Thinking on Your Feet Can Be Productive

Increased sitting time in office workers has been proven to incur negative long-term health effects and it is important for public health professionals to address the health benefits realized by decreasing sedentary behavior. Many office workers are spending up to 90% of their workday seated and employers are looking to stand capable desks as a way to increase physical activity throughout the day. Unfortunately employers are concerned that the benefits associated with the use of these devices may not offset the initial cost of procurement.  Quantitative productivity data was collected daily over a contiguous 6 month period, March 2013 through August 2013, on participants (N = 167) in a call center within a national health promotion company. This study analyzed objective measures of productivity over time between groups of stand capable desks users and a seated comparison group. The analysis showed that users of stand capable desks were significantly more productive than their seated counterparts on a daily basis (p = .015). Further, results showed that stand capable desk users consistently outperformed their seated counterparts (~43%) over the 6-month time period. This study is the first with objective productivity measurements and a comparison group to demonstrate that the introduction of sit-stand workstations can substantially increase office worker productivity.  Additional studies to determine behavioral modifications to increase long-term sustainability and the cognitive impact of increased physical activity on productivity with stand capable desk usage are ongoing.