10 Ergonomic Design Guidelines For A Comfortable Work Environment
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Is your workplace’s design appealing, or do you reach there and look forward to the end of the day?
These ergonomic design guidelines can help you with that.
Do you get the most comfortability from your working place?
If you do then, you enjoy your office’s ergonomic design, and most probably, your productivity and creativity are on another level since your employers have followed important ergonomic design guidelines.
From furniture to the incredible look of the work environment, don’t underestimate what ergonomic design guidelines can do for your employers and the impact they can have on your services.
A significant interaction of the employers with the work environment is proof that you are giving good care and consideration to their physical needs and the design guidelines are being met well enough.
Ergonomic designs in a workspace aim to ensure the workers are comfortable; it fulfills what the employees need to do smoothly.
This article outlines some ergonomic design guidelines you should consider in your design process that will ensure that you are comfortable, productive, and enjoy your work scope.
Before you continue, check out some of these most popular ergonomic products:
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- GEL INFUSED CHAIR CUSHIONS: Our office chair cushions for back and butt feature innovative gel infused memory foam....
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Last update on 2023-08-23 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Table of Contents
10 Most Important Ergonomic Design Guidelines
Let’s go ahead and get started with our list of the 10 most important ergonomic design guidelines to consider in your design process for a comfortable work environment.
1. Come Up With A Healthy Work Station
If you’re trying to consider ergonomic design guidelines, the first of 10 ergonomic design guidelines you need to consider for your design process is the workstation.
As an employer, you will notice that some employees are always dull during work.
Some may seem restless and want to wake up from their seats frequently to stretch themselves before returning to what they are working on.
Most probably, they are uncomfortable, to the extent of experiencing pain when they sit for long since they have followed poor design guidelines.
A few hours sitting with them may seem like a decade.
It’s time to keenly look at the workspace, from the desks to the chairs and the surrounding working space.
Your working chair can be unsuitable if its size doesn’t fit you properly and pose an ergonomics risk at times, the working desk may be too long or too short such that you strain while working.
The positioning of the monitor and keyboard will also affect your comfortability.
These and many other issues can affect your comfortability and pose an ergonomics risk but they are easy to solve by following a few ergonomic design guidelines.
It all begins by selecting the right office equipment, which will suit you without straining or assuming funny postures.
The guide here will show you what to look for when selecting the right workstation equipment that is durable, efficient and will serve to improve on the comfortability of your employees leading to improved productivity and efficiency in any task that they are supposed to handle.
Before working, ensure you adjust your chair positions to a point where you feel comfortable and not straining your back as you work.
The workstation arrangements should be attractive and easy to navigate; this way, your productivity, and concentration will be excellent since it’s one of the most important ergonomic design guidelines there are.
Your working area needs to suit profession and size; ensure you consider this while coming up with your workspace, or if you are an employer, ensure you give the employer a suitable working space.
2. Maintain A Good Working Posture
The second of our 10 ergonomic design guidelines to consider in your workplace design process is maintaining a good working posture.
You don’t need to work in an enterprise where employees are frequently absent from work due to ailments such as back pain, headaches, and general body pains.
Maintaining the correct working posture is vital in avoiding this as it prevents the employees from straining as they deliver their day to day tasks and enhances their comfortability.
An excellent working posture goes beyond the equipment being used in the workplace, as it is a skill that you require to learn and implement.
Healthy employees are proven to be more productive, and for sure, you need your company or business soaring great heights.
Whether you are working while standing or sitting, a neutral position is recommended, as it will make sure that you work for long hours without straining one side of your body and reduce the ergonomics risk.
If your work requires that you sit for long hours, ensuring that your feet are at a footrest, your shoulders are well relaxed, your back is well supported, and your forearms are parallel to the ground is essential for your general well-being.
The guide will inform you of the best postures that you should maintain while working in different workspaces.
Some jobs, such as in manufacturing companies, involve standing for the better part of the working hours which is a large ergonomics risk.
Maintaining a neutral and straight position while standing, with your arms well relaxed and your feet maintaining a neutral posture, can never be a wrong decision as it will ensure you’re working comfortably, and hence you’re very productive in any task that is assigned to you.
An excellent working posture prevents cramping and therefore enhances proper blood circulation, which boosts your productivity as you have the energy to tackle the work assigned to you efficiently.
Maintaining the right posture is not complete if you do not take regular breaks within your work scope.
Taking short breaks where you can stretch and break from a monotonous schedule is essential for your general health, and reduces extreme fatigue as being in one position for a long time can be tiresome.
Do you know that maintaining a good posture enables muscles to coordinate efficiently hence utilizing less energy?
3. Install Proper Lighting
The third of our 10 ergonomic design guidelines you should consider in your design process is proper lighting.
Lighting is as important as having proper sanitation within your working environment.
Eye strain has become a common problem among employees and is a huge ergonomics risk, especially to employees with underlying eye conditions, the damage caused is irreversible.
Installing high-quality light bulbs in the proper way will provide enough light, especially for your early morning or late-night employees, is very important for their health.
Proper lighting goes beyond the bulbs and products.
Large and well-ventilated windows are a vital improvement for letting enough natural light to your working space.
Well-fitted windows ensure visual comfort and balanced light levels, and this enhances your comfortability while working.
Proper lighting not only allows sufficient light to your space but also adds on that elegance of your dull room and highlights the colors and features of your area, and this goes a long way in enhancing your comfortability as you work.
Proper lighting is also essential for your employees’ security or you as an employee as you don’t want your safety compromised by having dark corridors or offices, which pose a dangerous risk to you.
The guide will aid you in finding the best lighting techniques that will enhance your comfort and hence increase your productivity levels.
When your employees are exposed to high levels of natural light, they are exposed to the intake of vitamin D, which has a positive impact on the mood of your employees, reduces the ergonomics risk and this leads to outstanding performances from these employees.
Proper lighting is one of the most important ergonomic design guidelines and should be kept in mind at every workspace.
4. Get Adjustable Chairs And Desks
The fourth of our 10 ergonomic design guidelines is having adjustable chairs and desks.
As an employer, you want to increase the productivity and efficiency of your employees?
Then follow our ergonomic design guidelines and invest in adjustable chairs and desks that are going to enhance the comfort of your employees.
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Last update on 2023-08-23 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
In any company or enterprise, we have different employees, and investing in adjustable chairs and desks allows your employees to adjust them to the favorable height and position.
This minimizes injuries, reduces fatigue, and enhances the productivity of your employees by reducing the ergonomics risk.
The right adjustable chairs and desks improve on the employees’ focus to the task assigned to them as they don’t have to keep moving looking for a comfortable position that is going to reduce on straining levels.
Adjustable desks are also cost-effective as they allow employees of different body types and sizes to use the same desk while receiving the same comfort level and this maximizes space, therefore, small offices can be able to use their small spaces efficiently for a large number of employees.
Having an adjustable chair allows you to reposition the chair to your desired height and is a great improvement over conventional chairs.
This will enable you to attain the right posture while working, which increases your efficiency on the task assigned.
The guide here will help you find the best, most comfortable, and long-lasting adjustable chairs and desks that will change your working space for the better.
Adjustable chairs and desks also allow you to maximize space and are therefore are a part of one of the most useful ergonomic design guidelines.
Therefore, you can put small spaces into good use where they can accommodate more employees while still maintaining adequate working space between employees.
5. Maintain Proper Display Height And Distance
Maintaining the proper display height of monitors and other equipment is essential and is the fifth of our ergonomic design guidelines.
This reduces the ergonomics risk which causes eye and neck strain and affects your productivity and the final output of the task assigned to you.
Straining causes discomfort and may lead to musculoskeletal pains, which, in turn, affects the efficiency of your employee.
The interval between you and the monitor should be considered in that you should not place the monitor far away from you, as that will force you to lean forward so that you can be able to work efficiently and this is going to strain your neck.
It would help if you didn’t place it too close as that will cause your eyes’ squinting, which causes eye strain, which can lead to headaches or other complications.
It would be best if you also took regular breaks from the monitor that is a break after approximately 20 minutes continuously working to reduce eye damage.
The guide will help you identify the best ways to maintain the proper display height and distance to help you in your productivity.
Other factors, such as the brightness of the screen, should also be considered to protect your eyes’ health.
The monitor’s positioning is also key in that it should be placed in a position that eliminates glare on the screen and, therefore, makes it easy for you to use the view the screen comfortably.
The angle at which the monitor is placed is also essential as you don’t want to buy funny postures to work efficiently from a wrong angle set to monitor, and hence the monitor should be placed right in front of you.
It’s an important part of our ergonomic design guidelines since it can greatly affect productivity and health as well.
Here are some of the guidelines on the position of the monitor while you are using it described by the ergonomic equation.
6. Avoid Repetitive Movement
Doing the same task over and over again is not only dull but also tiresome.
Thus, the sixth of our 10 ergonomic design guidelines is avoiding repetitive movement.
As an employer, you should make sure that your employees can change their everyday routine and have opportunities to try out new tasks within the company.
This will boost your employees’ morale, and they will be able to gain more energy and hence increase their productivity.
The repetitive movement also inhibits creativity as your employees have already perfected their line of work.
Therefore, assigning them new roles allows them to try out new areas, enhancing your employees’ efficiency.
The guide shows you how to identify, create new roles, and avoid repetitive motions.
It’s also essential to introduce compulsory breaks in your area of work such as off days, team-building days, and others so that your employees can break from their monotonous activities which allows them to re-energize and reduce fatigue, enhancing their productivity.
You can also do the reshuffling of employees in a multitude of ways and different departments after a set period to break on the daily routine that your employees are used to.
Changing the setup of your area of work regularly also goes a long way in reducing repetitive movement as a new setup changes the working space’s general outlook, which has an impact on the human brain that senses a change.
For sure, a change is as good as rest and thus resting is an important part of our ergonomic design guidelines.
7. Keep Hydrated And Take Meals
The seventh of our 10 ergonomic design guidelines is monitoring hydration and nutrition.
As an employer, you may discover that most of your employees don’t take their meals as required, and they rarely take water.
For increased productivity, you must ensure that your employees take care of their bodies as required, which involves taking meals as needed.
Water is essential for your employees’ well-being as keeping hydrated retains energy, boosts metabolism, and reduces fatigue, which will therefore increase the productivity of your employees.
Dehydration can also lead to more complications, such as headaches, which affect your employees’ efficiency.
Taking meals is equally important for job success in your area of work as, without the required meals, you won’t have the required energy to perform the tasks that it’s necessary to.
Therefore meals are essential for the productivity of your employees.
Having time for meals and taking water allows the employees to recharge and take short breaks from their tight schedules.
The guide shows the importance of keeping hydrated and taking meals at your workplace while still checking on time and increasing productivity.
You find that in your company, employees take meals from a commonplace.
Therefore, meals promote the interaction between employees, enhancing cooperation, and go a long way in improving the relationship among your employees.
This, in turn, fosters unity that leads to increased productivity in your company and is thus one of the most important ergonomic design guidelines.
Keeping hydrated and taking meals also allows your employees to practice healthy habits while at work, and healthy employees are happy and very productive.
8. Have Accessible Accessories
The eighth of our 10 ergonomic design guidelines is keeping important accessories readily available.
Reporting to your place of your on-time ready to perform your task with diligence and efficiency can be discouraging if you don’t have access to accessories around the office.
These accessories include the mouse, documents, files, among others hand tools that are used on a daily basis.
Inaccessible hand tools and accessories lead to wastage of a lot of time as your employees try to access them from wherever they are.
They also reduce your employees’ morale as they lead to delayed submission of tasks assigned, which can lead to conflicts within your company.
Having accessible hand tools and accessories also enhances organization as your employees can locate them quickly, which has a substantial positive impact on your employees’ overall performance as the organization enhances comfortability.
The guide shows you the best ways in which you can be able to make accessories available to your employees conveniently.
Accessible accessories, products, and hand tools prevent your employees from straining as they try to get access to the few accessories available and go a long way in improving their performance.
Even though it’s one of the most easily overlooked ergonomic design guidelines, it has a remarkable impact on their productivity as reduced straining promotes a healthy and motivated employee.
9. Keep Office Temperatures At The Right Level
The ninth of our 10 ergonomic design guidelines is maintaining optimal temperatures in the office.
The right temperatures have a significant impact on the overall performance of your employees.
It ensures that your employees are comfortable within their scope of work, and this boosts their concentration.
Therefore, they can work efficiently, leading to outstanding returns, a plus for your business or company.
Too much heat can cause discomfort to your employees as they are going to sweat, and as a result, they become dehydrated which affects their performance.
Simultaneously, when it’s too cold, the employees employ the wrong postures as they try to retain heat due to the cold which will cause straining, especially to their shoulders and legs, which can lead to pains that affect the productivity of your employees.
Temperatures go beyond affecting the productivity of your employees.
They affect the health and general well-being of your employees.
As you don’t want increased absenteeism due to your company’s health problems, you must invest in temperature regulating appliances for increased productivity and good overall performance.
The guide here will help you identify the best temperature regulating appliances and their impact on your company’s well-being.
The right temperature conditions have a natural way of enhancing the relaxation of the human body which is why it’s an important part of our ergonomic design guidelines.
Hence, when your employees are relaxed, their productivity improves, and their creativity level is enhanced.
10. Take Regular Breaks
Our tenth and final of our 10 ergonomic design guidelines is a very simple one; resting.
Rest is essential for every employee for they cannot afford to work like robots without having time for a breather.
For you to have healthy and productive employees, they need to have time to take a break from their monotonous job where they can re-energize and stretch to reduce fatigue levels.
Taking regular breaks from a task that needs many hours to complete helps increase your employees’ efficiency as they can be able to exercise their bodies, giving them more zeal to tackle the remaining tasks with motivation and this enhances the productivity of your employees.
Being in the same position for a long time can cause stress to the part of the body that is doing the task.
This may cause long-term complications to continuous straining of your back may cause spinal problems in the future.
Ultimately this will reduce your productivity and poses a risk to your health.
Regular breaks also help reduce the stress levels of your employees.
This to the company’s advantage as employees with a healthy mental status is productive and creative at the same time as they can work efficiently.
They also assist in processing and retaining information as working continuously for long hours can cause one to lose concentration due to fatigue.
This reduces the retaining levels of information by the employee which is why it’s an extremely important part of our ergonomic design guidelines.
The breaks also reduce conflicts between you and your employees as they can work efficiently, and therefore, there’s no room for mistakes caused by the overworking of employees.
The guide will assist you in identifying the best plan that you can employ in your working space that will allow you or your employees to work while finding time for a breather for increased productivity.
Some other great ergonomic products that our readers buy and love:
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Last update on 2023-08-23 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Final Thoughts
As an employer, if you need to increase your employees’ productivity, you have to set a well-laid and comfortable working environment.
While doing so, it’s very important to keep these ergonomic design guidelines in mind.
A comfortable working environment is a motivation for employees and has a significant impact on their overall performance.
Comfort often has a happy impact on people, and therefore it’s essential to ensure that your employees are happy if you want outstanding results from them.
A comfortable working environment not only affects the productivity of their employees but also their health and well-being.
They don’t have room for conflicts which enhances unity in your company, which, in the long run, leads to increased productivity.
I know you are looking forward to the increased productivity and overall performance of your employees, therefore, all you have to do is invest in their working space and make it as comfortable as possible, and you’ll never regret that decision.
Following these ergonomic design guidelines can help you in improving your work environment and in the long run the productivity of your employees.
