There needs to be a change in the way we decide what makes a working environment ‘excellent’.
Just what makes a good office? For an organisation preparing to move to new premises it’s a particularly important question.
Our current headquarters in Murray Street, HBF’s home for almost thirty-five years, was built in the era of typing pools rather than PCs, and the building is showing its age. As a not for profit organisation our instinct is to put members’ interests before our own comfort. But as we evolve from a simple health insurer to become a true health partner for our members, it’s become clear that 125 Murray Street is holding us back.
More than aesthetics
So late in 2015 we’ll be moving into new premises in Kings Square and, naturally, we are looking forward to creating a working environment that is more flexible, functional and contemporary.
But as a health focused organisation we want more than comfort. We want an environment that promotes good health. A comfortable workplace may increase our sense of wellbeing but there’s much more to creating a healthy workplace. What we actually need is to move much more. A growing body of research is showing that prolonged sitting significantly increases the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It even seems these risks can’t simply be cancelled out by more exercise. Even the 38% of Australian adults who undertake the recommended levels of physical activity (and 62% of us don’t) are still at risk if they also sit for long periods. Australia’s Physical Activity Guidelines were recently renamed Australia’s Physical Activity Guidelines and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines and now specifically talk about the need to sit less: ‘Minimise the amount of time spent in prolonged sitting’ and ‘break up long periods of sitting as often as possible’. In other words, don’t get too comfortable!
Unfortunately sitting is one thing we do very well. For most of us planting our backside on a chair and taking the weight off our feet feels pretty good. And our ergonomically designed workstations give pride of place to the office chair, desk and monitor.
So rather than creating a superbly comfortable workplace, perhaps we actually need to create one with some built in discomfort – or at least one that discourages people from sitting still for so long.
What isn’t rated
Given what we now know about the need to move more you might expect this to be included in the qualities that determine whether a building is deemed to be excellent. In fact the leading measures of building excellence (Greenstar, NABERS, Property Council grading) have little to encourage architects to design buildings that make people move more. In some instances they even discourage design features that promote physical activity. A building with fewer lifts but an internal staircase that encouraged people to walk between floors would score lower in The Property Council grading system than one with a basic stairwell and more, faster, lifts.
In HBF’s case that hasn’t stopped us from prioritising physical activity. In our Kings Square headquarters every HBF employee will have sit/stand desks, there will be end of journey facilities that encourage more people to walk, run and cycle to work, and an open staircase in the middle of every floor will be the quickest, most pleasant way of getting from floor to floor.
We think our people will love it. More importantly it will mean a long day at the office shouldn’t contribute to a long term health risk.
