All the cool tech companies are trying to compete for the craziest and most unique looking working space. They sure do look cool, but do the buildings and their respective indoor environments have what it really takes to make the workers happy and productive?

A study* based on reports of over 52,980 occupants of 351 office buildings over ten years found out that the most important parameters for workplace satisfaction are: amount of space, noise levels, visual privacy. In other words, we’d all be happiest and most productive with a spacious office with a big window that provides a quiet and private haven of productivity.

Photo by: Campaign Monitor

The amount of space in an office was the king of the 17 workspace and building parameters influencing satisfaction regardless of age, gender, overall workplace satisfaction and type of office. Interestingly enough, the satisfaction with the amount of space wasn’t directly related to the amount of space available to each person. What seems to matter the most is having the feeling that we have enough space to do our work undisturbed.

Noise levels were the runner up in the race for the happiest office. That’s one of the parameters that is easily measured by devices like CubeSensors. We already discussed the effects of noise on productivity on our blog. If you’re trying to focus on a very important task, it’s certainly better to be in a quiet environment. However, if you need a burst of creativity, moderate noise around 70 dB might actually be better.

Another interesting finding of the mentioned workplace satisfaction study was that sitting within 4.6 m (15 feet) from the windows seemed to be the winning ticket in the satisfaction lottery. That is part of the reason why shared offices and cubicles with occupants further away from a window reported lower workplace satisfaction levels. Not surprising, given the fact that natural light coming from windows helps maintain good health and even has positive effects on productivity (source).

And while the participants of the study were generally satisfied with their workspace and overall building comfort, sound privacy and indoor environmental quality (temperature, noise level and air quality) had the highest levels of dissatisfaction and complaints. By improving these environmental parameters, offices could do that little extra to improve both the perceived and actual comfort and productivity. That is exactly why we believe it’s important to keep an eye on what’s going on in your environment. It is only when you have the actual measurements that you can plan the necessary improvements before your employees or coworkers start complaining about headaches and other problems.

* Frontczak M, Schiavon S, Goins J, Arens E, Zhang H, and Wargocki P. April 2012. Quantitative relationships between occupant satisfaction and aspects of indoor environmental quality and building design. Indoor Air Journal, Volume 22, Issue 2, 119-131. Available at: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/1wc7t219