FOCUS ERGONOMICS
Paul Edward, Managing Director of British o ce furniture designer and
manufacturer Staverton explains why choosing fl exible and mobile furniture
can help employees to shape the environment to suit their needs
40 JULY 2022
The pandemic, and our subsequent
return to the o ice has made the
need for high performing workspaces
that deliver the best from their people,
more important than ever. For FMs
who are typically on the front line of
translating employees’ new wants, needs
and behaviours into engaging, e icient,
agile, and ergonomics workspaces –
there is a seismic task ahead.
To deliver this vision, workplace design is
undergoing a metamorphosis. O ice spaces
are fast becoming hubs for collaboration
and community, rather than merely
head-down desk-based work, as hybridworking
becomes the new normal. And, as
collaboration and teamwork are important
to 75 per cent of employees and 17 per
cent are more satisfied when collaboration
is part of their work, recognising these
needs not only supports sta productivity
and wellbeing, but is crucial for talent
recruitment and retention too.
With those considerations in mind it’s
not surprising that flexible and mobile
furniture is fast becoming a staple of
the post-pandemic workplace as a vital
building block that can help employees feel
in control, be productive and comfortable,
make space work harder for a business, and
build longevity into work environments.
ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING
We broke free of our desk-based shackles
some time ago and workplaces are now
much more richly varied and agile places
as a result – with increasingly task-based
areas for coalescing, socialisation,
collaboration, quiet reflection and more.
Consequently, most o ice furniture projects
have a requirement for flexible and/or
mobile furniture as it enables employees to
shape the environment to suit their needs.
This degree of personalisation, adjustment
and customisation is important –
particularly when most modern workplaces
are centred on shared rather than owned
spaces. Plus, it can help to support more
diverse employee needs and create more
inclusive workplaces.
Resimercial design has been around for
some time – that is the idea of bringing
residential elements into the workplace –
but the pandemic really accelerated this
appetite for greater home comforts and
design familiarity at work. A er almost two
years of being able to manage your own
work setting – everything from heating,
lighting, and location to the quality of the
co ee you drink – choice is now vital in the
shared workplace. That might be exercising
task-related choices such as choosing
a quiet pod to make a di icult phone
call, changing the height of a desk to aid
movement and improve wellbeing, working
from the roof garden or simply grabbing a
drink and socialising with colleagues.
The benefit of flexible furniture is that
it can help to create spaces within spaces
instead of using walls and provide visual
cues as to how areas are to be used.
SHAPE SHIFTING