I have undertaken thousands of DSE assessments over the years and what I find most consistent is that most people fail to understand the importance of sitting correctly with good posture.  They instead consider the problem is with the chair they have been provided with and not how they use that chair.  The importance of taking regular micro breaks is lost on most until I explain that frequently adjusting our posture is the key to protecting our long term health.

However to provide a comfortable workstation it is important that we first have the correct furniture to fit the individual.  Clearly, sitting for long periods is something we as humans are not designed to do.

I am amazed at how many people I see have no idea how their chair is adjusted and what is a safe comfortable posture to adopt.  It’s also the case that many employers do not know what seating to provide to their employees and often tend to base decisions on price.  This may work for some who do not have health issues or are of a size that a standard chair provides reasonable comfort.  The problem is that a standard chair does not generally work for people under 5ft 4 and over 5ft 11, or for those of a larger build.

But how do you find out which is the right chair for your employee?  For some of our larger clients they have arrangements in place to have chairs on a trial basis, through their furniture providers; this allows the employee to try the chair out for a few weeks.  For many smaller businesses this is not an option and they are faced with looking at the Internet or through catalogues, which mostly fail to provide an assurance that the purchase will be money well spent.

When we complete DSE assessments for clients we will recommend the features a suitable chair should have for the individuals needs and will identify possible suppliers.  Sometimes these chairs may seem to be expensive and the client would rather spend less so opts for an alternative, only to find they do not provide what the employee needs.

Clearly, if possible, it’s best to try a chair out before purchase and ensure the chair is correctly adjusted to the employee, but it’s not an option available to all.  I recently recommended a chair that I have to a local client and, to see if it was comfortable, the employee came to our offices to try it out.  This worked well for them and provided the boss with the confidence it was going to be money well spent.

What I can recommend is a chair that provides good ergonomic features at a reasonable price which is http://www.officefurnitureonline.co.uk/shop/ergo-tek-mesh-manager-chair.html.