Designing Sustainable workplaces: the strategic role of ergonomics and employee well-being

Workplace social sustainability supports employee satisfaction, health, and organisational goals; however, the specific contribution of Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) to Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being) at the individual workplace level remains underexplored. This study integrates Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) as network-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approaches capable of modelling interdependencies among criteria to identify and prioritise determinants of workplace social sustainability. Twenty industry experts assessed 17 validated indicators spanning five core dimensions. Results indicate that employee well-being is the most critical driver of workplace social sustainability, while musculoskeletal health is less influential. The DEMATEL-ANP hybrid approach clarified cause-effect structures and derived relative importance weights across all criteria, providing actionable insights for embedding social sustainability into organisational policies and supporting targeted interventions that advance SDG 3 in workplace contexts.