Happy National Ergonomics Month!

So what is National Ergonomics Month?

In 2003, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) designated October as National Ergonomics Month (NEM). NEM has grown to become an opportunity for ergonomists, human factors and user experience professionals to promote our science, practice and value to corporate executives, students, and the general public by providing information and services to our communities. (source)

What exactly does ergonomics mean?

Ergonomics is the study of people’s efficiency in their working environment. Many companies study Ergonomics, and use their findings to develop products that will help improve people’s comfort-ability and productivity while using their product. Car manufacturers, Construction companies, Transportation companies, Educational organizations, the Healthcare Industry, and obviously Furniture manufacturers all use the study of Ergonomics to help them produce products and/or services to successfully practice ergonomics in their everyday lives.desk_ergonomics

Ergonomists study body sizes and shapes, muscles, strength, hearing, vision, they study environmental elements such as noise, light, heat, cold, and they study psychological elements such as learning skills, errors, differences, communication, and behaviors. (source)

In the Furniture industry, ergonomics is more defined as “the science of fitting workplace conditions and job demands to the capabilities of the working population.”(source)

Ergonomics Plus offers these statistics:

  • The average adult now spends 50-70% of the day sitting at work. (source)
  • 7% of all adults in the United States are obese. (source)
  • Musculoskeletal disorders account for about one-third of all injury and illness costs of U.S. businesses. (source)
  • Our nation’s poor health is causing health care costs to grow at an unsustainable rate, quickly outpacing average household income. (source)

Since that first statistic says it all – that we spend tons of time sitting in our offices – furniture is the most important factor in an office space. The first aspect to pay attention to relates back to our “Posture Factors into Ergonomics” blog post, which is to make sure the worker has enough space to accommodate their posture which translates into their ratio of monitor height, monitor viewing distance, and desk height.

Choosing which chair is used is also a very important aspect of workspace ergonomics. The chair needs to fit the worker’s body shape, the seat should be comfortable and height adjustable, it should have lumbar support, armrests, enough hip room, a large back rest, preferably a 5 pedestal base, and swivel ability.  (source)

To ensure the workspace accommodates the proper desk height for the worker, height adjustable desks may be necessary, plus this will offer option of incorporating sit-to-stand work habits if desired by the worker. “Recent research suggests that electronic sit-stand workstations, that can be quickly adjusted, allow each worker to modify the height of their worksurface throughout the day, and this may reduce musculoskeletal discomfort and improve work performance.” (source)