October 18, 2004—In a landmark study evaluating the impact of indoor environmental conditions on worker productivity, Cornell University ergonomics professor Dr. Alan Hedge found a 74% increase in typing mistakes and a 46% reduction in typing output when office temperatures fell from 77 degrees F to 68 degrees F. The findings were presented in June at the 2004 Eastern Ergonomics Conference in New York City.
“The purpose of the study was to investigate the link between changes in physical environmental conditions and changes in work performance, Hedge explains. “Temperature is certainly a key variable that can impact performance.”
During the study, Hedge placed HOBO(r) data loggers—or miniature temperature recorders—at nine individual workstations at the Insurance Office of America’s corporate headquarters in Orlando, Florida. The loggers, which are commonly used to validate comfort complaints in the workplace, sampled air temperature every 15 minutes for an entire working month. This data was then correlated with a month’s worth of ergonomic data to show how typing performance worsened as temperatures fell.
“As employees typed, we knew the amount of time they were keying, and the amount of time they were making error corrections,” says Hedge. “At 77 degrees F, employees were keying 100% of the time with a 10% error rate, while at 68 degrees F, keying rate went down to 54% of the time with a 25% error rate.”
Hedge estimates that the decreased productivity resulted in a 10% increase in labor costs per worker, per hour.
He adds, “This study shows that when employees get chilly, at least in this case, they are not working to their full potential. We will continue to study the impact of the environment on worker productivity with the ultimate goal of having much smarter buildings and better environmental control systems in the workplace.”
