Ensure a safe workplace with ergonomic furniture

Back, neck, wrist and shoulders - these are the battlegrounds in the war against workplace injury, especially for those who work in an office or spend long periods sitting. The good news is that there is plenty of information available to help SMEs manage health and safety risks. Along with training, supplying ergonomic furniture is one of the keys to preserving physical health of your employees.

OH&S and your office

Melissa Ratcliffe is the national sales manager of Vision Office Furniture. She says one of the first things to consider is space planning and office set-up.

That includes:

• Primary space: amenities, meeting rooms, common areas
• Secondary space: thoroughfares, archiving rooms, storage space
• Tertiary space: room workstation has to fit a desk, chair, filing cabinet, printers, faxes and other office equipment.

Happily, much of the office equipment available today already accounts for occupational health and safety (OH&S) through ergonomic design, especially the chairs.

Office chairs

"The chair is a key element of making your office safe, because there are so many types of bodies and backs and sizes," says Melissa. 

"They need a tilt on the seat, height adjustment to cater for the correct feet position and back adjustment to keep people sitting upright."

Melissa discourages arm rests on chairs, as it can be difficult getting close enough to the computer. But if you require them, she suggests height-adjustable ones.

"As a company is not going to pick a unique chair for each staff member, if they stick to a fully ergonomic chair they can minimise risk," she says. 

Identifying risks

Common hazards to look out for in the workplace include:

• Mechanical hazards: filing cabinets, office machinery or process machinery
• Electrical hazards: exposed cabling, unsafe power points, overloaded power boards, temporary lighting 
• Physical hazards: noise or brightness, poor job design practices, unergonomic furniture causing musculoskeletal injuries
• Chemical hazards: photocopier toner, improperly stored cleaning products
• Thermal hazards: positioning of heating/cooling ducts, proximity to windows or heat-shedding office equipment, draughts

Try before you buy

If you are unsure about the appropriateness of your ergonomic office furniture, Melissa suggests testing the products first. 

"We often deliver three or four chair options to a business so they can test how they will work in the environment," she says.

"After staff have tested them, we can talk about what worked, what didn't, and can sometimes combine the successful elements of different products to create a purpose design." 

Get the right advice

When it comes to OH&S, not all office equipment is created equal. To get the right advice on ergonomic furniture and minimise the health and safety risks to your staff, speak to a specialist in office equipment today.