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Most people think of workstation adjustments and ergonomic furniture when it comes to DSE risk management. But the physical relationship between a worker and their workstation is just one part of a bigger picture.
The most effective DSE programmes are more comprehensive, addressing both the immediate physical challenges workers face during the workday and the highly specific, less tangible aspects that equally impact wellbeing and productivity.
In this guide, we detail the non-physical factors your DSE assessments should consider, explaining the impact of neglecting them, and how to work them into your broader DSE policy practically.
The non-physical DSE factors impacting worker wellbeing and productivity
Physical interactions between DSE users and the work environment may determine the risk exposure to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), but discomfort exists beyond the physical.
Broader sensory or mental discomfort can equally distract employees and make it difficult to deliver their best work.
Let’s put these hidden DSE elements under the microscope and examine why they’re so important to workplace productivity.
Environmental factors: noise, lighting, and visual load
Noise and interruptions
Some are blessed with the ability to work in bustling, noisy settings without missing a beat, but it’s not so simple for others. Sometimes, even moderate ambient noise can be a significant distraction.
Lighting
If you’ve ever worked at a computer for hours at a time, you’ll already understand how things like screen glare, brightness, and contrast issues can turn a normal day’s work into a sensory minefield.
Even a couple hours at a poorly calibrated monitor can become unbearable, requiring several pauses to recover from visual strain, headaches, and sometimes even nausea. Spread this over the course of weeks or months, and constant discomfort intensifies until workers have to take prolonged breaks from the screen just to get through the day, slowing completion of tasks.
55% of UK office workers endure digital eye strain, with research suggesting an average productivity loss of 40 minutes per day1. That’s 3 hours 20 minutes per work week, or, over the course of a year, 7.2 days. Now multiply that across all your affected employees.
But it’s not just monitors to blame; general lighting can have a huge impact on visual comfort. Too bright and it forces the eyes to wrestle with two starkly different light sources. Too dark, and the monitor brightness can feel overwhelming, even at low settings.
Visual load
Visual load refers to the visual effort required to process on-screen information for prolonged periods. Dense interfaces, small text, poor colour contrast, frequent task switching, and sustained close-up focus all increase this load, forcing the eyes and brain to work harder than necessary.
The use of multiple screens, whether doubling up on computer monitors or frequently using phones or tablets in conjunction with a single monitor, can also exacerbate the issue.
Over time, excessive visual load contributes to eye fatigue, reduced concentration, slower information processing, and mental exhaustion. Workers may struggle to maintain focus, make more errors, or feel disproportionately tired by visually demanding tasks.
Psychological factors: cognitive load, stress, and mental strain
2025 HSE data trends show that mental health is the fastest rising workplace issue, so addressing psychological factors in your DSE programme is more important than ever.
And being that there’s a relationship between mental and physical strain in the workplace, doing so can pay off doubly.
Cognitive and attentional load
The cognitive load of DSE-based work can be overbearing. Attentions are almost constantly fragmented across several different tasks or requirements, making it difficult to focus.
Always-on communication tools such as email and internal messaging platforms create a constant pull on attention. Repeated notifications, interruptions, and task switching increase mental fatigue, slow decision-making, and raise the likelihood of errors.
Over time, this sustained attentional strain reduces productivity and leaves workers mentally exhausted, even when physical demands are low.
Stress and physical tension
Psychological stress can have a dramatic impact on the body. When workers are under sustained mental pressure, muscles in the neck, shoulders, jaw, and hands tense up, often without conscious awareness. This tension can amplify discomfort from posture or workstation setup, turning minor ergonomic issues into noticeable pain.
Poor mental health amplifying discomfort
Workers experiencing anxiety, burnout, or low mood are often less able to tolerate sensory or cognitive demands.
Tasks that might be manageable under normal conditions (think – reading dense reports, handling multiple applications, or responding to frequent messages) can quickly feel overwhelming.
What might appear as fatigue or disengagement is often the result of cognitive and emotional overload.
Learn why employers need to give more support for mental health.
DSE symptoms as early warning signs
Importantly, DSE-related symptoms such as headaches, eye strain, irritability, or difficulty concentrating should not be treated as purely physical complaints. They can act as early warning signs that cognitive or psychological demands are exceeding a worker’s capacity to recover. Recognising these signals early allows organisations to intervene with environmental adjustments, workload management, or additional support, rather than waiting for more serious stress or health issues to develop.
Neurodiversity considerations – Why non-physical DSE factors don’t affect everyone equally
Sensory and cognitive factors affect all DSE users to some degree. However, for neurodivergent employees, these same factors are often felt more intensely, more consistently, and with fewer opportunities for the brain to tune them out.
Neurodiverse employees, including individuals with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and other cognitive differences, often experience the DSE environment in fundamentally different ways.
Standard office setups and physical-only DSE approaches can unintentionally create barriers, increasing fatigue, stress, and disengagement rather than supporting effective work.
Sensory sensitivity
Many neurodivergent individuals experience heightened sensitivity to sensory input. Sounds that others tune out, such as keyboard noise, background conversations, or HVAC systems, can be intensely distracting or distressing. Similarly, lighting that appears fine to neurotypical workers may cause discomfort, headaches, or sensory overload.
Visual clutter, high-contrast patterns, or busy on-screen layouts can also be overwhelming, making it harder to process information and maintain focus.
When sensory input exceeds an individual’s tolerance, productivity drops, not due to lack of ability, but because the environment itself is draining cognitive and emotional resources.
Need for predictability or control
For many neurodivergent workers, predictability and control over their environment are essential for comfort and concentration. Sudden interruptions, unexpected task changes, or constantly shifting priorities can create anxiety and cognitive overload.
Being able to control elements such as lighting levels, noise exposure, screen settings, notification frequency, or break timing can significantly reduce stress and improve focus. Even small adjustments, like consistent routines or clearly defined expectations, can make a meaningful difference to day-to-day wellbeing and performance.
Bridging the gap between physical and non-physical in your DSE policy
If your current DSE programme stops at standard workstation and task adjustments, it’s missing some essential employee protections.
Key aspects to improve your DSE for less tangible factors include:
- Broader assessment questions: Ask not just about chairs and screens, but also lighting, noise, task complexity, and attentional demands.
- Environmental and task-based considerations: Evaluate workflows, on-screen load, and office surroundings alongside physical ergonomics.
- Better escalation routes: Ensure workers can report persistent discomfort or stress and receive timely support from HR, OH, or line managers to, for example, ensure a headache from glare doesn’t turn into a month of sick leave for burnout.
- Integration with wellbeing frameworks: Link DSE assessments to wider wellbeing, occupational health, and HR initiatives to catch early warning signs before they escalate.
We understand that expanding DSE initiatives to account for a wealth of non-physical factors may seem like a big investment, but it doesn’t have to be costly or admin-heavy.
End-to-end DSE software like Healthy Working makes it straightforward to adopt a structured, consistent approach that is cost-effective, low-admin, and easy to scale across your organisation, even if some of or your entire team works remotely.
Customisable to any DSE workstation and individual DSE user, Healthy Working is a complete solution, combining eLearning, self-assessments, and an intelligent central management module to simplify risk management, improve employee wellbeing, and boost productivity. Read more about Healthy Working – or request a free trial to see it in action.
Going a step further, you can outsource your entire DSE programme to Caridnus via our DSE Managed Services, ensuring your team (and bottom line) benefits from comprehensive DSE and ergonomic protections.
