Furniture for the Home Office

With many of their staff scattered, and working from their own homes, employers find themselves having to make sure they provide for the wellbeing of those staff within their own personal spaces – and a major element of this is their home office furniture

While many flexible workers may have worked from home on previous occasions, there’s a good chance they’ve never invested in decent office furniture for their own living space. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the space to do so, after all, or perhaps they can’t justify it if they normally work in an office. However, UK workers are now in a position where thousands of them have to work from home, and had to make the shift at fairly short notice. This means that businesses all over the country have their staff working remotely using sub-standard office furniture, making this area an ideal one for dealers to get involved with.

SEATING

Employers may not have considered the fact that they have a duty of care towards their staff even when they’re working from home, and the furniture they use is a huge part of this. When staff are, potentially, sitting down for 6-8 hours a day, they must have functional and supportive equipment in their immediate area.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for everyone – and the solution begins with seating. “Many people invest in a desk for their home office but still insist on using a kitchen chair, armchair or stool to sit on,” says Simon Howorth, marketing and design manager at Dams. “This can be a big problem for maintaining good posture and if your home office is in your kitchen or living room it really doesn’t help you keep a neat dividing line between work and play. Investing in a proper office chair is a better solution, so that you can select your ideal seating position.

“Even when working from home, it’s not uncommon for people to sit and work for long periods without regular breaks, so it is imperative that home workers have a chair that is comfortable and offers great functionality when sitting for long periods, but without having to compromise on style.”

“Whilst not wishing to appear an ‘ambulance chaser’ this trend has impacted significantly on our own businesses sales,” adds David Orr, head of strategy at Dynamic. “Onliners, in particular, are selling very successfully to consumers eager to set up instant offices at home – and that starts with a comfortable, legal and efficient desk, chair and storage scenario. Whether for a transformed extra bedroom, or a dedicated study space, the home office needs to achieve the same qualities any company office does, and employers have a legal obligation to ensure a home office conforms to standards.”

Seating in a home office should be supportive, adjustable and stylish, preferably with enough functionality to ensure that any chair can be adapted to any size or shape of user. For additional seating support, individual back rests can be

added, and can also transform and update any existing type of seating. While, as Simon says, a lot of people using the wrong seating are using the right kind of desk, this is not the case for everybody; this lockdown period is seeing, in many cases, more than one worker per household scrabbling for spaces to work in. This is not ideal – nor is it compliant, in many cases.

DESKING

“One of the regulations relating to home offices is the DSE (display screen equipment) regulations,” says David. “A DSE assessment measures the risk of the way we use computers, laptops, tablets and other display screens at work. This will include the function of our desk, storage and seating options. It highlights how the kitchen table and a four-legged chair are not compliant – and have the potential to land employers with seriously hefty fines.” This means that managers must be aware of their people’s working conditions and amend them as necessary by supplying the right equipment. Sitting at the dining table on an ordinary chair isn’t good enough, and employers are responsible, during this time, for making their workers comfortable.

SPECIFIC HOME OFFICE FURNITURE TRENDS THAT THE EXPERTS HAVE SEEN

• Low-depth desks, ideal for smaller workspaces.

• Desking that comes with a variety of desktop finishes, to ensure it matches the room/the house.

• Height-adjustable desks, with or without motors. “[They] transform the home office with healthy flexibility, dramatically improving health, well-being and energy levels of home workers,” says Simon. “Because home office workers tend to spend longer at their desks sit/ stand desking, and 24-hour seating, is a preference for many,” David adds.

• Fully adjustable chairs featuring a wide array of support functions and style options.

• Monitor arms.

• Secure storage, complete with several colour options.

Educating your customers on these needs is vital to ensuring those customers keep hold of their team and keep operating as normally as they can, during this difficult time. It’s also a great time to remind them that the move towards home working can be a good thing; according to a FlexJobs survey from 2019, 65% of 7,000 workers surveyed said that they were more productive when working from home.

“There’s no doubt that the sudden increase in working from home is presenting problems for many people,” says Simon. “But, for others, working from home is giving people the opportunity and the freedom to create the space they need to do the work they need to do. The coronavirus has the potential to permanently shift working patterns as companies forced to embrace remote working by the pandemic find that their employees do not want to return to the office once the government restrictions are lifted.”

David agrees. “The message to employers and consumers moving to home office working is clear - embrace the new working method that is our best shot at keeping the wheels of industry turning where possible, but make sure you pick product that is compliant, real value and delivers users comfort and efficiency.”