The First Facility Management Blog

The contract furniture designer and manufacturer is now a member of the Office Ergonomics Research Committee (OERC), an industry council that researches the relationship between office work and discomfort, fatigue, and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).

Allsteel is focused on creating ergonomic seating, workstations, and other office furniture that helps office workers to be more productive, more comfortable, and less likely to report injuries. The company became interested in OERC’s studies due to the involvement of a number of world-renowned researchers.

OERC is committed to better understanding the human and machine system that is comprised of the people who use office, information, and communication technologies in a broad range of settings. The organization helps companies manufacturing products in these areas stay informed about the latest findings and how to prevent discomfort, disease, and musculoskeletal disorders. Other OERC members include Steelcase, Herman Miller, Humanscale, Dell, Apple, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft.

The OERC was established in 1991 as a result of an increasing number of musculoskeletal disorders. Many of its members fit into the office furniture manufacturer category. According to Tom Albin, executive director of OERC, “We have a large range in our membership. Although our research is not always specific to each member’s area, it does provide a great value to our office furniture manufacturing clients. We are glad to have Allsteel on board.”

As an OERC member, Allsteel is able to make research recommendations to the committee, and specific requests for information about the newest trends and ergonomic issues related to the office environment.

According to Scott Openshaw, human factors and ergonomics manager at Allsteel, “The partnership between Allsteel and the OERC makes perfect sense as we’re both committed to creating ergonomic workplaces where employees can be comfortable and productive. The OERC’s cutting-edge research allows us to understand new trends and how we can apply those findings to designing ergonomic workplace solutions.”