A Guide to Ergonomics in the Workplace to Boost Productivity
Do you ever come home from work with a headache and an aching back? If so, you’re not alone.
Many office workers suffer aches and pains each day, often caused by an improper workstation. If your desk, chair, and monitor aren’t positioned correctly, it can impact your posture, health, and vision.
To solve this, use ergonomics in the workplace to improve your desk for the better. What is ergonomics?
Simply, it’s the way of setting up a workplace in a way that’s most comfortable and healthy for the worker.
If you’re just getting started, keep reading for our guide to using ergonomics to boost productivity and keeping staff healthy.
Identify Any Potential Issues
The first step to ergonomics is to identify any issues so that you can fix them. Do you ever suffer from back or neck pain in the workplace? Eye strain? RSI?
If so, you can use an ergonomic desk, keyboard, and mouse to help ease your discomfort. Give some thought to how you feel after a long day of sitting at your desk, so that you know what you need to adjust.
Adjust Your Desk and Monitor Height
To reduce eye strain and back issues, you need to adjust your ergonomic chair so that your wrists and forearms are parallel with your keyboard, when sitting up straight.
You also want your monitor to be at eye height, so you can look straight ahead to view your computer screen. If it’s too high or low, this may impact your posture, as you’ll be slouching or straining your neck to read the screen.
Invest in Ergonomically-Friendly Equipment
You’ll need the right tools to ensure staff are comfortable at their desks. Often, this includes a footrest, gel mouse pads, ergonomic keyboards, and a keyboard mouse designed to support your hands and wrist.
Although it may seem like extra expenses, investing in the right tools will keep your employees happy, healthy, and free from workplace-related injuries.
Improving workplace productivity can also be done with a range of online tools and apps, including Microsoft 365.
Encourage Staff to Take Regular Breaks from Their Computer
It may seem counterproductive, but you actually need to take regular breaks to increase your productivity in the office. Desk-based workers can easily develop eye strain from staring at a computer too long—this causes headaches, red, itchy eyes, and neck pain, which makes it impossible to work.
To avoid this, take a short break every hour to step away from your computer, get some fresh air, or work on another task. Movement throughout the day is important, as our bodies weren’t designed to sit at desks all day.
Some employees enjoy standing desks, but you can also benefit from regular stretching and walking, allowing your body a chance to move and stay active.
Use Ergonomics in the Workplace to Boost Productivity Today
To keep staff able to perform at their best, you need to use ergonomics in the workplace to ensure workers have proper desk setups. Otherwise, they risk aches and pains which could leave them unable to work.
Use the tips above to work with your employees to make sure their desks are ergonomically-friendly. You may even want to bring in an ergonomic expert who can advise the company.
Get started today making your company more ergonomic—your sore back will thank you!
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