Do Common Performance Metrics in Indoor Environmental Quality Research Represent Actual Office Work? A Survey-Based Assessment

Existing studies in the field of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) have relied on a limited set of objective performance metrics, including call handling time, keystrokes, and cognitive performance tests, to represent office worker performance. However, these metrics may capture narrow and task-specific aspects of performance and may not represent the broader, multi-faceted nature of office work. This study assessed the applicability of such objective metrics by surveying office workers on whether and to what extend these metrics are relevant to their work and how much of their office work can be quantitatively measured. A total of 387 survey responses from a variety of occupations were analyzed and we found significant variability in the relevance of some performance metrics across occupations (e.g., call handling time, attention and concentration, executive functioning, language skills, and processing speed) through analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicate the heterogeneity of office work and the difficulty in developing a universal office worker performance prediction model applicable to all types of office workers. This study sheds light on the needs of adaptability in office worker performance data analyses and interpretations and paves the way for customized performance prediction models with respect to IEQ, specific to occupation types or individuals.