Could offices change from sitting to standing?

The human body wasn’t designed to sit for long periods. Yet millions of people have to do just that, day in and day out at work, putting undue strain on their spines and, as we’ve already highlighted in an earlier post, causing musculo-skeletal disorders which are costing the UK economy a fortune.

However, until recently, the design of the standard office desk had changed very little since it was first thought of and most of us sit at them for the majority of our waking hours.

Many think that sitting all day in the office is just what you have to do and then try to compensate for all that inactivity by heading to the gym at the end of the day. However, recent studies have shown that this is little or no compensation and, if we want to remain fit and healthy in the office, we need to be standing up more.

All the leading studies point to the fact that sitting for prolonged periods of time is bad for you and, as a result, a growing number of businesses, particularly in the US, are encouraging their employees to work at standing desks.

But when it comes to the average office, changing the way employees work can present a major challenge. There’s the overall layout of the office to be considered, first and foremost and, more importantly for many businesses still struggling with the rebound from recession, expending large amounts of cash on new furniture, when the existing desks, etc. are perfectly functional, is not an option.

Take call-centres for example. The current, most common arrangement of rigid rows of desks, maximising the available floor-space to keep overheads to a minimum is not going to suit a shift towards more flexible work stations and these are the very staff that tend to spend the longest time sitting at their desks.

So if you did want to consider switching to standing desks, what sort of expenditure are you looking at?

Prices vary widely according to overall quality and design, but expect to pay in the region of £500 plus for one of the new sit/stand desks. This is significantly more than a standard desk, which can be bought in as cheaply as £150. This represents a considerable cost to larger organisations who may have around 1,000 staff working on-site at any one time, and many small businesses simply don’t have the budget to even consider changing.

There’s also the issue of choice. Although research suggests that alternating between sitting and standing at your desk to work is beneficial to both the employees and employer, making the transition can take some time and not every employee will be keen to make that change.

Professor Alan Hedge, expert in Ergonomics at Cornell University is sceptical about how far workers can change. Some will simply want to stay sitting, he points out. Employers also have to then consider how those at the new standing desks and those remaining seated will interact. It will more difficult to encourage communication between staff if they are working in essentially different ways. As a compromise, Professor Hedge thinks employees should all be encouraged to move around much more. “We need to think of sitting like driving,” he says. “Take a break regularly. Make small adjustments that encourage people to move around more.”

This includes walking to talk to a colleague instead of emailing them, making more frequent trips to the water-cooler to keep hydrated (two benefits in one) and encouraging people to use the stairs instead of relying on the lift.

However, what might finally change things is if evidence becomes overwhelming, health costs continue to rise, and preventing employees spending too much time sitting becomes part of an employer’s legal duty of care.

In California, with its cutting-edge technology sector, standing desks have become increasingly commonplace, encouraging employees to move around and constantly change their position as the work. This can elevates the heart rate and boost circulation and there may be evidence to suggest this makes employees more productive overall. Additionally, given the height of the working surface, computer keyboards are at the right level to encourage better work habits, keeping arms perpendicular to the body while typing.

In a nutshell, it is important for all employees to mix sitting and standing. Those who spend long periods of time sitting at their workstation should get up at regular intervals and move around the office. Those working in a standing position need to rest at intervals by sitting. It’s all about striking the right balance.

For now, standing desks are relatively uncommon in the UK, but it’s clear that, if the incidence of musculo-skeletal disorders continues to increase, employers will be looking at finding alternatives to the traditional way of working, not only for the better health of their employees, but also for the long-term profitability of their business.

With commercial rents still high and office budgets being tighter than ever, more and more companies are opting to implement flexible working conditions in their offices. This has also been prompted by an increase in flexible hours and part-time work and, due to improved technology, the ability of many staff to work remotely from their own home or other space away from the main office itself.

Open-plan offices are more in evidence than ever before. For most, long-gone are the days of cellular offices and the dreaded “cubicles”, the latter having been replaced by one large open-plan area which encourages staff to work together, collaborate and communicate.

It has also given rise to the idea of “hot desking” where, on the basis that not all your staff will be in the office at the same time, there are actually fewer desks than employees and no one has exclusive rights to a personal workspace.

Understandably, this is not always a popular decision. Old habits die hard and many simply don’t want to share, struggling to make the shift, both physically and mentally, to this new way of working.

Here’s our tips on how to make it as painless as possible;

Have a Clear Desk Policy

Whenever someone is going to be away from their desk for a particular period of time – how long this is will depend entirely on the type of work they do – they must clear everything from their desks. Clearly, there will be things that need to be kept somewhere while they aren’t working, so providing some form of secure storage for each employee is essential.

Keep it Clean

With many different people using the same space each day, it’s important to ensure that hygiene is maintained so you may have to factor in the cost of additional cleaning to ensure furniture is kept clean and hygienic.

Provide More Central Storage

It’s clearly not possible to leave piles of files on or around desks, so there needs to be adequate central storage for such items. Files and other documentation that might be needed by someone else cannot reasonably be locked away in personal cupboards or lockers. Returning such files to a central system may have the added effect of increasing productivity; staff needing certain information will not have to waste time trying to track it down.

Get a Library

Having an easily accessible bank of resources, reference material and standard documentation, available to all staff, at one convenient point is also essential. It can also be a useful area for people to get together to exchange ideas. Open shelving and soft seating are the best options here.

Provide the Essentials

Each desk should come with a standard set of office policies – such as Health and Safety, Fire, Visual display Equipment – and other key information, such as important telephone numbers, internal extensions and so on. You should also equip each workstation with a standard set of everyday things. This would include things such as staplers, a hole-punch, paperclips, etc.

Create the Right Environment

Large open office spaces full of empty desks can look a bit bleak, so provide other features such as soft furnishings, planters and attractive pictures to soften the appearance. The provision of more flexible seating can provide both additional work space and somewhere for staff to have informal meetings.

Think Ergonomic

Getting the right ergonomic workspace layout will help staff adapt more quickly to working in different positions. For example, chairs need to be adjustable, and any expandable workspace – such as pedestals – easy to move from one side of the desk to another, depending on what each individual user requires.

Get the Technology Right

When it comes to flexible working, laptops are preferable to desktop PCs. To ensure that this is suitable for everyone, laptop stands, additional screens and a remote mouse and keyboard may also be required. You need to ensure that each desk is equipped with a phone and there is easy access to power points and network connectivity to enable everyone to work efficiently.

Making the shift to more flexible working may not be easy, but getting the basics right and ensuring every desk has all the equipment employees need, will go a long way towards smoothing the path of change.

From 30 June 2014, new legislation means that every employee now has the statutory right to request flexible working after 26 weeks employment service. For many employers, this will come as good news for the simple reason that, long term, it will enable them to potentially occupy less office space and therefore reduce office overheads as a result.

However, legislation aside, it’s clear that office workers in particular have been increasingly mobile over recent years and many already work remotely from places other than the traditional office. As a result, offices often seem to contain more furniture than people, with lots of empty offices and unused space.

So how do you go about working out just how much office space you really need?

The first thing is to get a clear understanding of how the space is used at the moment; on the whole, businesses usually over-estimate how much space is actually occupied on a day to day basis in a traditional office environment. Clearly, there will be certain staff who are almost always in the office (receptionists, for example) so having their own dedicated desk is the only option. However, despite what is generally thought, most desks are only actually used about 50% of the time. We know this seems very low, but when you factor in people on holiday, off sick, in meetings, on training courses, visiting other branches or working from home, you soon realise that it’s very rare to have everyone in the office all the time.

To get an accurate percentage though, you also need to look at peak occupancy times, as well as averages for the whole week or month. If you carry out this exercise, you’ll probably find that different departments are busy at different times and that it’s rare to have the whole organisation at peak occupancy at any one time. For most businesses, particularly those in the professional sector (solicitors, accountants etc.) peak occupancy still only represents about 60% of the total available space.

A word of warning though. Before you rush off and start reducing your total space by 40%, there are some other factors you need to consider.

Look at Your Layout

Generally, offices have far too much “circulation space”. By this we mean empty space for staff to move freely around the office. Clearly, Health and Safety has to be the biggest consideration if you want to reduce this, but in many offices, substantial savings on space could be made simply by rethinking where furniture is placed and how offices are laid-out.

Efficient Storage

Why is it that no matter how much space you allocate to storage, it never seems to be enough? When it comes to storing all your information, it’s definitely not a case of “one size fits all”. What you really should be thinking of is smarter, more efficient storage. In some cases, this may mean a bespoke solution, but it’s well worth the investment if it improves efficiency.

Size is Everything

If you fill your office space with furniture that’s really too big, it’s taking up valuable space that could perhaps be better used for something else. These days desk sizes, and shapes for that matter, are far from standard, and it’s worth spending a little more to get precisely what’s right for the space that you have, rather than simply buying the cheapest alternative and hoping it’s a good fit. Furniture that’s too big can create a lot of “dead” space.

Meeting Demand

Have you got a boardroom that no one ever uses? Or are your staff continually complaining that they struggle to find sufficient space in which to hold meetings? In our opinion, unless it’s going to be in great demand, a large boardroom is somewhere that goes unused for weeks at a time and it’s often more efficient to have several areas where a number of smaller meetings can take place simultaneously.

Take a good look at your offices. If you look closely, you may find that it’s full of furniture, filing cabinets and empty space rather than people and if that’s what you see, give us a call and we’ll help you design a space that works better for everyone.

Selecting new furniture for your office may not be the toughest task on your long list of things to do, but if you think it’s just a case of ordering the first things you come across that seem to fit the bill, you may be making a very expensive mistake. The furniture in an office can have a big impact on the way that everyone works and getting it wrong could cause all sorts of problems in the future.

As much as we may hate to admit it, we spend a lot of time in the office. Too many of us suffer in an office environment that is not well designed and we make do with whatever furniture there is. But those in the know are aware that carefully selected office furniture can make all the difference in our productivity and overall effectiveness.

So whether you’re refurbishing an entire office or just looking for a few items that will improve your working environment; what should you be thinking about? **

Have a clear plan

Given how expensive new furniture can be, deciding to make the investment is not something that should be done without thorough planning. Carefully consider the needs of every employee and how each new piece of furniture will be utilised; involving your employees in the whole purchasing process is useful for helping to ensure you get exactly what’s needed.

Practicality over Style

It may look stylish and “cutting edge” but will it stand the test of time? Is it actually functional? The general rule is that furniture with a classic, timeless appeal will give the best long-term value. This also applies to whether the furniture is actually comfortable to use. You may not think it, but office furniture can have a great impact on the productivity of your staff. Not just because uncomfortable furniture will mean they are less likely to be able to concentrate but there are also issues of practicality. Therefore, it’s a good idea to consider such things as contoured chairs, adjustable seats and general ergonomic design, to ensure that you maximise comfort and minimise work-related injuries. It’s also important to think about productivity when selecting storage options. If it’s easy to store things and access them when needed, then less time will be wasted searching through cupboards and cabinets to find what you are looking for.

Finally, spend some time on selecting finishes and fabrics. If cleanliness is paramount, wipe clean surfaces are probably the best choice. It almost goes without saying that fabrics that are easy to clean are more hygienic and are best suited to high use items.

Forward Planning

Whether you’re starting a new business or adding furniture due to expansion, you should take into account how every piece will fit into your current and future environment.

You should also ensure that the range you choose from is not due to be discontinued or phased out. Even if you can only afford a few chairs and desks or aren’t ready to buy a big conference table just yet, at least you can be confident that you can add the relevant items you need at a later date.

You also need to consider how adaptable your new furniture is. Desks need to have enough space to accommodate laptops, monitors, printers, PDAs, mobile phone chargers, lighting, etc. So when making your purchase, it’s important to think about what space and storage you may need a few years from now, i.e. Does the furniture have the ability to hide cords? Will your conference room have a big enough table?

Flexibility is often Key

It’s a good idea to select furniture that can be easily moved and reconfigured as new needs arise. This will give you the flexibility to change your floor plan as necessary.

Some table design can be adjustable for height or can have more than one level. Some can be folded or expanded as the need arises. With wireless networks and technology becoming more popular, employees may not even need specific workspaces. In some offices, employers are electing to put wheels on desks with power outlets on the floor. This encourages employees to move their desks around in the general space, depending on whether they’re working alone, or as part of a team.

Is it up to the task?

If everyone had the same build or body type, buying new office furniture would be a whole lot easier. But that’s not the real world. Instead, you need to be able to comfortably accommodate individuals of all shapes and sizes. For example, a desk chair that’s only rated for use by individuals weighing up to 250 pounds can lead to problems if you have employees who weigh more than that. Choosing an incorrectly rated item can result in costly damage to the chair, and more importantly, injury to the person sitting in it. Any savings you would realise by purchasing a lower-rated chair would be far exceeded by the cost of your liability to the person who was injured.

Choosing Value over Price

Everyone loves a bargain, but the cheapest is definitely not always the best. Price be should not be your only guide when buying furniture. A piece of new office furniture may look good, but if it’s poor quality, it won’t last very long and will soon need replacement, incurring unnecessary costs. You should always consider the cost of purchase over the expected life of the furniture. For example, a chair that’s designed for occasional use will generally cost less than one that’s designed to withstand

heavy wear and tear. While it may be tempting to purchase the lower-priced chair, that would be a mistake if the chair will receive heavy use. Repairs and replacements could easily outweigh any initial savings and could even make the product more expensive in the long run. There may be an occasion, however, when you have to buy and inexpensive item to “make do” in an emergency. In that case, you should always consider this to be short-term measure and factor in the cost of a more suitable purchase at a later date.

First Impressions

Your type of business will also play a large part in determining the style and type of new furniture you decide to buy. For example, more traditional designs are generally more suited to financial and legal offices. Creative professions tend to go for something more modern or minimalist. It’s also a question of what your clients expect to see when they come to your offices. Your office furniture should be a reflection of your brand and you should choose your style accordingly.

In short, the furniture you pick for your enterprise must match the business, your own style and should suit the function for which it is acquired. By shopping carefully and wisely, you can get the right furniture at the right price. We understand that it’s not always an easy task, which is why we pride ourselves on offering a bespoke service to all our clients, using our skill and expertise to ensure they all get exactly what’s right for them, helping them create a space that’s great to work in.

Buying office furniture requires practical considerations that go far beyond aesthetics. The comfort and safety of your employees must be factored into every decision and by avoiding a few common blunders, we can ensure that the furniture you select will be one of the best investments your business makes, leading to improved employee satisfaction, productivity and, therefore, profit for your business.

** Of course all Office Furniture and seating must comply with current Health & Safety Legislation. For advice contact

us on richard.clarke@randaoffice.co.uk or go to http://www.hse.gov.uk**

Just like moving house, moving your business can be one of the most stressful things you will ever do. There are so many things to take into account and it’s not something to enter into without a great deal of thought and planning.

Although we appreciate that everyone’s move will be different, we’ve been asked to help so many clients move over the years that we’ve put together a list of our top tips to make the process as painless as possible.

Ask the Experts

However organised you might be, don’t try to do it all by yourself. There are any number of companies out there who carry out relocations for a living and they’re the best people to get involved. You also have to recognise that the cheapest quote is not necessarily going to get you the best service. Ask for recommendations if you can and accept that quality is not going to come cheap. It’s always a good idea to meet with your chosen removers well in advance of the move to ensure that they know exactly what you need on the day. This will also give you the opportunity to discuss the various storage/transportation options available.

Get a Plan

The sooner you start planning your move the better, as far as we’re concerned. We would recommend at least 6 months in advance is the absolute minimum but it’s never too early. Set out a relocation plan and make a note of all the key dates you need to work to. Remember to involve your staff in the process as much as possible – you’ll be needing their full support as move day approaches

It’s a Team Effort

Clearly, how complicated the whole process will be depends on the size of your organisation, but it’s a good idea to put together a team of key staff to oversee the whole project. You will need to ensure you put the right person in charge, but there should be someone already in your organisation with the necessary skills to make sure the move runs as smoothly as possible. They must have enough time to devote to the office relocation project, be senior enough to be able to make decisions, be a good organiser and communicator and have sufficient financial skill to control the relocation budget. Ideally, the team should also include staff from other departments in the company, such as Sales, Marketing, HR, IT, & Finance.

Set Your Budget

As we’ve already said, relocating a business can be an expensive business, so it’s a good idea to work out all the costs as soon as possible to make sure that you’ve made provisions for everything you might need. However, there’s always going to be some additional costs; estimates may increase, prices may change and there will always be a couple of “hidden” costs you overlooked when you set out the original plan. A contingency fund of about 10-15% of the total budget should be more than enough to cover all eventualities.

Make Some Changes

As soon as you’ve decided to move, it’s a good idea to take a long hard look at the office furniture and equipment you already have and decide what items need to be updated and/or replaced. If you’re moving to bigger offices, you may well need more items of furniture to fill the new space and, as there may be order or delivery times to take into account, the sooner you decide what you’re going to need, the better. This is particularly true if your office furniture is bespoke and not normally carried as stock items. If some of your furniture will be surplus to requirements, it’s a good idea to start making enquiries for disposal of the unwanted items; there’s no point whatsoever in getting them moved to the new premises where they will take up unnecessary space.

Be Prepared

Print out a moving day checklist a few weeks in advance and make sure everyone in the organisation knows exactly what’s happening and what they’re expected to do both in advance of and on the actual day. We suggest a few weeks is ideal as this gives sufficient time to address any individual concerns and pick up on any details that may have been overlooked – the staff can be invaluable in this respect. However, no matter how carefully you plan your move, there will always be one or two surprises before it’s all sorted and it would be very easy to get side-tracked. Our advice is – Don’t Panic! If you’ve planned everything carefully, any surprises of this sort should be fairly minor and easily taken care of with a methodical approach.

We’re under no illusions that it will all go without a hitch and that the day of your move will be totally stress-free, but with enough forethought and planning, you should at least arrive in your shiny new offices with your sanity intact.

Finding your ideal desk and work height can improve your posture and help prevent painful back, neck and arm problems.

If your desk doesn’t fit you, it can cause you to hunch over your work or have to crane your neck forward, both of which can lead to strain on the upper body as you try to find a comfortable working position.

You need to make sure you’re sitting in the best possible position to minimise the incidence of MSK (Musculoskeletal) injury. However, sitting correctly won’t be much good if you don’t ensure you also have the correct desk set-up to ensure you can work comfortably. So getting an ergonomic chair is not enough. You should think of your desk and chair as a mutually dependent workspace, where both units must fit.

Although chairs come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, desks are generally manufactured to certain specific dimensions; this is particularly true of height. If only the same could be said of employees who, unfortunately for office furniture designers, vary considerably in height from individual and individual.

Here’s how to work out whether your desk is the right height for you;

• Sit as close to the desk as is comfortable, with your elbows by your sides, your upper arms parallel to your spine and so your hands can rest comfortably on the desk
• Check your arms are bent at the elbows at a 90 degree angle.
• Ideally your knees should be bent in a 90 degree angle with your feet parallel to your hips and flat on the floor

If you can’t do all of the above, you need to look at changing your seating position.

While we sit, the circulation to our lower limbs can be compromised. By the end of a normal working day (eight hours or so), the average person’s ankles swell by about 6 to 8 percent. However, if you already suffer from back, leg, or circulation problems, this can increase to around 10 to 15 percent and it has also been shown that sitting too high at your desk can increase the strain on the circulatory system as the chair puts greater pressure on the underside of the leg.

A seat height ranging from 42 to 56 centimetres off the ground is suitable for most workers. To test whether or not your chair is too high, slide your finger underneath your thigh at the front end of the chair. If it’s easy to do, the seat of your chair is set at a good height. If there is less than a finger’s width of space between your thigh and chair, it’s likely that your chair is too high.

Additionally, if you’re sitting this high, you may have to lift your feet of the ground or balance on your toes. This is also not ideal and should be addressed by using a footstool to rest your feet on throughout the day. Footstools can also be used to reduce pressure on the soles of your feet.

Being too tall for your desk can also be a problem. If you are particularly tall, try the “finger test” on your chair; if there is more than a finger width between your thigh and your chair, your desk is probably too low and you should consider making it higher. Raising the height of your work surface can also help ease back pain; it will enable you to sit straighter and therefore relieve the strain on your spine.

We must stress, though, that your work surface must be raised correctly and safely – simply putting books under the legs is not a good idea but believe us, we’ve seen that solution on many occasions! You should only raise desk legs off the floor using specially modified risers to ensure stability. Alternatively, some people prefer to use a writing slope to raise the actual working surface of their desks to the right height. If you go for this option, consider a slope with a built-in height adjuster, so you can easily utilise it for a variety of tasks.

Poor organization and configuration of your workstation as a whole can ruin your posture even in the best chai, so it’s also important to ensure things are organised on your desk’s surface to enable you to reach everything easily, without having to over stretch your upper body. Consider where you locate the tools (computer, keyboard, mouse, phone, etc.) you use most frequently, so that they are easy to operate without strain or undue effort.

It’s very important to consider ergonomics when purchasing a new office chair. However, the chair only determines how you sit. Your line of vision, movement of your arms and overall position of your body will influence your posture.

So it’s important to ensure you get your desk right as well; you spend a lot of time sitting at it so it’s worth make in the effort to ensure it’s a comfortable place to work.

Here at R&A Office Environments, we have over 30 years’ experience supplying office chairs in all shapes and sizes, so we’ve put our heads together and come up with the definitive answer to this question, which is “It Depends”!

Now, we’re sure that’s not the answer you were looking for, but what we can do is give you some very good advice to help you decide whether it’s time to make a change.

The first thing to consider is how long you have had your existing chairs and whether or not they are still under warranty. Although this in itself does not determine whether or not a chair has come to the end of its useful life, it’s a very good indicator as to how long you can expect it to last. Generally, chairs with a longer warranty have proportionately greater life-span. This is because they are generally of a much higher quality in the first instance and thus will stand the test of time much better. Chairs with a 5 year warranty could be expected to last around eight years. In short, quality chairs are built to last.

A quality chair will probably be covered in a more resilient fabric, more suitable for heavy use, which will retain its good looks for a considerably longer time than a budget item, where you may find the fabric looks shabby long before the chair is no longer useful. Of course, this won’t affect the comfort factor, but it’s not a good look to present to clients. Take it from us; shabby chairs do not a good impression make, so if yours are looking less than presentable, perhaps it’s time to upgrade them.

You also need to consider how the chair is used. For example, chairs in offices that have a “hot desk” environment are likely to be subject to considerably more wear and tear than those which are used by one dedicated member of staff every day. Clearly, all chairs should outlive their warranty, but any additional months/years could be curtailed if the chairs are heavily used.

It’s important to look closely at the ergonomic credentials of any chair you buy. The more comfortable it is to sit on, the more the user will like it and, as a direct result, will take better care of it. It’s also a fair assumption that an ergonomically designed chair will have an excellent built-quality and be less susceptible to breakage. Don’t underestimate the value of training your staff to use their chairs correctly, either. Making sure they know how, and why, they should adjust their chairs properly will not only improve their productivity, but will also ensure that any problems with the chair will be quickly identified, allowing you to carry out any necessary maintenance in a timely manner. Much better to keep an existing chair in great working order than to neglect repairs and watch the chair slowly fall apart.

The most common complaint we come across form clients is the comfort of their chairs and this is often dependent on the foam padding. As a general rule, you should be able to sit in your chair for between 1-2 hours in absolute comfort. If your find this isn’t the case, it could be that the foam seat pad has either worn thin or become too compressed to provide the correct level of support. In which case, it’s time to look for a new chair. If you’re sitting on a relatively new chair and it’s uncomfortable, then chances are you bought the wrong chair. Sorry.

Take a look at the base of your chair. Does it have a five-point base? Are all the castors still working? As chairs are designed to be moved smoothly across the floor, a five-point base is important for stability and what’s more, to comply with current health and safety legislation. Some chairs still come with a four-point base, but we don’t recommend these as they are considerably less stable; if you are still using such chairs, they should be replaced straight away. Without all castors moving freely, even moving your chair backwards and forwards at your desk becomes a difficult task and can cause muscular strain. If your chair is not as mobile as it should be, it’s time to say goodbye and invest is something that does the job properly.

If your chairs have armrests, are they all working correctly and are they fully adjustable? Does the chair creak when you sit down? Do all the available adjusters (seat tile, backrest height/angle adjustment) still work for that matter? Chair are made to be adjustable for very good reasons; to ensure the user can sit in an optimal position to reduce stress on their joints and minimise the risk of MSK (Musculoskeletal) pain. So if you’ve got a fully-adjustable chair, it makes no sense to carry on using it if you can no longer make all the necessary adjustments to make sitting at your desk a comfortable experience.

Our final piece of advice would be, if you need a new chair, don’t be fooled into thinking a cheap alternative is the answer. The truth is that a chair in this price bracket is always going to be made to meet the price at the expense of quality, using a lower standard of components and this means it’s less likely to be fit for purpose, will, in most cases, be extremely uncomfortable and, well, it won’t last.

Look at it a different way. So you have to spend more on your chair? Well, if you consider how much more productive you’ll be sitting comfortably at your desk, focussed on what you’re doing and not experiencing any sort of back or neck pain, it seems like a more worthwhile investment.

As in all things, quality costs, but when it comes to office chairs, we think it’s a price worth paying.

Create a Suitable Reception Area for Your Business

Your reception area is often the first chance people get to judge your business, so it’s very important to make great impression. Whether someone is visiting your building for the first time or the hundredth, they should always feel welcome.

How customers are treated and how they see your business reflected in this small area can sometimes determine whether or not they do business with you at all. Making sure you get it right is essential for good business.

It goes without saying that it should be comfortable, clean, professional, and inviting but there’s so much more you can do to ensure their first experience is a positive one.

So ask yourself a few simple questions before you open the doors of your business to the public.

What is the Reception Area for?

Depending on the sort of business you run, your reception area may be useful for more than simply welcoming clients. For example, it might be the perfect place to display your stock and draw the attention of customers to things you particularly want to promote. Consider investing in good shelving and/or display cabinets and place them at strategic points around the room; it can make all the difference in ensuring your products are shown to the best advantage.

Depending on the business sector, you can also include quirky items to match your business theme – elegant china and glassware for hospitality, an old typewriter for a publishing firm, etc. Remember to display only what is needed in this area, however, and keep the clutter out of sight.

How do we Greet our Customers?

It’s important that customers are greeted warmly when they first arrive, so it’s a good idea to have a member of staff on hand to welcome them. If you have someone seated permanently in the reception area for this purpose, make sure their desk is always kept tidy and free of clutter – this will tell people a great deal about your standards and how you do business. A shabby, untidy desk will never create the right impression.

Receptions can be busy places, and making sure they are kept free of dirty cups, old magazines and general litter can be time consuming, but will reap rewards in the long run.

Are they sitting Comfortably?

Unfortunately, we sometimes have to keep clients waiting. Making sure they feel relaxed and comfortable while they are in reception is vital, so you should put some thought into providing the right sort of seating. Sort furnishings should be easy to sit down on and, more importantly perhaps, get out of. A chair may look fantastic, but if your customer is going to struggle to rise from it when you greet them, they will feel uncomfortable and this could set the wrong tone for your meeting from the start.

It’s also important to ensure there is sufficient seating to accommodate everybody; no one wants to be the one left standing.

To prevent the reception looking shabby, it’s wise to choose hard-wearing or easy to clean fabrics. Choosing a cream sofa might seem like a good idea initially, but it will soon look dirty and you can guarantee it won’t be long before someone manages to spill coffee all over it.

A coat stand is also a good idea; having to sit with a coat on your lap or holding a wet umbrella is not a good way to start a meeting.

How Do You Look?

As first impressions are so important, the layout of your reception area is something you’ll want to think about carefully. Furniture placement, decorations and space considerations all need to be a part of the design so that office visitors get a positive impression the minute they step through the door.

Keeping the overall look of your reception area simple is essential. It should be clean, free of clutter, and professional looking. Bare walls are never a good idea, but nor is overwhelming them with too many pictures. Try using one large picture to create a focal point on each wall. If you do have shelving or displays, make sure they are tidy and well presented. Keep the colours neutral or, if brighter colours support your companies branding, keep these to smaller areas of focus; a feature wall, for example. You can also reflect your corporate colours in the soft furnishings, chair coverings, etc.

It’s important not to let the reception appear cluttered, but a low table is essential for holding cups, or for resting a laptop on. This can also be used to display any publicity or promotional material you might want your customers to see. Magazines open at recent press releases or articles on your business are a good way to let customers know of any recent developments or successes.

If you’re still struggling to get the right vision for your reception, it might help to imagine you are the customer and think about what you’d like to see. In other words, decide what you want your reception to say about your business, and use that philosophy to guide your decisions when it comes to deciding how it looks. Or you could ask us for advice, we’re always happy to give you the benefit of our expertise and we won’t charge for it either.

Your reception could quite possibly be the most important area in your offices, so it’s worthwhile investing some time (and money) in getting the look exactly right. Getting it wrong could make the difference between a one-time-only visitor, and one who returns again and again.

Have you noticed how the working day seems to be getting longer?

You spend at least eight hours a day at work. If you are like many people, that number is closer to nine or ten hours a day.

However, employers are starting to recognise this and realising that, quite often, the harder you work your employees, the less productive they become.

Many are also recognising that sitting in isolation at a desk all day is not exactly good for socialising and collaborating.

The answer? Helping your employees to relax more when they are at work. This might sound like a contradiction in terms, but providing a separate, open and welcoming space for employees to relax in can result in a far greater work ethic and are very much inspired by the domestic environment. When you go to a party, where do you find everyone congregating? In the kitchen, of course, so office relaxation spaces are often centred around the availability of food and drink.

With the modern way of working often meaning we’re spending much more time at our desks, glued to our computer screens, the idea of a break out area is becoming increasingly attractive to employees. But why should you, as an employer, create a break out area in your offices?

A break out area describes any space open to employees or visitors that is separate from their usual working area. It can be a place for employees to relax, eat their lunch and even hold informal meetings. Giving employees time away from their computer screen also complies with health and safety laws which require staff to take frequent breaks from their work stations when computers are being used. They can also be used for spur of the moment meet-ups with fellow employees or informal meetings with clients.

Small to medium companies can sometimes see a break out area as an unnecessary luxury that the company cannot afford but employers should consider the benefits and how this will impact on employees’’ performance before ruling it out.

An office break out area needn’t be extravagant or even take up much space. If a separate room isn’t available, why not use a screening system to section off part of your open plan office? However, most important is to create the right atmosphere in such spaces. Forget drab and dingy: people will prefer to stay at their desks if the space is dark and too closed off. Create a light and welcoming space, with good facilities that encourage relaxation and a rest from the job.

Remember to provide different types of seating if you can. Canteen or multipurpose chairs around a central table provide somewhere to hold meeting or have lunch. You should also add some soft furnishings, such as tub chairs or sofas, so employees feel relaxed and comfortable.

Different seating combinations also allows people to either sit in their own space, or socialise with colleagues as they prefer.

Low tables are also a very good idea as not everyone will want to use the space for “relaxing” in the traditional sense. Some may find it useful for working in and, given the rise of the laptop and wireless technology, moving your workspace around the office has never been easier.

The space can also be used for informal meetings with other staff and, depending on your overall ethos and relationship with those you do business with, it can also be the ideal place to meet with clients.

Ideally, the space should be easily accessible to everyone, but try to avoid a main traffic route; it’s hardly relaxing if people keep walking right through the middle just to get from A to B. Depending on what your business does, you may also have to consider the impact of sound; too noisy an area will be conducive to nothing other than more noise, so pick a quiet space where there is little noise pollution.

You could also consider putting up large whiteboards for brainstorming exercises, demonstrating a particularly difficult point or simply for doodling – although you may have to set some guidelines as to what the latter should consist of!

But why would you go to all this trouble?

Current research shows that offices with employees who are always working are not necessarily the most productive. Moving away from your usual workspace for as little as five minutes can be very good for regaining focus and allowing creativity to flourish.

All work and no play leads to absenteeism and compromised productivity. More and more companies are realising the benefits of providing relaxation areas for their employees. Such areas should be well thought out – ask for the views of your staff as to what they want and need, and how they would like the area to look. Or, if you’re still struggling, call us for advice. We’d be happy to help.

So many products aren’t built to last anymore and, when they are sold at a very low price, they are clearly designed with this in mind. We seem to be living in a disposable society. Consequently, the amount of rubbish we produce is growing every day and, unfortunately, we are quickly running out of space in which to put it. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that we cannot sustain our current throw-away lifestyle and need to reassess what we do with our waste. However, there are so many things we dispose of that could, and indeed should, be salvaged and put to good use.

Office Furniture is one of them.

When businesses expand or relocate, some items of furniture usually become either redundant or no longer suitable and it is estimated that in excess of 1,000 tonnes of office furniture are thrown away each year. However desks, cupboards and chairs in clean and good condition could all be reused.

Most office furniture is wood-based. It’s a disturbing fact that global deforestation is being driven by our seemingly unending demand for wood products. Although the majority of trees cut down are used for paper products and in the building industry, a significant amount goes into new furniture and, more importantly as far as we’re concerned, office furniture such as desks, chairs, tables and storage. So if we want to save the world’s forests, we need to reduce the amount of trees we fell and we can do this by reducing demand and, more importantly, reducing waste.

Apart from the impact new furniture has on deforestation, Defra estimate it takes 2.5 tons of Carbon emissions to create 1 ton of new office furniture. That’s a lot!

So why not do your bit to reduce this impact on the environment by re-using existing furniture rather than buying new? It will drastically reduce your Carbon footprint and improve your green credentials. Think about it.

We have long since believed in doing our bit to help the environment. So that’s why, as well as selling new office furniture, we also have a fantastic range of used items.

In fact, we have seen a steady increase in sales of used furniture. As everyone becomes increasingly more green-aware, more and more of our customers realise that, not only are they saving money by buying used items, but they are doing their bit for the environment too.

We want to divert as much used furniture as possible from landfill and put it back on the market. The second-hand furniture we sell has already been manufactured to a very high standard, because we only resell the best. So you can be sure that you’re getting top quality furniture at a fraction of the original price.

We have a wide range of items in our Manchester warehouse, with new stock coming in every day. All our second hand furniture is of the highest quality and we have solutions to suit most tastes and everyone’s budget.

In short, it’s time to learn the three R’s of the environment: reduce, reuse, recycle. So consider buying used office furniture – It’ll reduce your carbon footprint, help you meet CSR targets and enable you to do your bit to protect the Earth for future generations