The Sum of Their Parts
“The term ‘holistic ergonomics’ describes the manifold interaction between the working environment and the people in it,” explains Dr. Jens Gebhardt, Commercial Director at Kinnarps GmbH. To illustrate this, he points to a graph produced by Kinnarps, the Swedish office furniture manufacturer. It demonstrates that physical aspects such as acoustics, movement, light and furniture permanently interact with organizational and social aspects – such as the corporate culture, the quality of the management, and the way work and workflow are organized. If a company gets the big picture right, then this even has a positive impact on the workforce’s efficiency and its health. Kinnarps identified this fundamentally important interplay at an early stage and accordingly not only do its brands offer appropriately versatile interior designs and furnishing solutions, the company also provides advice on holistic ergonomics. “It is important to recognize the impact of individual factors on the whole and to incorporate these into the relevant planning process in an optimum way,” he explains.
In response to this, Kinnarps Group office furniture specifically fosters movement, with height-adjustable desks and a feature especially developed by the company – the “FreeFloat” mechanism which allows its office chairs’ seats and backrests to be adjusted to any position the user may desire, independently of each other, to mention only two examples. “A good synchronizing mechanism promotes movement. Moreover, working standing up for only three hours per day five days per week produces the same health benefit in a year as running ten marathons,” Dr. Gebhardt explains. The message is clear: Appropriate workplaces boost the health and mental well-being of a workforce, thus allowing the latter to work productively and ensuring that the employees are sick less frequently, something that on balance boosts the company’s profitability. Kinnarps extensive experience with what preconditions need to be in place to ensure holistic ergonomics in the workplace is accompanied by findings that are the result of both scientific and market-specific analysis. Creating ideal conditions for developing the “next office”, namely a customized working environment. In order to realize such a scenario, Kinnarps offers a set of valuable guidelines ranging from preparatory workshops to the final stages of a product. “The sooner we are included in planning a project, the better we can use our services to optimize the process,” Dr. Gebhardt explains.
