If you’ve been tasked with ordering an office chair for your boss, here’s what you need to think about and some advice on how to choose.
Find Out How Much They Want To Spend
First of all, you should have a certain budget in mind. This will allow you to speed up the process of searching through the potential options for your boss’ new desk chair, because you can immediate ignore any suggestions which are outside of your parameters.
If your boss is unsure of what to set the budget at for an office chair, research what has been spent on furniture elsewhere in the office (if possible) or see what employees of a similar pay grade spent on their office chair.
Failing either of those options, simply ask the accounts or finance control how much is available.
Consider How Much They Will Use It
Once your budget is known, you can start getting into the specifics of the different options and how they’re going to fulfil the criteria your boss has. The first of these criteria should be how often it’s going to get used.
There’s no use buying an expensive, fully ergonomic chair for your boss if they are only in the office for a couple of hours a day at the most.
If your boss will be using their chair regularly and for prolonged periods of time, then it will be worth paying for a higher specification. This will help minimise any health issues (as long as they use the ergonomic features as intended) and also keep them more comfortable when say at their desk.
If you’re wondering, an ergonomic chair is not just one which is adjustable. It provides full lumbar support in the lower back area, can be adjusted in terms of seat height and back lean, it should offer head support and have a well-designed amount of resistance against the body in key places.
Be aware of chairs which have “ergonomic features”, as they aren’t always fully ergonomic. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just make sure that you don’t pay over the odds for a chair with limited options.
See If They Have Any Medical Requirements
Your boss may have some applicable health requirements that change which chair you need to order for them. You don’t have to pry into anything too personal, a simple question when nobody is around (just in case they’re sensitive about anything) should clear up whether you need to consider other health protecting features.
This could range from footrests and footstools, to soft seats or extra cushioning. You can then bare this in mind when choosing a chair to order.
Match The Interior Of The Office
When it comes to styling, make sure that the appearance of the chair suits that of the office where it will be placed.
If your boss sits in their own private office, check the interiors and the desk it will be used with. Make sure you choose a matching style in order to avoide putting a plush, traditional leather executive chair in a modern, minimalist office, for example.
Secondly, take a minute to check that the chair will fit in behind their desk and still leave ample room for people to pass by and your boss to easily get in and out from behind the desk without their chair banging into objects or people behind them.
Suggest No More Than A Couple Of Options
And finally, after considering all of these things, whittle your choices down to no more than two options. Tell your boss that you’ve narrowed it down to two choices but let them quickly pick because it is they who will be sitting in the chair, after all.
They should appreciate the fact that you have done all the leg work in sifting through the many available options, but it’s them who have the final say.
Considering an Office Chair for your boss (our yourself)?
Find out more about picking the perfect office chair and make sure that you don’t make any mistakes when ordering by using this guide. click below to get your free copy.