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Measuring employee satisfaction in new offices - the WODI toolkit

May 2009 | Leentje Volker, Theo van der Voordt, Maartje Maarleveld

The purpose of this paper in the Journal of Facilities Management  is to present a toolkit to measure employee satisfaction and perceived  labour  productivity  as  affected  by  different  workplace  strategies.  The  toolkit  is  being illustrated by a case study of the Dutch Revenue Service.

Design/methodology/approach

The  toolkit  has  been  developed  by  a  review  of  literature  and tools for data-collection. The toolkit has been tested and explored further in a number of case studies.

Findings

The  toolkit  includes  a  working  environment  diagnostic   tool  for  an  indicative  or diagnostic  evaluation,  a  list  of  key  performance  indicators  that  can  be  used  for  benchmarking purposes, and a space utilization monitor to measure the occupancy of workplaces. Data collected with the tool provides organizations with a clear picture of user experience of the working environment on its  own,  in  comparison  to  other  organizations  and  in  comparison  to  the  goals  of  the  organization. Employees  are  also  asked  to  rank  the  issues  in  order  of  importance  to  overall  satisfaction  and perceived productivity.

The toolkit and the data from case studies can be used by managers to support decision making on interventions  with regard to the organizations’  accommodation policy, re-designing or adaptation of the present building, or moving to another building. Scientifically, the data from case studies and cross case analyses can be used to explore and test hypotheses about the best possible fit between people, processes and place

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