Ota yhteyttä
Photo courtesy KONE
Does taking an elevator put a smile on your face? A recent study conducted at the KONE Building in Espoo, Finland showed that increased use of office elevators at the office led to more joyful and laughter-filled interactions. Let’s explore the findings of this recent co-innovation project further.
The study conducted by KONE in collaboration with its ecosystem partner Workspace Ltd. within the Untangling People Flow consortium merged KONE’s People Flow data of people using the elevator to enter and leave their office floor, with observations of face-to-face interactions and visible indicators of happiness, such as smiles. KONE participates in the consortium as a Business Finland leading company as part of a joint KONE Veturi program called The Flow of Urban Life, co-funded by Business Finland
“The results of the study show that elevators have an important role in increasing face-to-face interaction which in turn makes people happier, contributing to well-being at work,” he says.
According to other researches*, office atmosphere and number of interactions are two key factors influencing business performance.
“Enabling value-creating interactions with excellent people flow and work environment design is becoming more and more important,” comments Pasi Kaitila, business director at Workspace Ltd.
Observing discussions, facial expressions and usage data
The study was done by using two different data-gathering methods: human interaction observations by Workspace Ltd and elevator usage data gathered as part of the KONE People Flow analytics.
Two key cultural metrics were in the focus: how many of the observed people were a) having discussions face-to-face or b) seemingly joyful or laughing.
Amount of people using elevators and observed people in face-to-face interactions
Higher usage of elevators correlates with happiness
The results show that people are mostly using the elevators at the same time in the afternoon and that increases the percentage of people in face-to-face interactions.
“When more people use elevators, they are more likely to engage in face-to-face interaction with each other, often leading to laughter and joy,” Kaitila sums it up.
The people flow at the KONE building is quite smooth, so the study did not cover cases where people would have to wait for the elevator for a long while, or where congestion would be forming in the lobby or in the elevators. It also needs to be taken to account that at an office environment many colleagues also know each already, leading to having friendlier conversations more likely.
Amount of people using elevators and observed % of joyful people
