OE Group

29/05/2026

CPD-Rev 2026 | Limited spaces left

OE Group will be on the road next week for the first three CPD-Rev 2026 events, joining Disability and Wellbeing teams, Needs Assessors, and AT specialists across the UK.

Jane Hinch, Business Development Manager at OE Group, will be there across all three dates:

•⁠ ⁠Plymouth, 2 June
•⁠ ⁠Bristol, 3 June
•⁠ ⁠London, 4 June

This year’s theme, People First. AI Informed, reflects where the sector is heading: better tools, more data, but decisions that still depend on real-world usability.

OE Group Workshop | 30 minutes

Our session will be practical and product-led, with live demonstrations of ergonomic and assistive solutions commonly recommended in DSA and Access to Work assessments.

Participants will be able to:

•⁠ ⁠See products set up and used correctly
•⁠ ⁠Understand what makes certain solutions work better than others
•⁠ ⁠Explore adjustability, fit, and real-world usability
•⁠ ⁠Ask questions around specific client needs and scenarios

We’ll be showcasing solutions across seating, laptop stands, input devices, and forearm support, including ranges from Bakker Elkhuizen, Ergorest, and Standivarius, alongside OE Group products.

If you work in DSA, Access to Work, or workplace assessments, this is a valuable opportunity to get hands-on with equipment you are likely recommending.

Limited spaces left for Plymouth, Bristol, and London.

Sign up here: e-q-s.com/cpd-rev-2026/

27/05/2026

CDW 2026 ✔️
Another excellent Clerkenwell Design Week.
Over three days, the OE Group team explored the latest thinking in workplace design, ergonomics, wellbeing, accessibility, acoustics, materials, and furniture across some of London’s most remarkable buildings.

A recurring theme throughout the week was the growing focus on movement, flexibility, neurodiversity, accessibility, and designing environments around the needs of individuals rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.

Great to catch up with so many friends, partners, and industry colleagues, including the teams from Humanscale, Ergochair, Formetiq, Flokk, Bakker Elkhuizen, and Dataflex.

Particular thanks to Andrew Shepherd, Steven Howe, Erik de Ruiter, Matthew O’Sullivan, and Ronnie Temple, for the conversations, demonstrations, and hospitality.

One of the stand-out sessions of the week was Designing Inclusive Spaces That Work, which explored accessibility, neurodiversity, and sensory considerations in workplace design. A topic very close to our hearts at OE Group.

Thank you to everyone who helped make CDW 2026 such a success.
See you next year.

WellbeingAtWork

20/05/2026

Our team spent most of the time at CDW 2026 looking at seating. Some genuinely interesting developments. Some old favourites still holding their ground. And a few chairs that appear to have been designed by people who have never actually sat down before.

One thing that’s striking this year is how much softer workplace furniture has become. The challenge, of course, is making sure ergonomics survives the styling exercise.

Interesting to see manufacturers paying more attention to inclusive and higher-weight-rated seating without making products look overtly clinical. That’s long overdue.

Also noticeable: everybody is talking about movement. Active sitting, dynamic sitting, posture variation. Some companies clearly understand the science behind it. Others seem to have discovered the terminology somewhere around Monday afternoon.

A few favourites so far:
•⁠ ⁠The continuing evolution of saddle and movement seating
•⁠ ⁠Some genuinely thoughtful mesh chair updates
•⁠ ⁠Better integration of ergonomic thinking into meeting and collaboration spaces
•⁠ ⁠A growing understanding that workplace wellbeing is about more than simply selling somebody a chair

More thoughts after day three once the caffeine levels stabilise.

12/05/2026

Mental health issues are now one of the defining workplace challenges of our time.

Over the last 30 years, work-related mental health conditions in the UK have risen by 45%. Anxiety, stress, burnout, and depression now affect one in four working adults, with people in their twenties and thirties reporting levels of exhaustion and overwhelm once more commonly associated with later career stages. However, the problems rarely arrive neatly labelled.

What often begins as fatigue, headaches, poor concentration, irritability, or persistent aches and pains can quickly develop into something far more serious. Physical discomfort and mental strain frequently arrive together, feeding into each other until productivity drops, sickness absence rises, and people begin struggling through the working day.

This Mental Health Awareness Week, we asked occupational health specialist Nancy Monk [https://www.linkedin.com/in/humanwise-ltd-0a0816209/] to explain what changed and why.

With 17 years of experience and more than 6,000 Workplace Needs Assessments behind her, Nancy has seen first-hand how modern working patterns, poorly designed environments, unrealistic workloads, and a lack of proper support combine to create long-term problems for both employees and employers. She also knows that the adjustments which make the biggest difference are often the most straightforward ones.

The Invisible Crisis covers all of it: the science, the law, the human cost, and the practical steps employers and employees can take tomorrow morning.

Read the full article here: https://www.online-ergonomics.co.uk/knowledge/the-invisible-crisis/

And if anything in the article sounds uncomfortably familiar, a Workplace Needs Assessment is a good place to start: https://www.online-ergonomics.co.uk/assessments/workplace%20needs-assessment-wpna/

07/05/2026

CPD-Rev 2026 | OE Group on the road

We’ll be attending CPD-Rev 2026 this June and July, joining Disability and Wellbeing teams, Needs Assessors, and AT specialists across the UK.

This year’s theme, People First. AI Informed, reflects where the sector is heading: better tools, more data, but decisions that still depend on real-world usability.

Where to find us:

• Plymouth, 2 June – Jane Hinch
• Bristol, 3 June – Jane Hinch
• London, 4 June – Jane Hinch
• Birmingham, 9 June – Mark Rigby
• Newcastle, 23 June – Ross Nichols
• Manchester, 24 June – Ross Nichols
• Glasgow, 15 July – Ross Nichols

OE Group Workshop (30 minutes)

These are a practical, product-led sessions.

We’ll be demonstrating a range of ergonomic and assistive solutions commonly recommended in DSA and Access to Work assessments, showing how they actually function in real use.

Participants will be able to:

• See products set up and used correctly
• Understand what makes certain solutions work better than others
• Explore adjustability, fit, and real-world usability
• Ask questions around specific client needs and scenarios

We’ll be showcasing solutions across seating, laptop stands, input devices, and forearm support, including ranges from Bakker Elkhuizen and Ergorest, and Standivarius, alongside OE Group products.

If you’re working in DSA, Access to Work, or workplace assessments, this is an opportunity to get hands-on with equipment you’re likely recommending.

eQS Disability Support (Learning Labs, Amano, The Educational Guidance Service, eQL and Invate)

👉 Sign up here: e-q-s.com/cpd-rev-2026/

06/05/2026

Clerkenwell Design Week | Meet the OE Team

From 19–21 May 2026, the OE Group sales and management team will be at Clerkenwell Design Week.

Attending this year:
Mark Rigby, Director of Sales
Ian Bateman, Interim Managing Director
Jane Hinch, Business Development Manager
Adrianne James, Sales Team Leader

We’re looking forward to exploring how workplace design and ergonomics are evolving, and to spending time with our trade partners and catching up in person.

If you’re attending and would like to meet, please get in touch with Jane Hinch [[email protected]] to arrange a time.

02/04/2026

OE GROUP + ERGOREST EXCLUSIVE PARTNERSHIP

We’re pleased to announce an exclusive UK partnership between OE Group and Ergorest.

Ergorest is the original forearm support, with a track record spanning over 35 years across clinical, technical, and office environments. It’s a product that has remained largely unchanged for a reason: it solves a very specific problem, and it does it well.

Most chairs come with armrests, and it’s generally assumed that this means the arms are supported. In practice, armrests tend to support the elbow rather than the forearm, and they are usually static. The work itself happens at the hands, so the forearms are left carrying the load, particularly during typing and mouse use. Over time, that load migrates into the shoulders, neck, and wrists. It’s a pattern we see consistently in ergonomic assessments, even where the rest of the workstation is well considered.

This becomes even more apparent with height-adjustable desks. In a standing position, traditional armrests are no longer in play, and the arms are often left unsupported altogether. That is where forearm supports come into their own. By supporting the full length of the forearm and moving with the user, they help maintain a more neutral working position and reduce static load on the upper body.

Ergorest stands apart because of how it achieves this. Its multi-axis design allows the support to follow natural movement rather than fixing the arm in place, and its durability has made it a long-standing choice in environments where precision and repetition are part of the daily reality. While there are now similar-looking products on the market, few match the build quality, longevity, and freedom of movement of the original.

Our decision to partner with Ergorest is grounded in what we see in practice. It addresses a common and often overlooked issue in a way that is both simple and effective, which is usually where the most reliable ergonomic solutions sit.

Ergorest is now available via OE Group.

Explore the range →
https://www.online-ergonomics.co.uk/?s=ergorest&post_type=product

27/03/2026

GLOBAL BANKING SCHOOL: ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DSA ROADSHOW

This week, OE Group joined the Assistive Technology DSA Roadshow at GBS Global Banking School’s Stratford campus in London. Jane Hinch, our Business Development Manager, spent the day doing something refreshingly straightforward: talking to students about the support they are actually entitled to.

The Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) exists. The assistive technology exists. The ergonomic equipment exists. What often doesn’t exist is a clear, jargon-free conversation about any of it. That is why events like this are so valuable.

Students were able to try equipment, ask questions, and work out whether their current setup is making studying harder than it needs to be. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes it is a different chair and a monitor arm. Occasionally, both.

Thank you to the organisers and the team at GBS Global Banking School for hosting.

20/03/2026

We haven't suddenly become more neurodiverse as a species. We've always been this way. What's changed over time is the structure of work, and the increasingly narrow kind of brain it's been designed for.

For Neurodiversity Celebration Week, we spoke with occupational health specialist Nancy Monk, whose Workplace Needs Assessments cut through assumptions and focus on what actually works in practice, for both people and organisations.

Swipe through to see how we got here, and what a better question looks like.

Then read the full article: https://www.online-ergonomics.co.uk/knowledge/beyond-yellow-paper-the-reality-of-neurodiversity-at-work/

18/03/2026

WHY IT’S CALLED NEURODIVERSITY CELEBRATION WEEK

Modern workplaces were designed for a very particular kind of mind. One that can sit still for hours, process information linearly, and tolerate constant screen exposure without friction.

Human cognition, of course, is far more varied than the environments we have built around it.

For Neurodiversity Celebration Week, we spoke with occupational health specialist Nancy Monk, who conducts Workplace Needs Assessments across the UK. Her work sits at the intersection of legislation, workplace reality, and individual experience, helping organisations and employees identify adjustments that work for both.

We asked Nancy why the week is framed as Neurodiversity Celebration Week rather than simply an awareness campaign.

“Celebration puts a positive spin on the differences and strengths within the human population,” she said. “Neurodiversity is simply a different way the brain processes information. It’s not a disease and it’s not something that needs fixing.”

Our conversation also dismantled familiar assumptions, including the famous “yellow paper for dyslexia”, and explored what actually helps people perform at their best.

Three real workplace assessments revealed something important: the same diagnosis can lead to very different solutions. Because when the environment changes, performance often changes with it.

Read the full article: https://www.online-ergonomics.co.uk/knowledge/beyond-yellow-paper-the-reality-of-neurodiversity-at-work/

A conversation with occupational health specialist Nancy Monk for Neurodiversity Celebration Week.