How Effective Is Office Ergonomic Training?

Have you wondered how useful and effective ergonomic training for the standard office worker can be? Are you interested in the solution, but are weighing the cost:benefit ratio to ensure it’s the right move for your employees?

What is Ergonomics?

Ergonomics is primarily concerned with properly arranging workplace, systems, and equipment to create a better fit for the worker, so the worker is safer and more efficient. Ergonomics can be utilized in conjunction with various biomechanical analysis to provide safer workplace environments and prevent unwanted musculoskeletal injuries and disorder development.

The primary focus of ergonomics:

•Reduce risk of injury

•Mitigate discomfort

•Create a more efficient and beneficial workplace environment

Ergonomics & The Office Worker

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMD) are the largest contributors to occupational disease burden and are largely correlated to ergonomic factors in the workplace.

Workplace computer users have the highest incidence of neck pain among all workers. Higher than the general population (4th most prevalent disability worldwide).

Workplace computer users have high incidence of headaches, neck, low back, shoulder/arm and wrist pain. However, one quick and easy solution is proper education and ergonomic fitting to reduce risk of injury.

What’s The General Effectiveness of Ergonomics?

Improved ergonomic office setup contributes to reduced:

•Number of work-related muscular injuries

•Lost work days

•Restricted days

•Worker comp costs

•Costs per claim

•Labor costs

•Errors

•Turnover

•Absenteeism

Improved ergonomic office setup also contributed to improved:

•Productivity

What’s The Bottom Line?

A majority of companies will see a cost:benefit ratio of 1:29.3 or 29x benefit for every dollar spend with the average return on investment, payback period, of simply 0.4 years. That’s fairly astonishing considering the ease of education and overall implementation of a swift solution.

If you are interested in a FREE Ergonomic Presentation, click the following link! The presentation offers more information on self-assessment and a few strategies to improve standard desk setup.

Here are some additional articles that’ll assist with desk setup, understanding forward head posture & reducing neck pain for desk workers.

References

Goggins RW, Spielholz P, Nothstein GL. Estimating the effectiveness of ergonomics interventions through case studies: implications for predictive cost-benefit analysis. J Safety Res. 2008;39(3):339-344. doi:10.1016/j.jsr.2007.12.006