(Neuro)diversity: the influence of the physical work environment on work experience

Stimulating tweaks

"In my PhD research, I investigated how physical characteristics of the workplace affect the mental well-being of employees. From plants and use of color to views and furniture. Corona meant a shift from working in the office to working from home. That is why the second part of my research focused on the home office and mental health. We drew up 10 indicators for mental health, from short-term (mood, stress, fatigue) to long-term (decreased productivity, burnout, depression) and from negative to positive.

What turned out? The design of a workplace can really stimulate something – or have a negative influence. That doesn't necessarily have to be rigorous. You can also apply small tweaks . With simple adjustments at low cost, such as color on the walls or placing greenery in a room, we can already see a real difference in how people experience an office."

Personalized workspaces

"Yet there was still one element missing, I noticed after my PhD. Namely the individual differences that exist. From an organizational perspective, the average person is the starting point. Which often leads to 'one size fits all' solutions. However, employees all have their own preferences and needs, and for the neurodivergent population – people who identify with, for example, ADHD or autism – average solutions do not work at all. So how do you get to a common ground for everyone?"

"After the pandemic, people were used to personalized home workplaces with photos and other personal items. As a result, the need has grown to work in the office in the way that suits you. In the world of research, we are searching: how far can and should organizations go? It is impossible to create in the office what you have at home. However, you can allow a certain degree of personalization, for example at team level. Think of a pinboard where all team members can share a personal photo or quote. Or lockers in which employees store their personal items at the end of the day."

Combine physical interventions with behaviour

If you look at physical workplace features, several of my studies show that noise is always the biggest distracting factor. Whereas researchers at Building Physics focus on objective measurements, such as noise or light measurements, I focus on optimizing employee satisfaction and experience. In one of our studies, we worked with soundmasking technology. This is a technique in which a soft, continuous background sound is added to a room to make other sounds less audible and less disturbing.

After a period of exposure, employees turned out to be less stressed and more productive, but we didn't see any major differences. We did see that behavior is at least as important. Always combine physical interventions with behaviour: make clear agreements about where you call or consult, and support this with sufficient call and consultation places. Only then does an open office work well, even for neurodivergent employees."

Culture also weighs heavily

"The organizational culture plays an important role in work experience. Do you have autonomy? Can you choose where and when you work? Is there an open culture of conversation? You can make a work environment as beautiful as you want; If employees do not experience support from managers and colleagues, it weighs much more heavily. In addition, research shows that certain physical elements have a positive effect on mental health. For example, the use of plants and greenery in the work environment reduces the stress level of employees. Views of the outside and daylight also contribute to the well-being of employees. The same applies to pause programs on the computer."

Co-designing

"A truly neuro-inclusive working environment is designed together with neurodivergent employees (co-designing). Include them in the development process – involvement and control are very valuable. And take different needs seriously.

Together with KU Leuven, I am working on the project 'Workplaces for all Minds', in which we investigate how employees who identify with ADHD and/or autism experience their workplace. And how workplace / job crafting – putting together their own work package and work environment – can contribute to a better workplace experience."

"We use a so-called stated choice method, in which respondents indicate their preference between two hypothetical workplaces a number of times. The workplaces vary in lighting, sound environment, the number of people present and the possibility to adapt the space, among other things. I cannot report the results yet, because the investigation is still ongoing. In addition, TU/e is conducting a graduation research project on 'Homeliness'; creating a feeling of home in the office through workplace design."

No magic button

"Ideally, organizations want ready-made advice. What is your most important research result? Or: what should we change first? But unfortunately there is no magic button. Workplace developments are iterative. If you take all the needs of everyone into account now, you will be behind again ten years later. My advice would be to continuously look for the sum of all factors, i.e. physical workplace, culture and behaviour. If we want to design healthy office buildings, both physical and social characteristics matter. I am conducting a systematic literature review on physical workplace characteristics and neurodiversity. It strikes me that little scientific research has been done. This research gap requires new insights."