The relationship between comfort, personal control and productivity in UK offices

Occupier experience surveys conducted in UK offices between the years 2012-2022 have been analysed to examine the relationship between (1) satisfaction with indoor conditions (thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting, noise), (2) personal control over the conditions and (3) perceived productivity as result of the conditions. The data set contains 111 surveyed buildings and 10,870 individual responses. The findings show that many respondents are both satisfied with the indoor conditions whilst perceiving that they had little to no personal control over them. Six indoor environmental parameters were examined as part of this study. The proportion of respondents that were in the category of ‘satisfied overall’ while having ‘low control’ ranged from 21 to 46%, constituting the largest proportion of respondents for three of the six variables examined. The results also showed that perceptions of productivity in the surveyed buildings were highly correlated with satisfaction with the internal conditions (regardless of perceived personal control over them). Therefore our research indicates that designers should focus on providing satisfactory conditions for the majority of occupants, and not be overly concerned with the provision of greater personal control for office workers. Practical Application The level of personal control provided to occupants in office buildings is an important component of their overall design and manageability. This research helps modern professionals to understand the degree to which personal control over different variables is important to occupants themselves, in terms of their comfort and self-reported productivity. In turn this can help professionals to better understand and therefore assess whether the provision of greater personal control is required or not.