As an employer, one of the areas you need to provide and have control over is your employees’ workspace. Employees are more productive when the employers set up a conducive environment that’s out of harm’s way or office injuries – essentially, a comfortable and ergonomic workspace!

Not only does this keep your employees safe and healthy, but initiating efforts for the well-being of your employees puts forward your qualities of a caring and concerned employer, encouraging your employees to become more efficient at the workplace.

Looking for pointers on how to choose the right furniture to achieve this? We show you how.

Choose Ergonomic Office Furniture

If you ever want to increase office productivity, you will need to start by creating an ergonomic office environment. Ergonomic is the art of arranging set-ups to accommodate the overall well-being of a person.

Ergonomic office furniture is specially designed to promote proper body postures for your employees. This is the first step to curbing illnesses and diseases related to muscles, bones, and nerves. A study found that out of ten Malaysians, nine of them spend a minimum of six hours a day at their working desk.

Prolonged sitting can be the primary cause of severe backache as it puts tremendous pressure on your back muscles and spinal discs. Plus, sitting in a bad posture for an extended period increases stress on your neck, arms, and legs. This gets worse when you are not practising proper posture, as this strains your spinal ligaments too! This leads to periodic suffering from neck and back pain – the common reason employees take sick days off work regularly.

This is where ergonomics comes in. Ergonomic office furniture is an excellent solution for minimising (or even preventing altogether) your employees’ work injuries. Remember, investing in good quality office furniture is equivalent to investing in your employees’ wellness and business productivity.

Now, let’s look at some qualities that distinguish the following ergonomic office furniture from ordinary ones.

Ergonomic Office Chair

Ergonomic office chairs are exclusively designed to promote good sitting posture. It has unique features to support your employee’s body and prevents discomfort. A good ergonomic chair supports the spine and promotes the natural position of the joints. It also aligns the spine, shoulders, and hips.

How does the furniture attain this level of functionality? It comes with a high level of adjustability. You can adjust ergonomic office chairs to suit and support any body type. It allows your employees to focus better on work rather than the discomfort they suffer due to bad sitting posture – this leads to increased focus leads that enhances productivity!

Here are some of the key features to look out for with an ergonomic office chair:

Adjustable seat depth

A proper seat depth should leave around two to four inches of space between the back of your knees and the edge of your seat. Otherwise, your knees would be strained by undue pressure. With an ergonomic office chair, proper seat depth is achievable by any employee.

Adjustable seat height

To attain the right height, you must ensure that your forearms are aligned with your work desk and that your feet remain flat on the floor. An ergonomic chair comes with a gas lift that allows your employees to adjust the height accordingly.

Adjustable armrests

Armrests prevent pressure on your arms and provide sufficient support for your shoulders. Your employees would be able to adjust the armrest to maintain a comfortable ninety degrees angle of their arms’ position. This will also allow them to relax their shoulder muscles.

A sturdy back support

Ergonomic office chairs provide maximum support for your back, especially the lumbar part of your spine. It relieves your hips and lower spine from tremendous pressure. The shape of the back support and the fabric it’s made of properly support the natural curve of your spine and pay exclusive attention to protecting your lumbar region.

Base with five casters and wheels

A base with five wheels improves the chair’s balance, reducing the chances of your employees tipping over when sliding from table to table for inter-work communication. This indirectly promotes better communication in the workspace. Not to mention, five casters increase the chair’s strength as well – saving you from the cost of regular replacements!

Proper Work Desk

Spending a lot of time at the wrong type of work desk ruins your body in the long run. A poor work desk setup can affect your nerves and give you sore wrists along with various other discomforts.

With proper work desks, your employees can be relieved from straining their upper body muscles as it promotes proper posture while working at the desk – from typing on the keyboard to moving between paperwork and focusing on the computer screen. It ensures the arms, neck, shoulders, and eyes are in natural and healthy positions while working.

In order to choose a proper work desk, you will need to look into its positioning and sizing. Consider a desk with a keyboard drawer as these will help position the arms and wrists in a more relaxed position. The desk also needs to be high enough for the screen to appear face forward for the employee. With the right desk, this can save both the employers and employees from the cost of hefty medical bills.

Ergonomics Sofa For Office

Like all other ergonomic office furniture, ergonomic office sofas are built with the user’s comfort and safety in mind. If you have a resting lounge in your office for your employees, you should consider getting an ergonomic sofa. This helps to minimise strain on your employees’ muscles and bones, which in turn reduces body pain after work. Resting in improper posture causes on-an-off back and neck pain.

However, finding a sofa that meets every individual’s body type is near to impossible as sofas are commonly shared by many people. So, to reach the best possible outcome, look for a sofa that’s firm instead of a squishy sofa that would make you feel like you’re sitting on a cloud. The reason being a firm sofa would save you and your employees from ruining your pelvis and spine in the long run as it gives no firm support for your postures.

Of course, you would expect comfortable cushioning on your sofa but make sure it’s not too soft that your body receives no support at all. So, look for sofas that come with cushions that have foam density rating of a minimum of 2.4, and ensure the body is positioned at a 90-degree angle while sitting.

Improving work productivity with Maxim Furniture

When you take pride in ensuring a safe and conducive environment for your workforce, you’ve directly got the upper hand in improving the productivity of your employees in the long run. Enhancing the quality of your work environment is the key to the success of any organisation as it promotes excellent results and excites the employees to get their job done efficiently.

No matter if you’re purchasing office furniture for a brand new workspace or you’re simply reorganising and refurbishing your current workspace for a change of environment – if you’re looking for a premium quality office furniture store in Malaysia, do pay a visit to your nearest Maxim Furniture’s showroom, or call us to speak to our furniture experts!