively supporting all the activities that constitute successful knowledge work: creative thinking, analysis, concentration, project and team-working.

Open-plan has major advantages in terms of cost, efficiency and communication, and is likely to remain the dominant model for most new offices. However it represents a solution for the average type that does not necessarily adapt well to all the needs of knowledge workers.

The reduction in overheads to be derived from more efficient use of office space are considerable. However in most knowledge-based organisations, staff salaries represent by far the highest percentage of business costs. In this context, changes to the workplace that improve knowledge worker effectiveness can bring significant financial rewards.

The cost of providing an office environment that is more responsive to user needs can be substantially outweighed by improved business performance, and overall, productivity and effectiveness can be increased by supplementing open-plan with a range of alternative spaces.

Welcoming Workplace has identified and tested three types of space that will benefit the performance of all knowledge workers, but particularly that of older staff:

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