( WGBC ), have laid out frameworks for establishing these connections . These are based on an analysis of multiple performance metrics , such as job satisfaction , health and well-being , job performance , and others . While many organizations already collect data on these and other metrics related to organizational effectiveness , the data have not typically been collated to support analysis of how they may be connected to organizational productivity — until now .
NRC , RBC collaboration shows strong connection
One of those organizations — RBC — has engaged with NRC on a preliminary analysis of the data it holds . The extensive data sets from RBC included anonymized human resources information on more than 40,000 RBC employees , ranging from age and education to job classification and salary ; staffing actions such as hires and departures ; manager-assessed performance ; as well as responses to the RBC Employee Opinion Survey . The data files also included detailed information on more than 70 buildings , such as age and size , LEED certification scores , and the mapping of employees to individual buildings .
Guy Newsham , Principal Research Officer and Team Leader , NRC , says initial analysis involved comparing data from 13 large office buildings with green certification against the same data sets from 13 , matched conventional buildings .
“ Although not every green building outperformed every conventional building , green buildings on average demonstrated statistically-significant higher values of corporate metrics related to organizational productivity compared to otherwise similar conventional buildings ,” says Mr . Newsham . “ In particular , ratings on the employee opinion survey , including concepts such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment , were generally higher for green buildings .”
Just the beginning
By bringing existing data together in a new way , the collaboration between NRC and RBC has revealed how the features of RBC ’ s office buildings affect the staff within them and the productivity of the organization . “ Together , we have produced unprecedented data sets , combining human resource and real-estate information from a large number of buildings and staff ,” says Dr . Nightingale . “ And now that these new methods have been proven , there are many more opportunities to leverage the data to quantify real estate ’ s value to the corporate entity .” Robert Carlyle , Senior Director of RBC ’ s Strategic Workforce Management group echoes NRC ’ s excitement for future opportunities , adding that “ we look forward to uncovering new insights with the NRC from the 120 million records in the new database – especially in developing physical spaces that will help keep our employees engaged .”
A trusted partner
Ruth Weiner , Senior Manager of Energy and Environment for RBC ’ s Corporate Real Estate team , says the NRC research reinforces the value of RBC ’ s commitment to greening its portfolio of large office buildings , and the organization looks forward to additional insights from future research .
“ The results more than justify our choice of NRC as our partner in this research , and not just for its technical and analytical expertise ,” says Ms . Weiner . “ It was essential that we have an impartial collaborator , with secure mechanisms for handling confidential data — and NRC gives us all those things .”
Construction Leaders • May 2017 21