What is ergonomics?
Ergonomics is the study of the interactions between people and their environment. Ergonomics is neither a positive or negative term but rather it describes the relationship between employees and their workspace.
Why is ergonomics important in the office?
When you can spend up to 12 hours a day at your desk, making sure that you have positive and healthy ergonomic relationship is crucial. Providing the right office setup will be the best investment in yourself or your staff you can make. Recent scientific studies indicate that not only will employees be more comfortable and have increased morale, but they will also work more effectively.
Additionally, designing more suitable work environments is extremely important in safeguarding ourselves against the development of painful musculoskeletal injuries and other physical discomforts associated with prolonged work periods.
What can you to do improve the ergonomic situation in your office?
To make sure you have the most positive relationship with your surroundings, it’s important you carefully consider your office furniture. It’s essential that your office chair offers proper alignment and support to the upper body, shoulders and back. Back support is a crucial ergonomic element as it aids breathing, provides comfort and promotes the ‘ideal’ posture.
Important things to keep a look out for when making chair purchases include; chairs that allow for natural body movement and offer custom fit support to the lower and upper back. Tension adjustable controls and height adjustable lumbers are also important. Chairs with these characteristics will offer you the most benefits.
It’s also important to remember that different body shapes will be suited to different chairs. Krost offers a full selection of high quality office seating, that is designed to offer support for extended periods of office work.
What else?
In addition to choosing the right office furniture, users must know how to use and configure their workspace appropriately. There are a number of handy tricks that can instantly make your workspace more user friendly. For a quick and general guideline of these ‘rules’ please refer to the ergonomics section of our website.
It’s also important to remember that even though you should aim to be in the most ergonomically correct position for the majority of the time seated, it is not healthy to maintain the same position for too long. You should temporarily change positions, stretch or allow the chair to be in free-recline to relieve some muscles and activate others.
More detailed tips on workplace ergonomics can be found here.