Ergonomics in the office

There is significant scope for organisations to improve efficiency, health and safety and employee satisfaction by applying ergonomics in the working environment. Ergonomically designed workplaces, equipment and jobs aim to modify the environment to meet people's needs. There are many such needs within the office environment. The preliminary requirement for office furniture is that it is safe and stable and does not expose users to the foreseeable risk of injury. To achieve this, the furniture must comply with the appropriate European or British standards for structural strength, safety and stability.

Workstations and chairs – a holistic approach

The worksurface of a desk should be large enough to accommodate all equipment and paperwork in an arrangement acceptable to the user. As different jobs require different equipment, it is not possible to produce a generic ideally sized desk. Therefore, desk design should be modular to allow expansion or reduction as task demands change. The shape should fit the anatomy of people - people's arms move in an arc, for example. In other words, desks that curve around the user allow comfortable access to a larger area. Wave fronted desks achieve this better than L-shaped workstations. The dimensions for desks are given in BS EN 527 part 1 (Office Furniture - work tables and desks: dimensions) and BS EN ISO 9241 part 5 (Ergonomic requirements for office work with VDTs - workstation layout and postural requirements). The height of the desk should be suitable for everyone who is required to use the workstation. If the desk is non-adjustable, a height of 720mm can accommodate 90 per cent of the population. However, shorter users would require a footrest to enable them to achieve a satisfactory working posture. A height adjustable desk (from 660mm to 900mm) can accommodate everyone without a footrest. As the majority of office tasks today involve the use of a visual display unit (VDU), the depth of the worksurface should be great enough to ensure that the user is not too close to the display screen. This is known as the eye to monitor distance. The optimum eye to monitor distance for a small (15 inch) monitor in the seated position is 600mm. However, users have different preferences and distances between 450mm and 750mm are acceptable. As the screen size increases so does the eye to monitor distance. The minimum depth of the surface will, therefore, depend upon the preferred eye to monitor distance of the user and the type of monitor. Conventional CRT screens require a much deeper desk than flat screens. Flat screens do not mean that the desk depth can be reduced, however, because people still have legs that need to be accommodated. There should also be an additional space of 100mm in front of the keyboard for users to rest their wrists. For seated work, sufficient clearance between the underside of the worksurface and the floor and between the legs of the worksurface is needed. This allows the user to change position to maintain comfort levels and eases the use of VDU equipment and associated tasks because there is room for thighs, knees, lower legs and feet. BS EN 527 part 1 states that to read more