Why Money Spent on Ergonomic Furniture is Actually Money Saved

You can’t put a price tag on health.

When it comes to ergonomic office furniture, such as standing desks, the first thing that might come to mind for business owners is cost. The price of the piece itself is far from the only consideration, however.

As with many things on the market, there is a huge range in price when it comes to ergonomic furniture. While price is not an indicator of quality, settling for the cheapest standing desk or office chair will more than likely leave you with something that is either badly constructed from cheap materials or will not perform well ergonomically. Spending thousands of dollars on desks is also not a realistic proposition for many businesses, so it’s obvious that the value is going to be found in the middle ground. It’s certainly not unreasonable to expect to pay a few hundred dollars for something of good quality.

To continue with the theme of cost, it’s certainly worth noting that the cost of back pain to companies, often as a result of poor office desks and chairs, is more than $1,685 per staff member every year. In fact, loss of productivity as a result of back pain costs a total of $225 billion dollars each year. That’s before we even factor in medical costs or legal cases. Financially, it makes no sense to scrimp and save a few bucks by getting cheap furniture and from a humanitarian perspective, you don’t want unhealthy, unproductive and unhappy employees. 

At the end of the day, the benefits of good ergonomic furniture will more than outweigh the price tag. It’ll be a drop in the ocean compared to the costs of chiropractors, orthopedic specialists or the loss of productivity you could otherwise incur.

Ergonomic furniture pays for itself

The main causes of lower back pain and neck pain for office workers are improper posture at poorly-designed office desks and chairs, combined with long periods of sitting.

Ergonomic furniture, like standing desks, help to remove these factors and can lead to much improved health for your employees. Not only will this mean fewer visits to the doctor and the associated medical bills, it will almost certainly mean an increase in productivity, which is never a bad thing for the company.

Ergonomic consultant Dan McLeod discovered that workers who use ergonomic furniture display 10-15% more productivity than those who don’t, while workstations using ergonomic desks and chairs typically see a 25% increase in output. The reasons behind this are reduced fatigue, a decrease in back and repetitive motion injuries, and boosted morale - all of which are the direct results of ergonomics.

Stand up for your employees.

If you’re convinced that ergonomic desks are the way to go, there are some features you should definitely look for. Make sure that the one you get is easily adjustable for standing and sitting, can support a heavy load of equipment and has a decent amount of surface space.

One great option is the SmartDesk 2 from Autonomous. It’s a reasonably-priced standing desk that ticks all of these boxes. It’s frame is powered by a dual-motor system that allows you to smoothly and quietly transition between sitting and standing heights, it can hold up to 300 pounds of equipment and it has a generous 30-inch work surface.

To really get things cooking, you could couple it with the ultra-supportive ErgoChair 2. It’s certainly a great way of ensuring that you have productive, happy, healthy employees that will be dedicated to the success of your company - and that’s worth so much more than the few dollars you might save buying something cheap.

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