If you are in charge of choosing the furniture your office employees will be using daily, then don't simply look to snag the best deal you can find without putting much thought into the actual design of the chairs and desks you are purchasing. While you, of course, want to stay within your budget, realize that choosing the wrong furniture can contribute to uncomfortable, less productive employees. The wrong furniture can also cost you money in the end when it causes aches and pains and even long-term negative health consequences for your employees that leads to them taking many sick days from work. Follow this guide for choosing healthy, ergonomically friendly office furniture to increase employee productivity. 

1. Choose Ergonomic Chairs

Picking the right chairs your that your employees sit in for many hours every day is likely the single most important decision you will make when choosing office furniture. The wrong chairs can lead to chronic back pain, neck strain, and even knee and leg pain.

Forget what you were likely told in grade-school and high school about those hard, straight-backed chairs attached to your desks being "good for posture". That is a myth that was likely begun by well-meaning teachers to keep students from complaining about their uncomfortable desks and chairs. 

Good office chairs need proper lumbar support that mimics the natural S-curve of the spine. Office chairs should also offer adjustable backs to allow employees to slightly recline the backs to a back-friendly 135-degree angle. An adjustable seat-height is also very important, so every employee can adjust the seat to a position where their feet are flat on the floor without bending their knees too much. 

2. Offer Several Standing Desks

Even when your employees sit in the most ergonomically friendly chairs, standing will always be healthier than sitting for hours every day. Standing cannot only lead to better blood-flow in the body, but it actually leads to the most natural spine alignment and can eliminate many of the pain problems caused by sitting at a desk too much. 

While you don't, of course, want to force every employee to stand all day at work, you should offer several standing desks. This can allow employees who prefer to stand use them daily, and it can give every employee the option to use the standing desks for an hour or two every day to break up a full day of sitting. 

3. Vary Office Desk Heights

Even when office workers have chairs from sites like http://www.DandROfficeWorks.com they can adjust to the appropriate heights for their bodies, there will still never be a one-size-fits-all desk-height that will work for all of your employees. If you must have an office filled with desks of the same height, then standard 29-inch desks are agreed to be the most ergonomically friendly compromise in an office filled with workers of various heights. 

However, most offices have no reason to have desks that are all the same height. A desk that is the right height for an employee is one that that hits at just about the height of his or her elbows when their arms are hanging to the side when sitting on a chair that is adjusted to proper height. This height will vary for every single employee in your office, so offer desks of various heights, so every employee can choose the one they feel most comfortable using every day. 

When you have the right ergonomically friendly, good-health promoting office furniture, you may spend a few more dollars, but you will receive an immense return on your investment. Employees will feel more comfortable at their desks, which can help them get more work done every day and improve their focus. They will also suffer from fewer of the long-term health consequences of sitting improperly, so they take fewer sick days off for pain and health problems.