Top 5 Factors That Will Impact Injury Prevention

2023 is underway and it’s the perfect time to evaluate your Ergonomics Program and identify gaps to ensure risk reduction, as well as improved productivity, work quality, and overall job satisfaction.

Ask yourself – does our organization have the key components for a successful Ergonomics & Injury Prevention Program? Here are the top five essential ergonomics program components.

1. Management Commitment

• Does management see value and invest time, people, and money to identify musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) hazards and mitigate risk?
• Do you involve management in annual goal setting and tie ergonomics to compensation?
• Do you track metrics like productivity, job satisfaction, discomfort, and quality to better demonstrate your ergonomic program’s benefits?

2. Hazard Identification

• Does your safety policy outline how to report ergonomic / Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) concerns?
• Do your JHSC monthly inspection checklists include identification of MSD hazards?
• Does your policy identify when an ergonomic assessment is needed, and what the process is?
• Does your policy address changes in work, such as how ergonomics is handled for home offices and hybrid work situations?
• What does your policy say about equipment for hybrid workstations?

3. Employee Participation

Educating and empowering employees will help get more accomplished.

• Educate employees on how to recognize MSD hazards and how to mitigate MSD risk.
• Consider providing online, easy and accessible training modules for office staff to self-complete.
• Set up self-assessment checklists for computer users.
• Provide ergonomics tips during safety talks.
• Train Ergonomics Teams or JHSC members on how to identify hazards and implement controls as part of their monthly inspection process.
• Plan an “ERGO Month” with incentives for submitting ergo improvements.

4. Risk Assessment

• Strategies might include office self-assessments, ergonomic screening tools,or more in-depth ergonomic risk assessment methods.
• Consider what evaluation tools are already in use in your facility (e.g. pre-start safety checklists, standard work documents, Kaizen or 5S documents) and embed ergonomics into them. This helps ensure everyone has their eyes on ergonomics.

5. Selecting & Implementing Controls

Consider the types of improvements your facility made in 2022.

• Did you implement engineering controls to eliminate risk, or rely mainly on administrative controls such as training and work method reminders (which although effective, are not as successful as directly engineering out a risk)?
• Did you complete follow-up ergonomic assessments to ensure that risk was mitigated without introducing new hazards?
• Did you celebrate ergonomic successes? Sharing successes can get additional buy-in and participation in your program. Consider posting your ergonomic “wins” in common areas.

To identify new opportunities for improvement, use ERGO Inc.’s audit to assess your Ergonomics Program. A Certified Ergonomist can help identify ergonomic strategies and initiatives resulting in even more success in 2023. We invite you to send ERGO your results and they will prepare a no-obligation sample plan and proposal to assist with reaching their goals.

Material written and supplied by Ergo Inc.