Since the beginning of 2020, a sudden outbreak of the epidemic has changed our office routine: the home has become an office, the dining table has become a temporary desk, and even children and pets have become "colleagues", and this state will continue . Many companies such as Google and Uber have announced that they will no longer need to return to the office to work before mid-2021, and some companies have even announced that they will no longer continue the traditional office model of the past.
When home office becomes an inevitable and trend, can it guarantee office efficiency and quality? And how to create the environment and conditions for a more effective home office?
LINAK, Denmark, an industry-leading manufacturer of furniture lifting systems, has been focusing on various ergonomic lifting furniture solutions for many years. Recently, I interviewed Dr. Mark Benden and Dr. Martha Parker, an American ergonomics expert, to use more convincing data and research to discuss home office and ergonomics issues. Perhaps this can bring more inspiration to brands in the furniture office field.
Dr. Mark Benden Bio
Bachelor's degree in Bioengineering, Master's degree and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University, registered expert in ergonomics. And has a 30-year career in the field of occupational safety and ergonomics. Dr. Benden has 22 patented technologies on ergonomics and has written many books on ergonomics.
Martha Parker
Texas A&M Industrial Engineering, Ph.D. in Bioengineering, Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE). He is also a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), the International Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP).
Can working from home be efficient?
Drs Benden and Martha Parker share with us the results of one of their studies. The study used software to track the office status of 40,000 workers for two years. Through the analysis of 120 indicators, the software can see the enthusiasm of employees working in the office and at home. How long did you stay in which applications? How did you work with the mouse? How many words were typed? What is the workload at different time periods? ...
After analyzing a lot of data, Benden and Parker came up with an affirmative answer to the question "Are people working from home as productive as people working in the office?" After about 45 days, people working from home were able to return to normal Work efficiency in the office, and this state of office will continue.
How to quickly improve and maintain high efficiency?
But at the same time, Benden and Parker say, to speed up the transition and ensure continued productivity, our homes must have the same dedicated space as an office and the same configuration, including ergonomic office applications.
Because the study also found that even if they work at home, the amount of exercise employees do not change a day, and the temporary "desk" at home and the fixed height of the monitor will become "sedentary" diseases (such as cervical spine, lumbar muscle strain, etc.) for a long time. ) of the culprit. This also shows that a series of ergonomic applications such as office lift desks still play an important role in the tide of home office, whether it is to improve the recovery of working conditions or the health of employees.
Dr. Benden pointed out, "The skill of working in an ergonomic environment is to be more active and change your office posture frequently." At the same time, Parker also proposed to follow the "20-8-2" standard, that is, sit for 20 minutes and stand for 8 minutes. minutes, followed by 2 minutes of walking or activity.
Bringing Ergonomics to the Home Office
Benden and Parker's suggestion coincides with the "sit-stand alternate" office method advocated by LINAK. In another survey report by Bende, it took six months to compare the effect of using adjustable desks and traditional fixed desks in call centers. It was found that workers who used height-adjustable desks were 45% more productive than those who were seated – and that productivity continued to improve dramatically over time. This is undoubtedly good news for home workers who expect to improve office efficiency.
But at the same time, some studies have found that even if employees are equipped with height-adjustable desks, the working habits formed by long-term sedentary work cannot be improved in a short period of time. The comfortable environment at home makes it more difficult to change habits.
In order to change people's office habits more thoroughly and achieve comprehensive "ergonomic" performance, LINAK launched the DPG adjustable desk controller with motivational reminders in 2018. It can remind the user to change the office posture in time through the controller display screen, mobile phone, and computer. The research results of KL.7, a professional human behavior research institution in Denmark, show that with the intervention of the reminder function of the adjustable table, within eight hours of work, the users who originally stood for an average of 36.3 minutes per day increased their standing time to 78.9 minutes per day.
Of course, the enlightenment brought by Benden and Parker's research to the field of office furniture is not limited to this - opening up the space between the office and the home may become the next topic for designers. “At work, you can compare yourself to a professional athlete,” says Dr. Benden. “In order to perform at your best, you have to have the same equipment and tools at all times. Then you need the same workspace in different office environments. of." Return to Sohu to see more
