Large numbers of people in industrialized countries spend 90% of their day sitting down. This has serious implications for their health. However, there are office furniture designs to help reduce this threat and also to help create a more positive office environment.
If you want to provide your office workers with healthy and comfortable furniture, try the healthy chair and these 4 other office furniture innovations.
1. Healthy Chair
The healthy chair is about ergonomic design. Ergonomics is the science of designing products for optimum human use. The office chair has been transformed by ergonomic design into a highly customizable work tool.
We are all different sizes and shapes so no one shaped chair can be right for all of us. Being able to adjust the height, angle, and back support of a chair is essential for dealing with sitting back pain. This is especially important for the computer worker.
2. Stand Up Desk
Many of us find that we lead sedentary lives. Sitting down at work is followed by sitting in the car. Later in the evening, we sit for hours in front of the TV.
Being physically inactive is bad for our health. “The chair is out to kill us“, says James Levine from the Mayo School of Medicine. We are designed for walking, not sitting so it’s hardly surprising that we are damaging our bodies by sitting so much.
Stand-up desks are an innovative response to the back pain problem. The best stand-up desks are height adjustable so you can alternate between sitting and standing. Try having a stand-up meeting. The energy levels do seem to be higher.
In addition to higher energy levels, lower health risks, and increased productivity, there are other benefits to a sit-to-stand desk. You use extra calories standing rather than sitting and posture is improved.
3. Hot Desk
Having a work area where anybody can show up and plug in is an increasingly common sight in offices. A hot desk, or shared workspace, is a large desk space with facilities to connect laptops to power and the internet or intranet. Several people can use the area but nobody can claim the space for exclusive use.
This is great for a mobile or flexible workforce. The team-based approach of many businesses means the idea of a fixed location for your desk is redundant. People need to be able to move about, work from home, or drop into the office, as needed.
4. Color in the Workplace
There was a time when offices were bland non-descript places with little style or character. The functional space didn’t seem to need color. All that has changed.
As work environments are understood to impact productivity, color is one of the factors to consider. Furniture and the decor can offer color options to affect mood and the attractiveness of the workplace.
5. Sleep Pods
There was a time when sleeping on the job was regarded as a firing offense. Not so now. Google is incorporating sleep pods in their offices to allows staff to take short naps.
The variations on beds, chairs and specialized pods mean that staff can return to work refreshed by the power nap. Reduced stress levels and increased engagement may be the results.
Move with the Times
The world of work is changing and it’s not just the healthy chair. Technology, organizational design, and human resource management are responding to this too. The world of office design and furniture needs to adapt as well.
To learn more about the changing work environment and how you can improve your space, contact us today.
