Workstation checklist

This workstation checklist takes you through your chair, screen, desk and working day in up to 20 quick questions, then gives you a short list of what to change, most important first. It is built on the UK Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) workstation checklist and its guidance on display screen equipment (DSE), so it works as a DSE assessment checklist for an office desk and as a home office ergonomics checklist for a kitchen table.

How the workstation checklist works

Three questions come first. Whether you work on a laptop for an hour or more at a time decides whether you see the laptop questions. Whether you are employed and use a screen daily for continuous periods of an hour or more, and whether you work at a workplace, at home or both, decide what your result says about your employer’s part.

Then come the questions, in eight groups: chair, keyboard and mouse, screen, laptop, desk and space, breaks and routine, eyes, and aches and pains. Each is worded so that “yes” is the answer you want, as in HSE’s own checklist, where yes answers need no further action and every no needs looking into (HSE CK1).

• No gives you a fix: what to change, the reason, and a link to the guide that covers it.
• Not sure puts the question on a “worth checking” list, with a hint on how to check.
• Yes needs nothing.

There is no score. HSE’s checklist doesn’t have one, and adding up answers would treat a little glare as equal to a chair that leaves your feet dangling. You get the number of things to change, with the first three in full.

Why the fixes come in this order

HSE suggests that whoever reviews a completed checklist should “deal with the biggest problems first” and “investigate all reports of aches and pains” (HSE INDG36). The tool turns that into a fixed order:

1. Aches and pains. If you have discomfort you put down to your screen work, it goes first. HSE says an assessment is due whenever a user complains of pain or discomfort (HSE).
2. A separate keyboard and mouse for a laptop. Without them, the screen and the keyboard can’t both be at the right height (HSE).
3. Chair height, then feet, then back support, then the screen. HSE’s checklist says to adjust the chair height to get the arms in the right position, and then adjust the screen height if necessary (HSE CK1). Each step changes the next one, so fixing the screen first means doing it twice.
4. Breaks. They cost nothing, and the law says employers must plan them.
5. The rest: screen distance, the mouse, chair arms, glare, text size, eyesight, space on and under the desk, and changes of position.

What the questions are based on

Most come from HSE’s checklist (CK1) and its short guide to DSE work (INDG36), reworded for one person checking their own desk.

• Chair and keyboard. Shoulders relaxed, keyboard just below elbow height, good support for the lower back, and a gap of 2 to 3 cm between the front of the seat and the back of the knee (HSE). Feet flat on the floor, or on a footrest (HSE CK1). The office chair guide covers each adjustment, and the desk height calculator gives typical heights for your body.
• Screen. Top at eye level, about an arm’s length away, with the screen and keyboard straight in front of you so you don’t twist (HSE), and free from glare. See how to set up your monitor.
• Laptop. A separate keyboard and mouse, so the screen can be raised; see working on a laptop without straining your neck.
• Breaks. HSE’s example is that 5 to 10 minutes every hour is better than 20 minutes every 2 hours (HSE). The desk break timer can remind you, and the standing desk schedule plans the day if you have a sit-stand desk.
• Eyes. Screen work doesn’t damage the eyes permanently, but long spells of it can bring tired eyes, discomfort, temporary short-sightedness and headaches (HSE).

A few of HSE’s questions are left out because they need an assessor, an IT department or a thermometer: keyboard tilt, screen flicker, software, air, heat and noise. They are in HSE’s full checklist.

DSE assessments in the UK: what your employer has to do

HSE’s guidance says the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations apply to workers who use a screen daily, for continuous periods of an hour or more, whom it calls DSE users. For them, employers must (HSE):

• do a DSE workstation assessment
• reduce the risks, including making sure workers take breaks from screen work or do something different
• provide an eye test if a worker asks for one
• provide training and information

That covers people at a fixed desk, mobile workers, home workers and people who hot-desk. An assessment is also due when a new workstation is set up, a new user starts, a workstation or the way it is used changes, or a user complains of pain or discomfort (HSE).

Working from home. The rules can apply if you work at home permanently or long term, or routinely split your time between home and the workplace. Your employer doesn’t usually need to visit: you can do a self-assessment after suitable training, such as an explanation of how to use a checklist. If you work in both places, the assessment should cover both, and if it shows you need equipment, you cannot be charged for it (HSE). The home office setup guide covers the practical side.

Eye tests. Your employer must pay for an eye and eyesight test if you ask for one, and for glasses only if you need special ones for the distance you view the screen at (HSE).

Self-employed? Eye tests are not an entitlement for the self-employed, and employers are not responsible for their breaks (HSE INDG36). The checklist still works as a guide to your own set-up. Outside the UK, check the local rules.

What a checklist can and can’t do

It is not a formal assessment. HSE says software can help users take part in assessments, but it is not an assessment on its own. A trained assessor should look at the results, clear up doubtful points and make sure problems are put right (HSE). If you are employed, share your list with whoever does assessments. If you manage a team, see our page for teams.

It can’t see you. It relies on your own judgement of how you sit. Answering at your desk, at the end of a normal day, gives truer answers than answering from memory.

A good set-up is not a guarantee. A Cochrane review of 15 trials with 2,165 office workers found little firm evidence that changes to equipment prevent neck and arm problems. The clearest result was for an arm support combined with an alternative mouse, which reduced new neck or shoulder problems (moderate-quality evidence). A workstation adjustment and a sit-stand desk, each tested in a single study, made no difference to arm pain or discomfort (Hoe et al., 2018). Setting up your desk well removes reasons to sit awkwardly; it doesn’t replace moving.

It is not medical advice. The NHS advises seeing a GP if neck pain or stiffness hasn’t gone after a few weeks or comes with pins and needles or a cold arm (NHS), and lists the warning signs in back pain, sometimes called red flags, that need help urgently (NHS). Neck pain from desk work and lower back pain from sitting go into more detail.

When to run it again

HSE suggests reviewing an assessment after major changes to equipment, furniture, the work environment or software, when someone changes workstation, when the work changes considerably, or when the measures in place may be causing other problems (HSE INDG36). In everyday terms: a new chair, desk or screen, a move to home or hybrid working, a new job, or new aches. Your answers stay in your browser, so you can compare.

Most fixes on the list take minutes and cost little. What the list can’t change is how long you stay in the chair. Bavelu’s desk routines of two to four minutes are designed and filmed by physiotherapists, for exactly those hours.