MOVE

Why sit-stand desks increase work performance

LINAK.COM/DESKLINE2Improve work performance with your office design

Today's office environments demand flexible and ergonomic
solutions that support both general and individual needs. As
offices get smarter and more digital, they also become more
comfortable. But does this lead to greater movement?
Humans were built to move, yet the typical office worker
spends most of their day sitting at his or her desk. Whilephysical inactivity is a health risk for the individual, employers
have also become increasingly aware of the negative effects
on work efficiency and absenteeism among employees.

Sit-stand desks can reduce sedentary behaviour significantly,
decrease the risk of lifestyle related diseases and increase
employee well-being.
This brochure offers insight about how sit-stand desks add
value to the modern office environment, why they are anattractive investment and create ROI for employers and why it
is so important for us to stay physically active throughout ourday.
Stand up and enjoy the reading.

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The office environment is changing

Office environments are changing. Today, flexibility is key.
As our work becomes more digitalised, our working day
becomes smarter and more efficient. Employees work fromthe office - or from home, desks are shared to save office space,• Printing everything• Going to the office every morning• Staying in the same job for years• “Owning” a desk

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open-space offices support collaboration and silent areas offer
spaces for more focused work. Well-designed offices support
employee satisfaction and create engagement.

• Less paper – no archives at your desk
• Working from home• Switching jobs every 5 years• Sharing a desk with various colleagues

Office trends

Interior design is gaining focus in the office environment. Fromcollaborative spaces to silent areas - a well-designed environment supports brand commitment, allows for individual needs
and stimulates efficiency.

Below are some ideas on how you can create an activity-based
working space (ABW), which is all about the presence of design,
the sensory experience, behavioural reinforcement and interactive learning.

Green interior

Smart officeFlexible areas

14:30

Silent areas
Collaboration
Sharing5No movement for office workers?

For the average person sleeping eight hours a day, theremaining 16 hours are typically spent on domestic and workrelated actions. This example of an office worker's day flow
shows how little time there is typically allocated for physicalDrive to work (45 min)Sleep (8 h)movement. Even if 30 minutes physical exercise were added
to the daily routine, this person would still be overall inactive,
making him/her an "active couch potato" rather than an active
person.

Work on computer (4 h)Lunch (45 min)24 hours in asitting mode
Work on computer (4 h)Drive home (45 min)Watch TV/read (4 h)
Eat dinner (1 h)This figure illustrates the daily routine of an average office worker, highlighting how little physical activity is obtained throughout the day.

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Consequences of inactivity• 30 % of ischaemic heart diseases are caused by physical inactivity• 27 % of diabetes cases are caused by physical inactivity• 21 % of breast cancer are caused by physical inactivity• 25 % of colon cancer burden are caused by physical inactivity• Physical inactivity is the 4th leading risk factor for global mortality• 80 % will experience back pain at some point in their lives – while 80% of all back pain is preventable, the bestwell-known preventive and therapeutic solution for back pain caused by sedentary behaviour is physical activity

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"Even 30 to 60 minutesof jogging a day
won't undo eight hoursof sitting"
Dr. Elizabeth Joy- University of Utah Health Sciences Center8

Sick days - a costly affair

Physical inactive behaviour affects the individual office worker - and it hurts the bottom line of employers.
The human factor is a costly affair as UK statistics show.

An average firm of
250 employees looses£4,800 per week

270,000

employees take time off workin the UK for stress-related disorders
Due to sickness absence

8,200,000

work days per year are
lost in the UK
due to mental
health andstressrelated
problems

Absenteeism in theworkplace can fallby as much as
through wellness programs atwork. Height-adjustable desks are anatural part of this.

42%

4,900,000

days in the UK are lost to
employee absenteeism throughwork-related back pain at a cost
£5,000,000,000,000 p.a.

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Employer benefits

There are many benefits of using sit-stand desks for employers and their employees.

• Reduce sick days
• Increase productivity• Improve quality and efficiency of work
• Increase collaboration among groups of employees• Improve focus and reduce stress

How do sit-stand desks
create value for both
employers and theiremployees? Watch theseries: LINAK.COM/
segments/deskline/techand-trends/work-lifebalance/

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Introducing sit-stand desks improved well-being andresulted in less sick days

A study of a global company of some 6,000 staff, offered all employees sit-stand desks. After just three months, 65 % reported
that their well-being had improved by using the adjustable officedesk. After six years, the number had risen to 70 %. In the same
period the organisation noticed a significant decrease in thenumber of sick days.

Return on investment
According to James Levine, Director of Obesity Solutions
for the Mayo Clinic and the Arizona State University,
the ROI is typically between

3 - 7 US-dollars for 1 dollar
invested
in workplace interventions, helping people be more activeon the job.

11Every movement counts

Several studies show that breaking up sedentary
time will help minimise its negative health effects.
Sit-stand desks bring movement to the office.
It's all about movement, so for every 30 minutes,
stand for eight minutes and move/stretch for
two minutes.

Move and gently stretch

Stand in neutral postures

Sit in neutral postures

28Every
30 min20

For 7.5 hours day gives a total of:• 5 hours/sitting• 2 hours of standing• 0.5 hours of moving• 16 sit-to-stand transitions

12SittingStandingStretchingSit-stand desks improve productivity• Users of sit-stand workstations claim to be
more alert, task-driven and positive• Research shows a direct link between healthy
employees and improved performance• Meetings are kept short and efficient• Better postures reduce the risk of back pain
• Movement boosts energy levels, especiallyin the afternoons

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Watch the video about thecase study on reminders here

Case study: Reminders work

The German ‘Institut für Gesundheit und Ergonomie’ (IGR)
conducted a case study of 40 employees. The study foundthat desk-integrated reminder tools by LINAK could motivate
office workers to use their sit-stand desk more.
14End-users are motivated to stand more when using
LINAK reminder tools.
74 % increased their sit-stand use
78 % rated their desk usability as good

How to get motivated to stand up?

The study found that:

Despite good intentions, we forget to move during the day. Someof us are not even aware of what prolonged sitting does to ourbody. Reminders help us stay motivated to move throughout theday.

• Non-users increased their standing time by+12 minutes per day• Light users increased their standing time by+43 minutes per day

Reminders work
An independent study founded by LINAK®, tested if reminders
would help motivate the average office worker to remove of hisor her sit-stand desks more.

Learn more about+ 12minNon-users+ 43min

How and why reminders
motivate office workers
to stand up. Visit
LINAK.COM/reminders-workLight-users
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Desks designed to shape behaviour

Despite the best intentions, many office workers simply forget
to use their sit-stand desk during their office day. It is a question of forming a new healthy habit. To help users to get themost out of their sit-stand desk, LINAK® puts a special focus
on designing user-friendly and motivating desk panels.

motivating reminder functions via an integrated LED diode /light strip, a memory position function for the user’s favourite
desk heights, and app connectivity via integrated Bluetooth®
wireless technology.

The Desk Panel DPG series was designed for intuitive handling without the use of buttons. Advanced models include

For its intuitive design,the LINAK®
Desk Panel DPG1C
received theprestigious Red Dot
Design Award 2018.

Connect the DPG to the Desk Control App
By downloading the LINAK® Desk Control™ App, desk users come one step closer to changing
their prolonged and often unhealthy sitting behaviour. The app is developed for users of electric
sit-stand desks, equipped with either of the LINAK® DPG Desk Panels: DPG1M, DPG1B, or DPG1C.
Once the app is installed, friendly reminders will help the user to change position frequently, whileon-the-fly statistics show daily achievements.
The free LINAK® Desk Control App comes in different versions for different platforms:• iOS for iPhones and iPads• Android for Android smartphones and tablets• Windows 10 for PCs16

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Stand-up guide for office workers

Learn how to use your electric sit-stand desk and explore the digitalfeatures it offers when equipped with one of the Desk Panel DPG
models.

moting the LINAK.COM/deskstart website. It leads to acomprehensive user manual including instructional videos andoffers other inspirirational content for an active office day.

Easy to go end-user focus
All Desk Panel DPG models are equipped with a peel-off label pro18

Visit LINAK.COM/deskstartReferences

Page 6 - 24 hours in a sitting mode:
Hamilton, M. T., Healy, G. N., Dunstan, D. W., Zderic, T., & Owen, N. (2008). Too Little Exercise and Too Much Sitting: Inactivity
Physiology and the Need for New Recommendations on Sedentary Behavior. Current cardiovascular risk reports, 2(4), 292-298.
Page 7 - Consequences of inactivity:
World Health Organization. (2009). Global health risks. Mortality and burden of disease attributable to selected major risks.
Geneva: World Health Organization, pp. 18, 10Page 8 - Dr. Elizabeth Joy:Witte, S. (2012). Establishing Sit-Stand Wellness Cultures in Enterprises. How Interior Design Choices Can Reduce Workplace
Health. JustStand Wellness Summit 2012. St. Paul, Minnesota: Stephen Witte Associates.
Page 9 - Sick days:
http://www.getbritainstanding.org/sitting-cost.php (retrieved 24 Sep 2019)
Page 11 – Return on investment:
Lytle, T. (2017, February 22). Promote an Active Workforce with Standing Desks. Retrieved from Society for Human Resource Management: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0317/pages/promote-an-active-workforce-with-standing-desks.aspx
Healy, G., Lawler, S., Thorp, A., Neuhaus, M., Robson, E., Owen, N., & Dunstan, D. (2012). Reducing prolonged sitting in the workplace. An evidence review: full report. Melbourne, Australia: Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.
Page 12 – Every movement counts:
Figure by Hedge, A. ((2016, March 18). Sit-Stand Working Programs. Retrieved from http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/CUESitStandPrograms.html) as cited in Hedge, A. (2017). Ergonomic Workplace Design for Health, Wellness and Productivity. Boca Raton, FL:
CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group
Page 13 – Productivity:
http://www.getbritainstanding.org/sitting-cost.php
Page 14 – Case study: Reminders work:
Institut für Gesundheit und Ergononmie (2018): Measuring the effect of sit-stand reminders. A case study on the motivational
effect of reminders for office workers at electric height-adjustable desks. Published by LINAKPage 15 – How to get motivated to stand up?
/KL.7 (2017). Making office workers healthier: A public health intervention making office workers use their height-adjustableoffice desk more, conducted for LINAK. Published by LINAK

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For further information about the DESKLINE® product programme:
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LINAK® accepts no responsibility for possible errors or inaccuracies in catalogues, brochures, and other material. LINAK reserves the right to change its products without prior notice. LINAK cannot guarantee product availability and reserves
the right to discontinue the sale of any product. User is responsible for determining the suitability of LINAK products for a specific application. All sales are subject to the ‘Standard Terms of Sale and Delivery’, available on LINAK websites.
LINAK and the LINAK logotype are registered trademarks of LINAK A/S. All rights reserved.

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