Tag: ergonomics

Business, Innovation

The Commercial Furniture Market is Shifting pt.2

pollywannamath

I encourage you to start with part one, before reading this post, to get the full picture of the shifting landscape of commercial office furniture.

I started part one by praising office furniture manufacturers, Haworth, Steelcase, and Herman Miller, for creating ergonomic furniture that remains comfortable for hours. Furniture designed with ergonomics in mind is incredibly beneficial. Not only will a bad working set-up lead to soft-tissue injuries and musculoskeletal disorders, it will lead to productivity loss.

When my employer announced that they were going to shift to work-from-home for the duration of the COVID pandemic, I went to a local office furniture reseller and bought a Leap v2 chair (highly recommended) and a sit-to-stand desk riser. With an external keyboard/mouse, a second (and third) monitor, and a few books to ensure everything is the correct height, I am currently writing from a home office that passes even the most stringent ergonomic standards.

I live with my significant other. She works from home, and did prior to the COVID outbreak. When I started work from home, it was clear to both of us that it was time for her to have a home office set-up that works for her, at least as well as mine does for me.

Should be easy, we could go to the same store and pick up a similar home office set-up. My set-up works well for me. It should work for her as well.

There is a small, but important, difference between my significant other and I. Size. She is petite. As it turns out, the furniture that is so well designed for me and makes it possible for me to work all day, is not suitable for her.

If I have any female readers, what I said probably came as no surprise to you. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to me. When women are more likely to be hurt in car accidents, have worse medical outcomes due to lack of research, and work in offices that are too cold for them, because of a series of design biases that favors men, why should I be surprised that it was difficult to piece together a home office built for a petite woman?

The standard office desk is between 28 and 30 inches tall. We needed a work surface about 24-25 inches tall when seated to accommodate her frame. When she wanted to work standing, we needed a desk between 37-39 inches tall. The office furniture store that sold me my work-from-home set-up did not carry desks that short. We checked Wayfair for options, and most computer desks had a worktop about 30 inches high. After weeks of searching online and in-person, we could not find a regular desk that fit her needs and our budget. Even sit-to-stand desks did not meet her requirements. All but the highest end options had minimum heights greater than 25 inches.

Chairs were hard to find as well. My Leap wasn’t as comfortable for her because the lumbar support in the back isn’t height adjustable. Other chairs did not lower far enough to fit under a 25 inch desk; those that did had a seat depth that was too big for her to touch the back of the chair and keep her knees at a 90 degree angle.

No, putting a footrest down does not magically solve ergonomic issues with a chair.

I’m pleased to report that we found a workable solution. Although we could not find one for purchase locally, the Aeron Chair deserves special commendation for serving all heights and weights. We ended up purchasing an activity table for a desk, added some small drawers below, and the sit-to-stand riser above. This set-up meets her needs and allows her to work comfortably through the day.

But why was it so hard? And why did we need to think outside of the box to find furniture?

  1. The three Office Furniture suppliers I mentioned above do not make enough office furniture that accommodates smaller, and traditionally female, bodies.
  2. Offices buy furniture suited to the average male frame and assume that bigger is better.

The office landscape is changing. Women outperform men in college education, the gender pay gap is shrinking for women who are below the average age of women that take maternity leave. There are good reasons to believe that women will overtake men as the most successful office workers within my lifetime. Both the furniture suppliers and office managers should take note and purchase furniture that will work for all parties. Not doing so will eventually lead to an inability to attract top-talent.

When buying sitting desks, offices should demand that the desks are height-adjustable from 22-32 inches. Standing desks should start at 22 inches and offer the ability to raise to meet the needs of someone who is 6’6″. Chairs should either fit all frames, or offices should buy a selection of sizes. Monitor arms should be employed to allow workers to adjust their screens to meet their eyes. If employers demand that furniture meets the needs of their employees, the furniture manufacturers will respond with better selection.

To learn more about your specific needs review an ergonomic calculator.

Business, Innovation

The Commercial Furniture Market is Shifting

pollywannamath

I grew up loving Herman Miller, Haworth, and Steelcase. These three companies brought us the Eames Lounger, Wanders’ Tulip, and that one steel desk that we all know. I am sitting on a Steelcase Leap v2 chair as I write this post.

I like these firms because I know how it feels to work with bad office furniture. I’ve sat in task chairs that left me with aches after only a few hours of work. I’ve used desks that wobble or don’t comfortably accommodate computer peripherals. Ergonomic design is front and center for all of these firms. When you buy a Herman Miller task chair, you are buying years of research and expertise on the human body and how it must be supported during extended periods of office work. A good office chair and desk should be added between shoes and sheets on the list of things to spend money on.

The importance of ergonomics cannot be overstated. Although sitting might not really be the new smoking, there is no shortage of research the promotes good ergonomic habits in the workplace. Offices responded to this research by improving proactive ergonomic improvements throughout the 2000s. Now, many offices provide sit-to-stand desks, monitor risers, and the ability to move during the day. The workplace is improving and commercial furniture manufacturers drove many of those improvements.

A few months ago, many employees had to leave their ergonomic offices and start to work from home. In many places in the US, there is no end in sight to the new normal of work from home. The improvements in office furniture and employee ergonomics are no longer relevant to much of the US office workforce.

I started this post with a lot of praise for a few companies: Herman Miller, Haworth, and Steelcase. I could have included Knoll, All-Steel and others, but I’m not as familiar with their business model and future vision. Here comes the criticism.

Herman Miller, Haworth, and Steelcase fail to understand the market where they will need to compete in the Post-COVID landscape. Let me summarize their positions:

  • Herman Miller probably does not deserve to be criticized in this post. Herman Miller sells furniture online and does not require a dealer network. Herman Miller has a work from home section of their website. I won’t give Herman Miller undue credit, they are best positioned to succeed in a work from home environment because they have the strongest position in residential furniture.
  • Haworth does not appear to have changed their corporate strategy in the face of COVID. When I asked for information on how to create an ergonomic home office (more on that in pt.2) I was told to visit a dealer (closed due to COVID) for more information on how to create a home office due to COVID.
  • Steelcase, who continues to champion open offices, is publishing material aimed at reassuring the public that work from home will remain a marginal mode of work. Steelcase, a furniture company, points to the lack of ergonomic furniture available to individual contributors as a reason that employees will need to go back to their open office to be productive. Steelcase, like Haworth, uses a dealer network to sell their furniture to the general public.

Although the “reopening” date remains unclear for many US workers, there will be a time after COVID-19. I don’t think there will be a wholesale change from office work to work from home as the default, but I think we will see a shift at more than just the margins (and urban parking will become much more expensive). In a world with more workplace flexibility, commercial furniture giants will need to become more flexible as well. Offices will shrink a little and require less furniture.

All three will need to compete with less expensive residential options for office furniture found on Wayfair, Overstock, IKEA, and Amazon to retain market share and profits. I don’t advocate that any of the three attempt to compete on price with their current offerings. I described their differentiator above (ergonomics and durability).

That said, convincing a person to spend more on office furniture will be tough when there are myriad cheaper options (food is a perfect analogy for something with a similar cost+ health scale in the US). I advocate a few strategies to improve their competitive odds in the residential business market:

  • Remove the reliance on the dealer network for specific work-from-home product lines (Steelcase and Haworth). I know dealers will denounce the move and demand exclusive access to furniture sales, but purchasing must be easy for the consumer.
  • Create frequent partnerships with large employers to encourage employees to use their office furniture at home. This strategy should be natural for all three and retains the returns to scale of the current model. Employees would either need to place an order through their employer or have an employer-specific login to receive a discount. These partnerships should be advertised as a benefit by the furniture manufacturers as well as the companies involved in the program.
  • Spin-off home office design studios that compete on price and meet the consumers where they are. Leverage older technologies and cheaper materials to build smaller pieces designed for home use at a price point that is competitive in the Wayfair marketplace. Limit the number of products and colors available to keep costs down.

Without these strategies, all three companies will remain industry leaders in the commercial market. Retaining the same percentage of a shrinking pie is not good for business, however.

View part two here.