October 16, 2014 •Kelley MacEwen
A few months ago, we toured office furniture showrooms to see which items would suit our new office space and accommodate our growing staff. Considering input from Summit leadership, Cat and Antoinette chose desks, tables, and other pieces that would work best for our staff in terms of form and function.
But when it came to choosing chairs, they didn’t want to make the decision alone. The chosen chairs will be used for nearly 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and must be comfortable, otherwise they become a distraction. And because everyone in the office uses them. we wanted to get approval from all Summit staff before making a final decision on which chairs to buy for the new office.
Because it is impractical to bring nearly 100 employees to a furniture showroom to test multiple chairs, we brought the chairs to the office instead. Summit’s newly formed Wellness Committee coordinated a survey for staff to rate the comfort of each chair. As you can see below, the conference room chair initially proposed (poll results on the left) was not well-received. The office chair, however, was largely a winner (results on the right):
Thankfully, we had more options. Responding to specific feedback, we were able to provide additional conference room chairs for testing. These are currently in the office, and another survey is available for staff to leave feedback. The preliminary reaction seems to be positive, though.
Thanks to DBI Architects, AllSteel, and Cresa for coordinating this testing! Our employees appreciated the opportunity to provide feedback.