Office-friendly furniture for an enhanced productivity: factors affecting performance of professionals at workplaces.

Abstract

A workspace plays a crucial role in the life of a professional, whether full-time working or a self-employed. In the present scenario of advancement and tech-world, an employee spends a substantial amount of time performing most of his tasks within the office space such as designing on the computers, online meetings, programming etc. Such tasks usually involve long and constant working hours which influence overall performance and impacts the productivity in several ways. An office space is an essential aspect that requires special consideration towards comfortable seating for the professional. A suitable and appropriately designed furniture for the work space plays a significant role in determining an employee’s health as well as overall productivity, which necessitates the development of furniture design in line with the human dimensions and comfort for an enhanced output. This paper identifies the role of furniture design in line with human body dimensions and related factors that impact overall productivity of a professional in an office space, through an intense literature review. Questionnaires, open-ended as well as closed-ended, along with personal interactions with the staff members of office spaces narrowed down the identified factors to the most common ones. A survey of employees was conducted to verify the factors and identify the aspects linked with anthropometry that affect the productivity of professionals. The identified factors were quantified and statistically analysed for the most critical one.