Adaptability and safety takes a front seat

IT MIGHT look like a chair to you, but to the Health and Safety Authority it is a potential health hazard unless properly designed, and to the office furniture industry an ergonomic design challenge to guarantee the health of its user while at the same time keeping costs within reasonable parameters.

Office furniture design has advanced in leaps and bounds as awareness of health risks has grown. Some countries have incorporated minimal ergonomic standards into law, but in Ireland it is the Health and Safety Authority's recommendations that set the standard.

Companies now are obliged to buy only the office furniture that complies with the authority's strictures. Those not presently in compliance are not actually expected to dump the offending items, but they are expected to observe minimal standards of worker safety and comfort when it comes to replacing them.

The vast majority of office chairs now sold on the Irish market are well up to standard, and this applies whether they are imported or manufactured in Ireland, according to Willie Vance of Sisk Contract Interiors, the Dublin based producer and supplier of office furniture.

What is happening now is that desks are also being made adjustable for height so that employees have total discretion in setting their immediate working environment to their own needs. This is quite important for companies operating on a multi shift basis, as an increasing number now do.

Where shifts are in operation, the same working environment can be shared by three people of totally different stature within each 24 hour period, so maximum adaptability is necessary if a five foot tall employee is replaced by a six footer at the end of his or her stint.

From the employer's point of view, the challenge is to establish adequate standards of comfort and safety while at the same time maximising productivity and minimising cost.

Most frequently, the answer to this conundrum lies in the cruciform or four way work station, which accommodates four employees on a common structural platform, while at the same time giving each adequate space in which to move and operate freely.

Costs tend to rise if single desk/chair combinations are used. Chairs start at around £170, and desks at £300 for secretarial use, and this can rise to £1,400 for the managing director's large swivel chair, and £3,500 for a rosewood desk.

It seems likely that an increasingly common feature in office furniture over the next year or two will be mobility. This was the central theme of last year's Orgetec office furniture exhibition in Cologne last year, and it involves more than just putting castors on desk legs, says Vance.

Mobile furniture will not make huge differences in terms of price, but it will make it much easier for companies to accommodate changes in personnel or working environments, he says.

Managing the spatial environment is a relatively straightforward and inexpensive option. Office partitioning systems, whether permanent or stand alone, are still the most effective means of delineating function, guaranteeing privacy, and so on.

The choices are limitless and will reflect the corporate ethos as much as functionality. Solicitors, for obvious reasons, opt for cellular systems, while accountants split their environments: cellular for senior partners; open plan for juniors and auditors.

Open plan is probably the only effective option for software design firms, where a free exchange of ideas is essential, but it can also serve a broader purpose, and is favoured by many multinational firms as a means of creating a common working environment in which the chief executive officer is seen as much part of a team as the lowest ranking employee.

The use of computers in the office as data management and storage tools has had surprisingly muted effect in terms of doing away with the traditional resort of paper based filing systems.

Some industries, notably banking and other financial services, have been extremely successful in transferring paperbased data systems to disc and other media, but for others it is not really an option.

Solicitors, accountants, architects, and insurers all depend heavily on paper held data, and are continuing purchasers of filing systems. According to Fergus Curran, sales director with Stationery and Office Supplies Ltd, the lateral filing system has been a firm favourite with corporate customers for some time now.

The chassis for this hanging file type system costs a mere £16, and these can be stacked as high as 87 inches, a crucial factor where there is pressure on floor space.

Where security is an issue, these chassis can be stacked inside a lockable vertical camber door cabinet costing from £500-£600 apiece.

These are well tried and trusted systems which have established themselves in the market, and their simplicity means there is little by way by change in specification. What has been evident, however, is that corporate buyers are becoming more discerning in their choice, and there is a definite trend towards those units which combine an element of good looks with their proven functionality, says Curran.