How you sit at your desk - whether at work or at home - has a major impact on your health and work performance. While people did not understand the importance of movement, and good posture in the workplace for decades, data now shows that ergonomic office furniture can help reduce many of the negative effects that can come with conventional office furniture and behavior.
If you want to improve your employees’ overall health and boost productivity at the office, then ergonomic office seating can help create a healthier and happier workplace workspace.
What is Ergonomics?
Ergonomics is the science of designing or arranging workplaces, products, and systems to fit the user’s needs in order to increase productivity and efficiency while reducing discomfort. By putting your body in a position that feels comfortable, it will inspire proper posture and take pressure off the lower back.
Ergonomic designs focus on keeping the area between your neck and hips strong and in a way that alleviates pressure by distributing pressure evenly between the back and the front of the body.
What is Ergonomic Seating?
When you apply the science of ergonomics to office seating, then you have ergonomic chairs. Ergonomic seating is designed to be adaptable to the user’s needs and comfort. While they offer adaptable features, ergonomic seating can help position your body in an active sitting position to help keep blood flowing and your mind engaged to be the most productive.
Traditional office seating is supplemented by ergonomic office furniture that has been adjusted for both sitting and standing with a height-adjustable desk in order to combat the effects of traditional sedentary workplace behavior.
Why is Ergonomic Seating Important?
Adopting ergonomic seating is about designing workplaces for people. It adjusts the traditional perception of office furniture for increased comfort, efficiency, productivity, and health.
Conventional office space with the use of computers and constantly-changing technology has contributed to sedentary workplace sedentary lifestyles. Stiff, fixed posture with little to no movement has led to proven negative effects in employee health and productivity. Ergonomic furniture, including chairs, monitors, desks, keyboards, and even lighting, works to provide daily physical activity and movement while supporting proper posture. Doing so not only encourages an active lifestyle and helps to prevent long-term injuries but also improves blood flow to the brain and increased productivity and efficiency.
Many ergonomic chairs provide adjustable seat height, seat depth, and lumbar support to encourage the spine to sit in good posture. Chairs should be adjustable to allow the user to sit comfortably while also allowing proper lumbar support.
What Are the Benefits of Ergonomic Office Furniture?
Active sitting through ergonomic office furniture and seating can make a large impact on your productivity and health. Some of the best benefits of Ergonomic furniture include:
Reduce Work-Place-Related Injuries
Traditional office spaces require employees to hunch over keywords and sit in chairs for hours on end. Working for hours on equipment that can worsen posture, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle, can cause numerous spine issues and arthritis - among other work-related injuries.
Ergonomic office furniture is designed to alleviate discomfort that can cause these injuries down the road. Furniture such as standing desks, supportive keyboards, and adjustable chairs are designed to support employees by realigning their spine, promoting movement, and fixing bad posture that can all lead to these health problems down the road.
Increase Productivity & Efficiency
Employees who are comfortable are more likely to experience boosts in work productivity, while employees in pain from unhealthy postures and uncomfortable chairs will be distracted from performing high-quality work.
Sitting for extended periods of time can have an effect on work performance. When employees have the ability to stand and work, they increase blood flow to the brain. More blood means more oxygen and energy, allowing their brains to perform better and have enhanced mental clarity.
Improve Employee Well-Being
Comfortable and healthy employees are happy employees, and happiness goes a long way when it comes to greater job satisfaction. Reducing employee pain through ergonomic office furniture can lead to not just greater efficiency, but a less stressful and more comfortable workplace experience.
Additionally, employees would appreciate employers offering healthier alternatives such as ergonomic furniture as it shows employers care about their workplace health.
Ergonomic Seating from OCI Office
At OCI Office, we believe that the highest level of functionality is achieved through simplicity. With our chairs, we replace heavy, complex mechanisms with the sitter’s own body weight and the laws of physics to encourage movement, providing the most comfortable chair available. We have hundreds of ergonomic office furniture options to choose from.
If requested, our in-house Ergonomist/former Physical Therapist will assess your working situation & help you find the best working environment for you. Contact us for more information.
