Choosing the right office chair makes a world of difference for you and your employees. Regardless of whether you’re considering buying new chairs for the office or yourself, whether you work from a traditional office or from home, having a comfortable office chair improves your productivity and your overall health.
At GOS, we sell many types of office chairs: from those with La-Z-Boy Commercial Cores and memory foam seats to your garden-variety swivel chairs.
In this article, we’ll offer a guide to all the key things you need to consider when you’re shopping for an office chair.
Choosing the Right Office Chair
The key factors you need to consider when choosing the right office chair have to do with comfort and health. Remember that when you’re selecting an office chair for your employees, the most important thing to bear in mind is that you’re responsible for helping them maintain a good posture, avoiding the injuries that come from sitting all day in a poorly designed chair, and making them more productive and happy.
Adjust the Height of Your Chair
Adjust the Height of Your Chair
Most office chairs today come with a lever on the bottom that allows you to adjust the height — even the simplest of office chairs have this feature. In order to be comfortable throughout the day, you need an office chair that allows you to adjust its height.
The best sitting posture to avoid back strain keeps your thighs level with your hips. When your chair is too high, you risk needing to bend over which puts stress on your lower back. On the other hand, if your chair is too low, you’ll have to reach up to work, which also puts stress on your back and joints.
Buying a chair whose height can be adjusted helps your employees maintain the correct posture and avoid needless injuries.
Lean Back with Office Chairs that Tilt
Why should you care about the angle of your office chairs? No office chair you buy will be perfectly suited to your body, and, similar to the seats in your car, you need a chair that tilts forward and backward.
Chairs with features such as Tilt Tension Adjustment give you and your employees the ability to recline. Maintaining a slightly reclined position while you work takes pressure off of your spine. Many chairs will offer some tilting options, but you ideally want office chairs that feature a high-quality tilt tension knob.
Research is key when you’re buying office chairs, and it can be helpful to talk to experts about what you need when it comes to both adjustable height and tilt.
The Size of Your Seat Matters
When it comes to choosing the right office chair for you or your employees, the size of your seat matters. Think about it: people are of different sizes so their chair seats can’t all be the same size, right?
While you’re shopping for office chairs, you should measure your current ones. Are their seats so big that your employees have to hunch forward? Are they so narrow that your employees feel scrunched up after sitting all day?
We recommend taking some measurements and comparing what you find online with your current office chairs.
Armrests Matter, Too
The armrests on your office chairs matter just as much as the seat cushion and other features. Buying a chair with padded armrests encourages you and your employees to actually use those armrests.
Many experts in ergonomics now suggest that quality armrests not only prevent discomfort to your forearms but can actually help you avoid aches and pains in your neck and shoulders.
Pay Close Attention to the Padding and Materials
This is a big one. Office chairs offer a variety of upholstery, and they are constructed in a number of ways, so you’ll have options when it comes to the materials that comprise your office chairs. Chairs with a mesh back not only give you a breathable feel but are often stretchable as well to provide even greater comfort.
The material of your office chair is also about presentation. You don’t want clients or customers visiting your leadership team to discover they’re sitting in crummy seats. Leather Executive office chairs are not only for comfort; they’re designed to impress others.
That said, you never want to sacrifice comfort simply because a particular office chair looks good. Handsome office chairs can still be uncomfortable to sit in throughout the day and fail to deliver the ergonomic support your body needs through many hours at the office.
It’s important that you aren’t fooled by an office chair’s plushness. Plushy chairs that look great can fail to provide adequate ergonomic support, causing all sorts of problems such as lower back pain. It’s great that you want to sink into your chair, but don’t be tricked into buying an attractive chair that will ruin your posture.
Wheeling Around the Office
Most office chairs today come with wheels. You may be moving around your own desk or wheeling over to talk with a colleague. Whatever the case may be, you want mobility in your office chairs.
Given that most office chairs already come equipped with wheels, you want to make sure that the casters and wheels on your office chairs are durable. Nothing is more frustrating than an office chair that needs to be replaced because its components simply weren’t strong enough to stand up over time.
Support that Lumbar Region
You may already know that your lumbar is the region in your lower back. But did you know that 16 million Americans (about 8% of the adult population) suffer from chronic lower back pain?
Of course, you can’t chalk up all lower back issues to seating, but ergonomic chairs are the name of the game when you’re shopping for office chairs. If you’re really serious about a chair that supports your lower back, you should consider one with adjustable lumbar support.
Perhaps the most important consideration when it comes to office chairs with lumbar support is what works for you and your employees. Again everyone has different body shapes and sizes. Some folks want a seatback that is molded into an S-Shape, which will force you into maintaining a better posture. Others prefer a more straight-backed office chair with the addition of a lumbar support cushion. When it comes to ergonomic lumbar support, it’s mostly a matter of personal preference.
GOS for Your Office Chairs
When it comes to chairs or anything else you need for your office, you can count on GOS to deliver. For more than four decades, we’ve been supplying workplaces around the country with supplies, furniture, and much more to transform offices into places where employees want to spend their time.
We have the largest inventory of office chairs around, and, as a family-owned business, you can trust that we’ll provide the best in customer service.
