MANUAL HANDLING & ERGONOMICS
FIND YOUR FEET
With cries of ‘sitting is the new smoking’ resounding across the business world, Office Depot’s business specialist, Nigel Crunden, offers some advice for getting sedentary workers on their feet.
On Your Feet Britain, a recent campaign launched by The British Heart Foundation and Get Britain Standing, is encouraging the UK’s office workers to become more active. For health and safety managers, promoting greater mobility during working hours is becoming increasingly important. Not only can such changes positively affect employee health and wellbeing, but if implemented correctly they also have the potential to boost workplace productivity.
Contrary to popular belief, long periods of inactivity can have a hugely detrimental effect on physical health, even for those who regularly exercise outside of working hours. Individuals who sit down for over eight hours a day are twice as likely to contract cardiovascular disease and are also more likely to suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and back pain.
Such health problems have been on the rise for some time and reflect the gradual decline of manual labour traditionally undertaken during the heyday of heavy industry. According to the American Heart Association, the number of sedentary jobs has increased by 83% since 1950. With the era of the office set to continue for the foreseeable future, steps must be taken to adapt the working environment, with a focus on eliminating prolonged sitting and inactivity.
GET UP, STAND UP Where possible, employees should be encouraged to take conversations ‘offline’. All too often, individuals pass on messages via email when it would
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be more efficient to get up and have a quick conversation at a colleague’s desk. Tackling such over reliance on technology will not only improve communication between staff, but is also likely to increase productivity by reducing the time spent trawling through unnecessary emails.
Similarly, health and safety managers should suggest the introduction of standing up during meetings and brainstorms to break up periods of inactivity during the day. If possible, the ideal scenario would include the introduction of stand up desks into the workplace.
Many models are also mobile, meaning that the office layout can be adapted easily, with employees changing the location of their workstation depending on the nature of the tasks they are required to complete in a given day. For example, some modern workstations allow employees to close off their space for personal working but it can be adjusted and moved to another part of the office for group work.
LAYOUT IS EVERYTHING Modern offices are required to provide a number of different areas or ‘zones’ to facilitate productive working. These incorporate everything from open plan areas for collaboration to secluded areas for cognitively demanding tasks or designated break out areas.
Break out areas can be utilised in a number of different ways to improve wellbeing. Creating a more active space in which employees can let off some steam and get involved in practical activities such as pool, ping-pong or even go for a walk on a
treadmill, is an obvious way to improve morale and increase mobility. However, from a productivity perspective, providing a secluded relaxation area where employees can go to take a break away from their workstations is equally important.
Almost half of workers admit to regularly eating lunch at their desks. Taking time away increases concentration, reduces the prevalence of computer vision syndrome (CVS) and improves employee efficiency. Employers have a duty to help workers become more active and it is down to health and safety representatives to communicate the importance of taking a break to the workforce.
WHAT’S NEXT? With Public Health Britain and Get Britain Standing currently compiling new guidelines which will likely suggest that workers aim to stand for at least two hours per day, health and safety representatives should act now to create a less sedentary culture. Facilitating increased activity through standing workstations, meetings and brainstorms can reduce the risk of poor health, including the prevalence of heart attack, diabetes and stroke.
This aside, encouraging staff to take regular breaks as well as collaborate and engage with each other will likely increase outputs and concentration. Those companies that buy into On Your Feet Britain through careful incorporation of culture, furniture, layout and design could improve the health and productivity of the workforce.
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