Employers often treat employees to massages as part of work benefits, as it also improves their productivity, but does a massage chair also improve productivity?
Massage chairs are known to help you relax, increase your blood flow, and increase your serotonin (Sefton et al., 2010). However, does this translate into productivity?
To help you find out, and potentially give you a good case for your employer to buy a massage chair for the office, here’s the conclusive blog to determine whether buying a massage chair is an effective way to increase productivity.
If you’re as ready as I am, keep scrolling down for the real scoop!
TLDR: Massage chairs can help reduce back pain associated with poor posture, can help reduce stress, and help recover energy through blood circulation. This helps people feel much more relaxed, and in a stress-free, pain-free state. Massage chairs thus help people feel more productive afterwards, increasing their output and making them feel better.
But your employer probably wants to see some real research, right?
Keep reading below, I’ve got you covered.
It has been proven many times over that employees who suffer from pain often take more days off, have a less productive output, and are unable to produce the same quality of work compared to when they are in good health (Johns, 2011).
The main point of that academic article comes down to how productivity and pain are inversely correlated; the greater the sense of pain, the less productive the person is.
Because pain affects productivity, the natural assumption to make is to reduce as much pain as possible.
Further research shows that the most common pain that employees would face at work are:
This is caused from poor posture, sitting at a desk for a long period of time, or being in an uncomfortable chair
This is caused from the person often looking down on their desk, whether it’s looking at their computer, writing out documents, or anything that requires the person to lean over. This creates neck stiffness, which becomes increasingly painful.
This pain comes from movements commonly associated with using a computer, such as moving the mouse, typing on a keyboard, or grabbing stuff repetitively.
With all these sources of pain in the workplace, the workplace should also offer a way to reduce these as much as possible.
Here’s where massage chairs come into play.
Massage therapy is proven to assist in reducing posture related pain, and other pain which is suffered from poor posture (Kong et al., 2013).
Additionally, massage chairs are made to target specifically the Neck, Back, and Shoulder by design. Because you lean back into the massage chair, you’re naturally targeting the right regions for immediate pain relief.
Which leads into my next point of!
A massage chair has many health benefits, some of which I’ve already covered in a blog about how massage chairs reduce fatigue, but there’s still many more things which massage chairs can help with.
One of the biggest benefits that massage chairs bring is that they help loosen the back and shoulders, and reduce pain associated with poor posture.
The best way for me to describe how effective having a massage chair in the office would be to show you!
One of our New Zealand partners, The Crate, have our massage chairs, namely the OGAWA MYsofa massage sofa, in their office sharing space as it helps people relax while they come around for meetings, or just want to wind down!
Check out their incredible, family-like office sharing community here!
We already have many commercial clients who love using our massage chairs, so whats stopping you from also being one?
Here’s a bonus feature that I’m sure you’d love to try out. It’s one of the massage modes on our OGAWA Master Drive Plus massage chair called the OfficePRO.
This mode starts off with a nice neck kneading massage, which then works into a shoulder tapping and kneading massage right along the outside of your spine.
If you’re someone that often gets back clicks, this’ll easily get them out, leaving you feeling so relaxed, and so good.
Then, it works down your back with that lovely kneading you’ve always needed, and goes back up to repeat the cycle.
Does that sound temping enough?
I sure hope it is, here’s the product link for that OGAWA Master Drive Plus massage chair!
OGAWA Master Drive Plus 4D
$9,500.00You make your employees happy, you also get an excuse to relax, and everyone works better!
That’s the best win-win situation I’ve ever heard of!
I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole company starts thanking you for investing in them!
But on a serious note, massage chairs have helped the lives of so many people. You never know what pain people are going through, and a lot of the time, people won’t say anything about it.
Having a massage chair in the office can really help boost the productivity of anyone, as well as make them feel better, and more welcome in the work place.
If you’re worried about the price, or are unsure if it’s worth the investment, I’ve also written a blog piece detailing how worthwhile it is to have a massage chair. If you’re interested, I’d really be happy if you checked it out!
References:
Johns, G. (2011). Attendance dynamics at work: The antecedents and correlates of presenteeism, absenteeism, and productivity loss. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(4), 483–500. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025153
Kong, L. J., Zhan, H. S., Cheng, Y. W., Yuan, W. A., Chen, B., & Fang, M. (2013). Massage therapy for neck and shoulder pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/613279
Sefton, J. E. M., Yarar, C., Berry, J. W., & Pascoe, D. D. (2010). Therapeutic massage of the neck and shoulders produces changes in peripheral blood flow when assessed with dynamic infrared thermography. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(7), 723–732. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2009.0441
