Osmond Ergonomics

This article was originally emailed as our monthly eBulletin at 11:30 on 13/06/2018. You can register here to receive them monthly.

WHY DO WE WOW?

As the portfolio on our website grows, our unique ‘WoW Factor’ product review technique becomes ever more important to ensure the quality, design and sustainability of what we offer. For over 10 years, this practice has been a crucial part of our ISO9001 quality system and central to our operational DNA. It allows us to cherry-pick the best products from our supply partners and seek out new manufacturing partners with a story to tell. It is the reason we visit overseas exhibitions, conferences and factories for greater insight and early knowledge of trends and ideas (Sweden, USA, Netherlands and Germany this year). It is the reason manufacturers seek our views and many share design ideas before their public launch. It is the reason we always have an answer to the ‘Cheaper on eBay’ question and the fact we often do not sell the ‘Number 1 on Google’. For more information about the process, please read this short blog from 2015.

MOBILE WORKING & HANDHELD DEVICES

We have been revisiting the issues we face when using portable technology. Our Posture Guidance for Handheld Devices leaflet is due for an update and we plan to align this to a new seminar/webinar exploring ways of improving posture and reducing musculo-skeletal risks when using technology on the move. Our one hour Workstation Postural Awareness session already looks at posture and sitting in the office and it seems logical to use a similar format for the mobile/agile worker training. Is this something your organisation might be interested in? Let us know if you would be interested in piloting this.

TRAINING PROGRAMME

We have now relocated the booking and information page for all our face-to-face and webinar events from Eventbrite to our own web site. You can still access everything by typing ergonomics.events into your web browser or, if you prefer, find it under Training & Events through the Healthy Thinking menus on our web site. It currently includes one day DSE Assessor courses as well as the next three events in our national roadshow. As I write, they range geographically from Exeter to Glasgow. If the latter venue appeals, please note that we have changed the roadshow dates to avoid the previous clash with half term. To celebrate the new setup, we are offering 10% off all training courses with voucher code TRG349850 until the end of August.

LAPTOP STANDS FOR APPLE AND OTHERS

Apple was the first laptop manufacturer to design a screen that does not open a full 180 degrees. Inevitably, other manufacturers have followed their lead. This is not an issue if you use your laptop flat on a work surface but, for many taller users, the screen will not open far enough when using the majority of laptop stands (because they raise the whole computer at an angle). Not long ago, the answer would have been to use a telephone directory or two as a quick fix – but when did you last see a telephone directory? We now have two stylish new products to address this issue and avoid the screen angle problem. Take a look at the Supreme Plus and Supreme Dual Pivot Stands.

THE QEHS EXPO

The Quality, Environment, Health & Safety Expo takes place on Tuesday June 26th at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry CV6 6AQ. At the time of writing, the agenda for this event has still not been published but I shall be speaking! My topic is a current favourite: ‘Sit-stand desks – separating truth from sales pitch’. We shall also be exhibiting on Stand K10. Please let us know if you are coming to visit. For details of this and all our current event plans, please take a look at our Conferences and Exhibitions page.

GDPR

I promise not to keep running the General Data Protection Regulation as a topic in perpetuity (even if it seems like that!). This is simply to confirm that all our procedures, policies and documentation for compliance are now in place. You can find our Data Privacy Policy and Data Breach Policy here. For further general information, please contact the Customer Service team. For specific data protection enquiries such as ‘right to access’ or ‘right to be forgotten’ requests, please contact our Data Protection Officer. Finally, you may recall that we entered everyone who resubscribed to this newsletter in a draw. The winner of a brand new iPad was NK of London.