Stand-up Meetings
Welcome to the stand-up room, whereStand-up Meetings is the norm!
Why meet standing up?
The Dutch are European champions in sitting (Loyen et al. 2016). According to the latest figures from the Ministry for Social Affairs and Employment (2023), Dutch people aged 18 to 64 sit over 9.8 hours on a weekday (work and free time). With most of the work done on computers, the average sedentary time is highest in the financial services and IT branches.
Proof of this sedentary behaviour being a danger to your health is stacking up; prolonged sitting can damage your health, even if someone exercises or goes to the gym regularly. Prolonged sitting is linked to, for example, an increased risk of diabetes (type 2), heart and vascular diseases, and problems with the parts of us that make us move, such as joints and muscles.
People often spend their days sitting behind their computer or in meetings. The choice to sit down is mostly made subconsciously (Gardner et al., 2012), usually because the environment invites people to sit down. Working while standing and exercise during the work day do therefore not come naturally to many employees.
Deena Versluis (Fontys Healthy Ageing) performed her research at the Workplace Vitality Hub, investigating how to boost Stand-up Meetings, with the purpose of testing various nudges to effectively diminish the time employees spend sitting in the office.
The research question: which nudge is the most effective intervention in diminishing sitting behaviour at the Workplace Vitality Hub? Results from the research show that nudges 1 and 2 were the most effective, reducing sedentary time by 47 and 51 minutes compared to the Baseline. Nudges 1 and 2 included the standing option of the desks, the warning poster, the cut-out, moving desk chairs and stools to a corner and floor stickers framed with tape.
Additional analyses show a small effect of the cornered chairs and stools, which is why we recommend to combine this nudge with the stand-option of the desks. Having the desks in a standing position, without the stools and chairs, will be the new norm. It will be tested, evaluated and, if necessary, optimised. Deena’s complete research results can be found here.
This toolkit aims to help as many organisations a possible to boost meeting standing up among their employees. The toolkit is now used by ONVZ, Fontys and the TU/e.