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Ergonomics
Prevention & Cure
The inaugural Workplace Ergonomics & Productivity Show
(WEP 2011) organised by the Institute of Ergonomics and
Human Factors took place at the Royal Horticultural Halls in
London on October 26-27.
Business Info
dropped by to see
some of the latest ergonomic seating and productivity tools.
In the UK, ergonomics tends to be a
matter of cure rather than prevention.
For the majority of exhibitors at
WEP 2011, the ‘miserly’ attitude
of UK business is a source of great
frustration, resulting in unnecessary
suffering and loss of productivity. Yes,
ergonomic products cost more – in the
case of computer accessories, many
times more than standard offerings –
but the investment a company makes
will result in a more productive and
healthier workforce, they say.
Patrick Boland of High & Mighty
Seating, which provides office chairs for
the very large (up to 56 stone and 7ft+)
and the very small, bemoaned the fact
that UK organisations are reluctant to
spend money on individual workers.
“By the time we get to see them, a person
might have been given five different
chairs,” he said.
He also strongly criticised the
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Government’s decision to cut funding for
the Access toWork scheme, in particular
the allowances paid to employers, arguing
that the Government got back £1.5 billion
in taxes and reduced benefit payments
for every £800 million it spent on getting
people back to work.
Not everyone was so critical. Jo Jones
of Ergochair said that before the scheme
was cut back people would specify
overly expensive products, but that when
funding was cut they had to shop around
for more cost-effective solutions, like
Ergochair’s made-to-order Adapt range
(£385-£700).
“A lot of the standard products
are Scandinavian and imported, but
everything we do is made here. There’s
less cost attached, so we can do it more
economically.We buy chair mechanisms
from the US because they are the
best we’ve found but we try to source
everything else locally,” she said.
Despite recent changes, the market for
bespoke ergonomic seating – as opposed
to manufacturers’ standard ranges –
remains attractive. UK seating company
Orangebox has run Active Ergonomics as
an in-house brand for 10 years, but is now
starting to market it more widely as an
occupational health offering.
Previously, the company’s
consultants would analyse a
customer’s requirement for bespoke
ergonomic seating and source
what was needed from a specialist
supplier. After spending as much
as £500,000 on other companies’
ergonomic chairs, it decided to use
its in-house manufacturing and
ergonomics expertise to develop its
own range.
This now includes three models – Joy
OH, Flo and Spira – all specially designed
to encourage people to sit in the right
way. Flo, for example, enables users to
make 10cm adjustments in
every direction and includes a
gauge on the back showing
the chair settings. By making
a note of these when first
set up with the chair, a user can
Twice the Joy:
Orangebox’s Joy
OH chair
RH Activ:
Ready for a work-out
quickly revert to the optimum setting for
their weight and height should someone
have fiddled with the adjustments.
Joy OH, a special version of
Orangebox’s famous Joy chair, is supplied
with all the ergonomic options of the
standard product. These include a height
adjustable arm, seat depth adjustment,
lumbar support and independent seat tilt
so that the front of the seat doesn’t exert
pressure on the backs of your thighs when
you lean back.
BMA Nomique, created when BMA
Ergonomics bought soft furnishing
specialist Nomique, was promoting a
mesh version of the Telford-made Axia Air.
More affordable than the standard range,
it still features the ergonomic qualities
for which the range is known, including
a split seat, which means that when you
lean back only the rear of the seat moves
down; controls for left- and right-handed
users as standard; and arms that remain
static even when the chair is in dynamic
mode.
The Axia Air can be fitted with
specialist seat pads, including memory
foam, coccyx cut-out and extra large
options, but the chair is primarily
marketed as a preventative solution.
So, too, is RH Chairs’ new RH Activ
chair. This breaks with the norm by having
a seat and back that work independently
of each other so that the sitter has to use
his/her core muscles to go from leaning
back to an upright position. This satisfies
ergonomists’ calls for increased muscle
activity, but will not be to everyone’s
liking.
“It’s like a mini sit-up: to get the
chair to move forward, you have to use
your muscles,” explains UK managing
director Jorgen Josefsson. “Ergonomists
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