We’re excited to announce a groundbreaking paper: “Developing a transdisciplinary and adaptive framework to measure health and well-being for the workplace: the 12 competencies.” As Yoko Kawai, co-founder of Mirai Work Space, I am proud to co-author this vital work. I contributed non-Western and design practitioner’s perspectives to this transdisciplinary effort. Published in the Journal of Corporate Real Estate (DOI: 10.1108/JCRE-09-2024-0033), this novel framework significantly advances our understanding of workplace well-being. It helps us assess and foster health in built environments and communities.
For years, organizations faced a challenge. How do we truly measure health and well-being outcomes? Checklists were useful for implementation but fell short in showing real impact. How can we move beyond simple metrics like absenteeism? We needed to connect healthy buildings to human performance. We also needed to understand ripple effects throughout the community.
This challenge spurred a collaborative effort. An interdisciplinary working group of researchers, from academia and industry, explored adaptive and transdisciplinary design-research methods. The goal: develop an evidence-based holistic framework. The result is a robust, open-source framework. It identifies 12 competencies nested within five interconnected levels of impact: individual, organizational, environmental, community, and global. This framework helps organizations to:
- Understand What to Measure, and Why: Gain clarity on key indicators for health and workplace well-being. Map strengths and areas for improvement precisely.
- Connect Health, Energy, and Performance: Explore links between well-being, individual energy, and motivation. Connect leading and lagging indicators for a more systemic approach.
- Align Strategies with Community Impact: See how building and policy-level approaches contribute to broader community well-being. Link directly to important ESG and CSR initiatives.
- Adopt a Systems Approach: Foster a holistic view of health. Achieve meaningful insights, greater efficiency, and impactful results for employee well-being.
A Holistic View: Embracing Diverse Perspectives
Mirai Work Space is particularly excited about this publication. It offers an innovative approach and a comprehensive understanding of health. My contribution, offering non-Western and design practitioner’s perspectives, was integral. The framework’s development involved eleven researchers from diverse backgrounds. These included Canada, Japan, India, South Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Italy, Belgium, Australia, and the USA. Critically, the final framework balances well-established, emerging, and non-Western evidence. This focus on integrating various cultural contexts and practical applications ensures global relevance. It’s a crucial step towards creating inclusive, effective solutions for healthier spaces and workplace well-being.
Looking Ahead: Collaboration is Key
This framework is more than just a paper. It’s a foundation. It’s an invitation for dialogue, exploration, and continued development. We believe its true power will come from new collaborations. Different industries and academic fields can work together. Imagine the possibilities! Architects, urban planners, public health officials, designers, business leaders, and researchers—all united by a common language for health and well-being.
If you want to bring more coherence to your organization’s well-being efforts, explore this framework. If you’re curious how it applies to your work, dive into the paper via its official journal link: Developing a transdisciplinary and adaptive framework to measure health and well-being for the workplace: the 12 competencies.
We look forward to fostering new collaborations and building on this together!