Studying the influence of workplace design on productivity of bank clerks

Introduction: Workplace design is one of the factors that can influence comfort, performance, productivity and the health status of employees. The effects of this factor on human's productivity and performance are studied in the domain of ergonomics. The impact of workplace design on workers' productivity and performance can be determined by investigation of the quality of the design. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of workplace design on productivity of the bank clerks. Material and Method: Samples in this cross-sectional study were comprised of 150 employees of 22 different branches of a bank in Tehran city. Data collection tools included demographic questionnaire and a questionnaire related to the effects of workplace design on employees' productivity, developed by Hameed and colleagues. Correlation and regression statistical tests were used in order to analyze data. Result: According to the results, the mean (+/- SD) for age and job tenure of participants were 37.2(+/- 6) and 13(+/- 7) years, respectively. Of the surveyed demographic features, a significant relationship was observed between age and scores belonging to the temperature and furniture (P-value<0.05). In addition, there was a significant association between employees' productivity and the noise (P-value=0.044) and spatial arrangement of environment (P-value=0.048). Conclusion: Overall, appropriate and high quality design of work environment can improve productivity of bank clerks. In other words, employees' productivity can be enhanced by comfortable and ergonomic design of working environment and also by considering their needs.