Adding functional furniture such as treadmill desks and bike desks is increasingly becoming part of the corporate wellness plan of many companies. However there are many other ways in which functional furniture can be utilized by companies to achieve other business goals beyond achieving corporate wellness goals.
Here are eleven other ways where adding functional furniture can help your business:
- In waiting areas to improve customer experience. Adding functional furniture to a standard waiting area seats can help your customers make a better use of their time by burning few calories on a treadmill or bike desk while getting some work done on their laptops. It tells them you care about them and they are less likely to get angry if the wait is long.
- In classrooms: colleges, learning centers and even high schools can add them to existing classrooms. Students and especially those hyperactive ones will appreciate it and may find improving the learning experiance. We developed the LearnAndMove.com system to solve the problem of prolonged sitting that students experience in classrooms. This can be another way to solve that problem.
- In gym’s warmup area: Busy professionals might not signup to a gym because of time constraints but if you give them a chance to do some work while they warm up then they might consider it.
- In creative teams work area: use it to help your creative team come up with ideas. Walking can help people come up with creative ideas. I wrote this list while walking.
- In airport gates or even on airplanes: It’s well established that long flights are associated with deep vein thrombosis which can become life threatening. Most people spend one to two hours sitting in an airport gate waiting to board a flight. Airports can add functional furniture to help travelers get physically active before a flight.
- In hotel’s business lounge: most hotels offer work/business centers with several workstations for their guests to work from while traveling. Adding workstations equipped with a treadmill or bike can be very attractive to frequent business travelers.
- In reception area: receptionists are often the first person that people have contact with when getting in touch with a company and their first impression of the business are based on their experience with this individual. Receptionists jobs demand staying behind a desk for long hours which overtime takes a toll on thier energy level and mood. Giving a receptionist to switch between sitting and walking or cycling without leaving their desk can make a huge difference in how visitors would perceive your business.
- In Airbnb listings as part of amenities.
- In telemarketers and cold callers rooms: Walking at slow speed lowers anxiety level thus making your telemarketers sound more relaxed on the phone. The opposite can be said when you leave them stuck sitting for long hours behind a desk with targets to achieve.
- In bookstore & libraries: giving readers the ability to read and move at the same time.
- In coffee shops: Why not meet a friend, enjoy a coffee and walk or pedal at the same time?