The Importance of Office Chairs
While often overlooked, task chairs are an incredibly important part of your workspace. As the seat that your people will likely use the most, your task chairs will have a significant impact on the health and performance of your people. Unergonomic and misused task furniture can cause serious lower back and neck pains, and can even increase the risk of heart disease. On the other hand, a high-quality office chair can help ensure your people are in the best possible position to perform throughout their working day.
Whether you’re needing to prepare your workspace for a hybrid future or looking to support remote workers to be as healthy and productive as possible, a great office chair is the starting point of an effective and ergonomic workstation.
What makes a great task chair?
While task chairs come in a dizzying array of shapes, styles, colours, sizes, and prices, the elements that make a great task chair stay the same.
Adjustability
Your staff are all different, so they will all need a different chair setup to perform at their best. You will need office chairs that are adjustable in terms of seat height, seat tilt, and back titl at the very least, though adjustable headrests and armrests are also recommended to provide optimum comfort for users.
Lumbar Support
Your back curves along the length of your spine, and the shape and style of this varies from worker to worker. adjustable lumbar support will support the curve of your lower back perfectly, preventing you from slouching, which reduces energy and alertness, and in the long term can lead to serious back issues.
Materials
Many staff will be sitting in this chair for around 6 hours a day, so it's crucial that the seat is adequately cushioned with a thick pad of ergonomic foam to reduce pressure on the hips and ensure adequate comfort for the user. The back should be made of a breathable and pliable material like mesh, to allow the chair to be comfortably used for significant periods.
Armrests & Headrests
Adjustable armrests are an under-appreciated element of ergonomic design in a task chair. The ability to move in all 3 planes will ensure that all of your staff have well-supported elbows and shoulders – an essential in the technology-led modern workspace. A headrest can also provide enhanced neck support, improving staff concentration and reducing stress on the back.
Quality
Ultimately, quality design is the most important element in the best task chair. A carefully created and rigorously tested operator chair made from certified materials should last for more than 5 years. This will save both time and money, proving a worthy financial investment. Many modern ergonomic office chairs also have excellent sustainability credentials, making them good for the planet as well as your staff.
The Best Task Chairs
Our extensive range of task chairs includes a huge variety of options to suit every brand and budget. We’ve chosen 5 of our favourite task chairs to help you decide which one is right for you.
AllowMe
AllowMe is an ergonomic chair that improves comfort and wellbeing by promoting continuous low-threshold movement and active-dynamic sitting, for any size or shape of user, built around pelvic rotation and hip abduction. The innovative chair back involves a single piece of geometry based on a helical sprung section, providing progressive resistance during the natural recline movement of the user, regardless of their shape or size.
Coza
Coza is a task chair that boasts extraordinary comfort and dynamic support by using the natural flexibility of a single ribbon of material. Unlike other task chairs, it does not require multiple components or complex assembly. Coza is visually and functionally unique and is the perfect chair to facilitate flexible working in a modern office.
Diffrient World
Diffrient World is simple, beautiful, and functional. The design eliminates the need for traditional mechanisms, instead using the laws of physics and the sitter’s body weight to offer the perfect recline for each individual sitter. Diffrient World offers the ultimate user-friendly sitting experience.
Do
The result of taking a completely fresh look at task chair design, Do does more with less. One of the most popular task chairs available, Do is innovative in terms of the materials used, the way it’s assembled and transported, and the powerful performance it delivers. Thanks to user-centred design and a weight balancing mechanism, Do doesn’t have a multitude of knobs and levers to find and struggle with.
Kirn
Kirn has been developed to provide an excellent balance of comfort and support. Kirn is resilient, manufactured with the requirements of both service and end-of-life in mind. Its materials are all high quality and its major elements can all be easily replaced or upgraded, giving your chair a long, hassle-free working life.
Task Chairs in Your Office
With the rise of hybrid working and home working, making sure your staff are well-equipped to perform in their home office is important to ensure the success of your company. As the role of the office changes to a more collaborative hub in the years to come, your office chairs need to be adaptable to suit a variety of roles they will need to fulfil – not only as traditional workstations, but for meetings, small team collaboration, and other roles.
Task chairs are a crucial part of any office design. With your people spending more than 30 hours a week in these chairs, ergonomics and practicalities should be considered in order to make the right choice for you and your people. While there are countless cheap options, providing your staff with high-quality ergonomic office chairs is a viable investment that will pay off with improved wellbeing and productivity.
Adjustable office desks or multi-functional office furniture are central to any office space. By ensuring you equip your space with furniture that empowers your employees, boosting productivity and wellness, you can create a fulfilling and effective office space that will serve your business well into the future. Want to know more? Explore our office desks & chairs, or book a call with one of our furniture experts to help you decide what is the right task chair for you.