A global professional services firm moved its corporate headquarters (HQ) to a new building in a mixed-use neighborhood development in a Midwestern U.S. city in December 2018. The design and location of the new facility intended to support workplace wellbeing, and the facility received Fitwel® 3-star certification. This collaborative study measured effects of holistic workplace design and location on employee work-time sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA). A natural experiment compared outcomes at the HQ site to 2 control sites in other U.S. cities. We hypothesized these intervention effects: reduced employee work-time SB, and increased work-time PA, behaviors with established connections to critical population health outcomes.

Methods

A random selection of employees received an invitation to participate voluntarily. 217 participants across 3 sites wore ActiGraph accelerometers throughout the workday for 3 to 5 days within a week at two points in time before and after the HQ move (Oct/Nov 2017 and Oct/Nov 2019), and completed daily activity logs.

Results

Average BMI at all locations in both time periods was in the overweight range (p=26.5, SD=5.0). Difference-in-difference analyses showed that the intervention positively influenced employee SB and PA throughout the workday. The intervention effects were to reduce average work time in SB by 10.0 minutes per day (p<0.001), increase time in light PA by 4.5 minutes per day (p=0.006), increase time in moderate-to-vigorous (MV) PA by 5.5 minutes per day (p<0.001), and increase steps by 1.3 per minute or 696 per day (p<0.001), compared to control group-based expectations. Incremental effects of a corporate wellness “step challenge” program in the post-period incrementally reduced daily work-time SB by by 8.5 minutes (p<0.001), increased time in light PA by 4.5 minutes (p=0.005) and in MVPA by 4.0 minutes (p=0.023), and increased steps by 1 per minute or 496 per day (p=0.001).

Conclusions

This study is one of the first to credibly demonstrate a connection between holistic corporate office design/siting strategies and employee health behaviors, independent of programmatic intervention effects. Findings indicate that the holistic physical workplace environment can measurably improve health behaviors, and that programmatic interventions can provide synergistic effects.