Movement at Workplace.
The intent of an efficient, employee — centric and future-ready workplace is to facilitate all types of movement for employees, including physical activity and exercise and reduction in sedentary employee behavior through the intentional design strategies of the workspace. This also requires workplace and office projects to choose a series of interior office design-based optimizations.
Physical inactivity is directly linked to premature mortality and chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, depression, stroke, dementia and some forms of cancer. Despite numerous physical activity guidelines and movement guides, studies show that nearly a quarter of the adult population is physically inactive. Sadly, our offices, common areas, workplaces, communities, jobs and transportation are designed for demanding minimum physical movement and often encourage sedentary employee activities.
Our work & office environments play a significant role in employee physical activity behaviors. Functional office design considers how different office building components, such as staircases, can encourage movement in the workspace.
Also, at a work community scale, functional workplace design believes how communities can motivate employees and building users to be involved through office infrastructures, such as cycle lanes and green space. Beyond physical activity promotion, these factors also positively impact environmental, social and economic outcomes.
Worldwide, if physical activity was increased by just 10%, more than half a million deaths could be avoided. Also, over one million deaths could be avoided if physical activity was increased by 25%.
