Whether you exercise regularly or not, sitting for hours at a time each day can still have a negative impact on your health. Some of these issues may not become apparent for years, like heart disease, but others, like a lack of focus and decrease in productivity can be noticeable much sooner. Business owners are directly affected by poor office seating choices for their employees and should consider more ergonomic office chairs for their staff.

How The Wrong Office Chairs Are Costing Your Business Money?

If you employee a number of office workers chances are they are sitting behind a desk for a majority of the day. Sitting for more than three hours a day can lead to a number of health problems but sitting consecutively for prolonged periods of time put individuals at much higher risks. The most common health problems include:

Back pain or strain from sitting and leaning over a desk for too long.

Carpal tunnel caused from poor posture when typing.                                

Leg problems can occur when Office desk are not the appropriate height for employees to sit comfortably at their desks.

Cholesterol increases when individuals sit for more than six hours a day, which increases their risk a heart disease.

Blood sugar levels also change drastically by going up from sitting too much.

Oxygen consumption decreases in individuals who sit for more than six hours a day.

All these health effects can become noticeable within a few weeks. These factors make employee more susceptible to viruses, infections and other illnesses.

All of these factors also contribute to lack of sleep with makes focusing more difficult. Not only do your employees take more sick days but their quality of work suffers a great deal as well. Your office seating has a huge impact on your business productivity and a simple solution to help combat the negative effects is with ergonomic office chairs.

Benefits Of Ergonomic Office Seating:

1.) Ergonomic office chairs can accommodate all your employees. Where standard office chairs can be uncomfortable and not be the suitable height for many, ergonomic chairs can be adjusted to each employee.

2.) Gives employees the proper back and neck support need to work comfortably and maintain proper posture.

3.) Increase in production results from employees being able to properly adjust their chairs in a number of ways that will reduce additional movements and straining.

4.) When combined with an ergonomic desk employees can sit or stand to do their work. This allows them to break up the amount of time they would typically be sitting when using traditional office chairs and desks.

Most businesses do not realise how the office seating they provide their employees can be costing them money in a number of ways. Poor office chairs results in many health problems that force employees to take more sick days and time off. If you are looking for an easy way to increase productivity and increase the quality of work then simply changing the office seating can be the easy solution.

 If you are interested in new and upcoming office chair and furniture design trends, the following are widely expected to dominate much if not all of 2016 and possibly beyond. Every business needs to stay a notch above new trends in order to remain current, relevant and knowledgeable. In addition, some of these trends emphasize on efficiency and productivity. If you are going to host clients and potential ones in your office, then your wooden office chairs, furniture and workstations need to be on check.

Wooden Office Chairs and Furniture that Promote Conversation and Collaboration

No doubt, but the business environment is doing away with cubical segregation and moving towards more open working environments. The introduction of nooks and privacy pods helps change paradigms, which are a growing trend to promoting distraction-free spaces for employees who need to focus on what they are doing. It’s an organic combination of personal space and collaboration.

This trend has had an impact on the styling of the office. Modern executive offices are becoming more detailed, smaller and intricate. As office demands soar in the office, both ordinary and executive employees will need office chairs are comfortable, possibly covered in leather with longer back-rests and able to rotate with minimal effort.

Convertible Workstations

Workstations are increasingly becoming flexible, and so will be office chairs and furniture. Some businesses have converted the standard sit to stand desk to a complete sit to stand workstations. This can be very beneficial to startup businesses that require office furniture that can grow and expand with them.

Although some companies prefer standing meetings instead of sitting, the office will still need to maintain the traditional look of having office desks and chairs. Businesses still need to make their workers and clients feel relaxed and at ease by having spacious, beautifully styled wooden office chairs and desks. This not only boosts your initial impression (for clients), but it also increases productivity among employees.

The Workplace Will Get A Warmly, Homier Look

Having the right office chairs will also give the entire workplace and warm and homely ambience. Getting employees to spend more time in the office because of quality furniture is set to be a trend in 2016. This will include having solid wooden desks, chairs and other furniture that looks more like dining room chairs and tables to compliment the lighting and give the office a traditional and authentic look that resembles the home. A comfortable and inspirational workplace will make employees feel more motivated and creative to get the job done.

Doing Away with Permanent Layouts

Office chair furniture that allows for greater flexibility and does away with permanent layouts will be one trend on the cards for 2016. Furniture should be designed to have elements move independently and move around easily for a more collaborative and dynamic workplace. 

Furnishing an office, whether for a new business or just as part of a refurbishment, can be almost as exciting as decorating your home. You are giving your business' physical presence a new character and a fresh look, and redefining the space in which you spend most of a lot of the day for most of the week.

Seating is, of course, one of the main parts of an office when it comes to furniture. Wooden office chairs are among the best options for a number of important reasons:

Looks

The working day is much more pleasant if the working environment itself is a pleasant one. If you are furnishing your office as part of a refurbishment rather than for the first time, this is most likely at least part of the reason for the overhaul. There are also practical reasons to ensure your office is well decorated. Employees tend to be more productive if they are in a good-looking environment which is stimulating and interesting without being distracting.

Wooden office chairs are among the best-looking around. They are not only practical but also great to look at. They tend to sport either delightfully retro or pleasantly contemporary designs, and there are few materials more pleasing to the eye than smooth, polished, varnished wood. They not only provide a useful seating solution but also help form part of the décor.

Quality

It is always advisable to seek the best-quality office chairs you can within the constraints of your budget. Cheaper but poor-quality office chairs are unlikely to prove practical or cost-effective in the end, as they will not stand up to the kind of heavy usage that goes with an office environment for long.

Wood is an excellent, durable and high-quality material for office seating that lends itself well to long-lasting furniture. Furthermore, wood is now regarded as something of a premium material, and is therefore generally reserved for those chairs that are built to higher standards all around.

Comfort

Comfort is one of the most important things to consider when it comes to seating of any kind and especially office seating. Uncomfortable chairs, especially those which offer only inadequate support for the back, are more than just unpleasant for workers; the discomfort is seriously distracting and over time can turn into unpleasant health problems that require medical intervention. In short, it is bad for individual health and bad for the health of the business through dragging down productivity.

While the choice of wood as an office chair material has little direct impact on the level of comfort that chair offers, wood is generally a material reserved for higher-quality office chairs designed as slightly more premium products. While it isn't set in stone, the general rule is therefore that wooden chairs tend to fall within the more comfortable sections of the market and provide good amounts of spinal support.

Once upon a time, wood was the main material of office chairs. In fact, combined with padded leather and the odd bit of metal here and there, it was the king of office seating materials.

It has since been supplanted by cheap, durable and lightweight plastics, often in combination with aluminium (which has become much more economical to work with over the years). However, there is still a place for wood in the world of workplace seating.

Read more. . . 

Recently, there has been something of a fad for replacing office chairs with exercise balls. On paper, this can look like a good idea. However, most of the claimed advantages behind this are lacking in evidence. What's more, there are a number of hazards associated with using an exercise ball instead of a regular office chair – and these are often not known or glossed over by the people and companies advocating their use.

The Theory

Before discussing the hazards of using exercise ball chairs in place of regular office chairs, it is worth looking at the reasons people make the switch in the first place. In other words, it is necessary to understand the theory behind the idea that this is a god thing to do.

Some people use exercise balls, others use specialist exercise ball chairs. The latter are much like regular chairs in that they have legs and a back. However, in place of the seat they have a large, bulging exercise ball. This means that you cannot sit securely and limply on the seat, but rather your body must make constant, small movements to maintain balance. This (it is claimed) exercises large groups of muscles slowly throughout the day and promotes better back and spinal health.

The Facts

In truth, there is little to no evidence supporting the claims of overall health benefits resulting from exercise ball. Experts are divided on the exact state of affairs, with some believing exercise balls are simply neutral from a health point of view and others believing they can actually cause problems such as spinal compression. There are, however, some definite risks to using them – especially for such prolonged periods as you would if you were using it in place of an office chair.

The greatest risk comes from stability. While your body is quite good at maintaining balance instinctively, when you are working you will not give much attention to doing so. Exercise ball chairs are extremely unstable, so when used for hours upon hours for five days a week the chance of falling off the chair becomes comparatively high.

There is also a danger of the ball collapsing or, if using a straightforward ball rather than a chair, rolling away. Once again, this creates a lot of potential for accidents and injury in a way which just does not apply to a regular, good-quality wooden office chair.

The potential for injury opens up another area of concern, and this one goes beyond the chair's user. When used in the workplace, the fact that exercise balls raise the risk of injury creates concerns about health and safety and employer liability. Employers are legally required to provide a safe environment in which their employees can work (this requirement stands even if you are self-employed and providing a work environment only for yourself). The risks entailed by exercise balls could compromise this and leave employers liable for any injuries that might occur.

Also Read: Top Tips for Good Office Etiquette

Working from home can be rewarding and exceptionally pleasant. However, it also has its fair share of challenges, and in the early days one of these challenges is establishing an effective home office.

An office chair may be a fairly utilitarian object, but it also represents a core part of your home office.

It is important to appreciate quite how important the right choice of office chair is when deciding how much to spend – a question many people struggle with.

Read More . . . .

The range of office chairs out there is truly huge. When it comes to buying seating for an office, you will be presented with everything from cheap-and-cheerful budget chairs to sturdy, ultra-comfortable executive leather office chairs.

It can be tempting to go with lower-cost options, especially if you have a full, busy office to stock and they seem like good value for the money. However, it can be worth spending more for better quality. This doesn't mean giving luxurious leather office chairs to every employee, just securing higher-quality versions of the same type of chair. In particular, there is good reason to choose office chairs designed to withstand long-term, heavy-duty use.

The Importance of Heavy-Duty Chairs

Often, the temptation is to provide management and business owners with luxurious and high-quality leather office chairs which are sumptuously comfortable and designed for extensive use, then use a cheaper bulk-bought solution for the rest of the office. While this principle is sound in theory, it is important not to go too far when sourcing the cheaper chairs and pay not attention to their ability to stand up to heavy use.

Heavy-duty office chairs, whether they be executive wooden office chairs or simple, functional bulk-bought ones, offer a number of significant advantages. These benefits are applicable, desirable and thoroughly worthwhile for every work level and in all parts of the office. Ultimately, it is beneficial to ensure that all chairs are able to withstand extensive use.

Cost-Effective

One reason for choosing heavy-duty office chairs is the simple fact is that offices are heavy-duty environments. Chairs in offices see an awful lot more use than chairs elsewhere. The majority of chairs will be in use for seven or eight hours of the day, during which time their occupants will move around a lot, stand up and sit back down multiple times, and probably lean, swivel and wheel their chairs in various directions.

Even if you feel that budget chairs are cheap enough for regular replacement, the truth is that less-than-sturdy office chairs are not probably going to last long at all. For this reason, low-quality office chairs really do tend to be a false economy when compared to heavy-duty alternatives. In the long run, good-quality heavy-duty chairs are likely to outweigh their higher costs with a much longer service life.

Convenient

Cost isn't the only difference between lower-quality office chairs that are replaced comparatively frequently and heavy-duty alternatives that provide a long service life. Frequent replacement of office chairs is also inconvenient, and can potentially impact on productivity.

When office chairs break, it tends to happen unexpectedly. If you are very unlucky, it might render the chair unusable and leave you with the trouble of finding a replacement fast. Alternatively, it might make the chair less comfortable and practical for the employee. This is irritating and distracting, reducing productivity, and adds to the workload of whoever is responsible for ordering new chairs.

Every employee requires a suitable place to work, and office environments can impact significantly on overall productivity. Employees who benefit from an appropriate, practical and pleasant workplace tend to get more work done and be more focussed.

There are a number of factors that go into crafting an office environment that is practical and geared towards productivity. These include:

Equipment and Layout

Any worker, from manual labourers to city professionals, will need the right tools for the job. Installing the right equipment in an office is one of the things that most obviously impacts on productivity, and is a vital factor in getting the best performance from a workforce.

The majority of offices will need the bare necessities: a desk, chair and computer with appropriate software. These things are hard enough to overlook, but many offices would benefit from going beyond these simple necessities. For instance, the use of multiple screens can improve employee efficiency in offices by anything from 9-15%, according to a study by Vibe. It minimises the need to move between different windows, speeding up research-based tasks as well as simple activities like cutting and pasting.

Comfort

Employee comfort is important for productivity as well as for the health of your employees. When employees are in pain or discomfort, they will naturally be distracted from their work and less focussed, and this will leave its mark on productivity.

Seating is one of the most important considerations in keeping employees comfortable. Ergonomic seating that provides a healthy, comfortable seating position will reduce discomfort and aid employee focus. There is a huge range of ergonomic office seating solutions available, from classic wooden office chairs to modern mesh models, so there is certainly no availability problem when it comes to ensuring your office workers are all sitting comfortably.

Seating is not the only comfort consideration. Desk layout is another important factor. All important items such as keyboard and mouse should be within easy reach, and if multiple screens are used then employees should be able to see them all without twisting or stretching their neck. Another example is temperature control. Few things are more distracting than a hot-and-stuffy or freezing-cold office, so ensure that offices are well-regulated and well-ventilated throughout the year.

Aesthetics

Aesthetic factors can also play a role in boosting the productivity of your employees. When people have a pleasant working environment in which they feel at their ease, they can better focus on their work.

Lighting is one of the most important aesthetic considerations, but also one of the most difficult to get right. Opinion is divided on whether well-lit offices increase productivity, while others insist they are distracting. One thing is clear though: natural light is better than artificial light. Try to maximise the amount of natural sunlight flowing into the office in order to get the best performance out of employees.

Clutter is another important aesthetic point to consider. Cluttered offices are full of distractions and generally less pleasant to be in, and the result of this is reduced productivity. Ensure that employees have access to drawers or shelving, and that there are plenty of filing cabinets to keep the clutter neatly tidied away.