1. HealthyWorkplaces Survey of Work Environments on Health and Well-Being
Isabelle Thibau, MPH Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces, UC Berkeley
January 25, 2017

2. Study Overview
Research question: What do graduate students need in their work environments to be successful? How do their work environments affect their health and well-being? Purpose: Explore the relationships between study environment features, basic needs, study outcomes Subjects: Graduate students from School of Public Health, College of Environmental Design (N=98) Measure: Graduate Student Experience Survey Method: Developed, administered on-line survey to all registered students (371+), one-month response period; attrition rate = 60% Analysis: Descriptive statistics and pair-wise correlations
Research question: What do graduate students need in their work environments to be successful? How do psychological states mediate the effect environments have on personal outcomes?
Our tool is a Survey
We combed the literature for features of the environment that are known to have psychological and health effects on people, such as windows, natural lighting, noise, cleanliness, social connection, and control. literature (make a list of lit),
We created a survey to collect information on work environments. This survey would serve as a pilot that we administered to two schools at UC Berkeley – the School of Public Health and the College of Environmental Design.
We administered this online survey to registered students (sample population being a little over 370), sample size =98. One-month response period; attrition rate = 60%.
Data collection, data analysis
We collected descriptive statistics and performed pair-wise correlations between independent and dependent variables.

3. Study Overview Survey: 5 sections Independent variables
(Context) Demographics, academic program
(Environment) Rate importance of features
(Individual behavior) Study habits
Moderating variables
(Basic needs) Identify basic needs that are satisfied by each feature
Dependent variables
(Personal outcomes) Rate satisfaction of study outcomes
This survey had 5 sections. (example items in each one)
We collected demographics, job type (academic program). (Age, program of study, who you live with)
We asked students to rate the importance of a list of work space features (5-point likert scale). (windows, whiteboards, rearrangeable furniture, ambient background noise, opportunities for social interaction, etc.)
We collected study locations and study habits. (how long are your study breaks, where do you study)
We also asked students to identify which of the 9 needs needs were satisfied by features that they deemed important.
We finally asked students to rate their satisfaction of various outcome items (on a 5-point likert scale).
We performed a test-retest reliability on the survey with 19 subjects. Correlations range from

4. Study Overview Outcome measures:
Satisfaction with study habits, performance in courses, learning and acquisition of knowledge.
Productive when I study and do coursework, able to achieve my education goals, able to work efficiently and comfortably.
Satisfaction with input on assignments, choice in where to study, control of when to study, predictable workload policies.
These are our outcome measures, and we ask subjects to what extent they agree or disagree with satisfaction statements. They are on a 5-point likert scale from highly disagree to highly agree.

5. Results What do students find important?
What features are most likely to satisfy needs?
What basic needs are most often satisfied?
What are the relationships between features, need satisfaction, and outcomes?
I’ll address the following questions here from the results of our pilot survey data analysis.

6. Cultural factors and Resources
Results
What do students find important?
Workspace Features
Windows
Cleanliness
Uncluttered workspaces
Layout of study space
Non-smoking policy
Ambiance Factors
Natural light
Quiet
Clean
Free from odors
Thermal comfort
Fresh air
Cultural factors and Resources
Equity, fairness
Social bonding
Access to healthy food
Timely and effective communications
Safety, free from harassment
Reliable internet/Wi-Fi
What do students find important in their study environments (importance ratings)?
These are features that were almost unanimously identified as important (80% or higher). Descriptive statistics – number
The takeaway here is that students find physical comfort, cleanliness, free from distractions, connection, and safety to be top priority for their work spaces.

7. Cultural factors and Resources
Results
What features are most likely to satisfy needs?
Workspace Features
Windows
Cleanliness
Uncluttered workspaces
Layout of study space
Non-smoking policy
Ambiance Factors
Natural light
Quiet
Clean
Free from odors
Thermal comfort
Fresh air
Cultural factors and Resources
Equity, fairness
Social bonding
Access to healthy food
Timely and effective communications
Safety, free from harassment
Reliable internet/Wi-Fi
FOCUS ON THIS SLIDE
Here, what we are looking at are the features that strongly correlate with satisfying basic needs. Many of these are the same as what students indicated as important on the previous slide. We also identified additional features that strongly correlate with satisfying needs.
So you can see here that we have identified features that are designed into spaces to address physical comfort, to promote cleanliness, to reduce distractions, promote connection, and promote security.
+ Supportive Study culture
+ Recognition of accomplishments
+ Research training
+ Predictable workloads
+ Support of peers

8. Results What needs are most often satisfied by environmental features?
Energy/vitality (881)
Positive emotions (855)
Physical well-being (839)
Autonomy (554)
Engagement/Accomplishment (551)
Competence/Mastery (477)
Belonging/social connection (426)
Meaning/Purpose (377)
Safety (357)
Personal growth (327)
In this list, we have the needs and in parentheses, we have calculated the load of features that contribute to satisfying those needs.
Here, we see that energy, physical well-being, and positive emotions are most often positively affected by factors in the environment.
The takeaway here is that features in the environment have a greater effect on physical well-being (comfort) and psychological well-being (positive emotions).

9. Results Satisfaction with study habits Satisfaction with performance
Autonomy
Physical Well-Being
Safety
Meaning/ Purpose
Satisfaction with performance
Vitality
Satisfaction with learning/knowledge
Engagement
Social Connectedness
I am productive when I study
Personal Growth
I am able to achieve education goals
Competence/ Mastery
I am able to work efficiently and comfortably
ALL
Satisfaction with input on assignments
Satisfaction with choice in where to study
Satisfaction with control of when to study
Satisfaction with predictable workload policies
Here we have the results of Linear regression of strongly correlated need satisfaction and outcomes. We have the outcomes on the left and listed to the right are the needs that have high regression model coefficients (2). What this is basically showing are the needs that will change a satisfaction rating 2 points – if you recall, our outcome measures are on a 5-point likert scale. You will see a theme beginning to form here of needs like autonomy, physical well-being/vitality, and engagement.

10. Conclusion
Designing work spaces to promote need satisfaction promotes productivity, satisfaction of learning, and ability to achieve goals.
What do these results mean? These results reveal what we want to design for in workspaces to maximize health, well-being, and productivity. We want to design for physical comfort, cleanliness, free from distractions, connection, and safety.
If we design work spaces with features and elements that satisfy those needs, we can promote productivity, satisfaction of learning, and ability to achieve goals! These results are generalizable to other campuses. And perhaps to knowledge-intensive workplaces that have campus-like culture and setting.

11. Next Steps: Survey Revision
Revised survey to include health outcomes
Expanded independent variables
Expanded dependent variables
Expanded to graduate students campus-wide*
*College of Letters and Sciences and Law School students will not participate.
We are continuing to improve our survey. From the pilot data analysis, survey feedback, qualitative interviews, other campus surveys, and consultation with other organizations on campus, we redesigned the survey to collect more relevant information.
We have expanded independent variables to include food, financial situation, and eliminate redundancy.
We added more relevant Outcomes – like “satisfaction with job search” “ability to build professional network,” and “ability to build social network”
We have a larger sample now for our survey. The graduate student population is (7,083) students and we aim to have a sample size of 700.

12. Strengths and Limitations
Small sample size (pilot), Large sample size for redesigned survey (campus-wide)
Feedback from survey-takers and interviews
Repeating themes: reliability, flexibility, privacy, cleanliness, and security
The results from the pilot are a great start. Some limitations in this study include: small sample size (this survey was a Pilot), however, version 2 has a much larger sample size.
We had feedback about what to add to the survey, what was redundant, and how to reduce respondent burden.
We saw repeating themes of autonomy, reliability, flexibility, privacy, cleanliness, and security, and we will look for these and more themes in our second data collection.

13. Implications
Learning about what graduate students need in their work environment and applying it to our projects
This presents a different starting point for designing buildings and is directly linked to need satisfaction
So, from this research, we are learning about what graduate students need in their work environments to satisfy basic needs, and this is informing how we design workspaces for students and similar work environments, like offices. When needs are satisfied, people perform at their best.
This presents a different starting point for designing buildings and is directly linked to need satisfaction.
Want to validate the survey by doing interviews. What can we modify in their spaces to make it more effective for them? We are learning a first snapshot, but we need to go out and talk to students to validate what we learn from the graduate student survey and collect more specific ideas (perhaps build an inventory) of things students would value that would build on the results that we got from the survey. We would offer these findings up to the university.