:: Addressing Employee Discomfort in the Year 2003

It's the new year. Time to start fresh, feel better, and be more productive. Most of us begin the new year with resolutions and ideas on how we can improve ourselves, our companies, and the ones around us. One of the best ways to ensure increased energy, comfort and productivity in the work environment is to look at its Ergonomics - the workstation set-up, the tools, the weights, the job demands, etc. The beginning of the year is also a time for strategizing how to accomplish the objectives laid out in the new Business Plan. As good Ergonomics is good Economics, it can often impact many objectives in a Business plan.

This article addresses the ideas around discomfort in the workplace, contributing risk factors, and suggestions on how to deal with discomfort and injury.

We sometimes hear from our potential clients, "We don't have a problem with injuries in our workplace". This comment suggests that no or very few employees are actually reporting discomfort. This can be due to a multitude of reasons, including:

1. The workplace is very well-designed and ergonomic considerations have already been built into the workstation design;
2. Employees are unsure of who to contact and what the results will be once they complain of discomfort and/or injury;
3. The climate within your company is not conducive to dealing with injuries in a positive manner.
4. Employees are uneducated about the causes of their discomfort and they may think that the problems they are experiencing relate to their general health and or events that take place elsewhere (e.g. the common complaint that they 'slept wrong').

If either of the latter 3 reasons apply to your company, there may be employees who are feeling discomfort due to their work environment but are not stating it. Unfortunately, discomfort results in increased fatigue, errors, absenteeism, as well as decreased productivity and morale. These symptoms IMPACT A COMPANY'S BOTTOM LINE and can be very costly. The following chart shows how discomfort, if unreported and untreated, tends to worsen and can result in an injury. You will notice that the costs for this increase as time progresses.

Ideas taken from Auburn Engineers, ACE/AE Joint Conference, 2002

First Steps to Reducing Employee Discomfort and Increasing Productivity

If your company has decided to address possible employee discomfort and injury this year, you have some choices and decisions to make. There are many things that can be done to reduce your own or company employee's discomfort and also increase productivity.

The first thing to consider is determining a plan to deal with discomfort and injury. What will you do if you discover employee's are having problems? Inform yourself about the treatment possibilities (doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors, massage therapists) and ergonomics interventions (training on how to reduce discomfort, workstation assessments, stretches). If you don't already have one, you should also consider having a Disability Case Management process. You may want to consider getting some help with this Plan.

Once you have determined a Plan to deal with any discomfort / injury issues that you may find, you will need to decide whether you want to deal with them on a Proactive level (i.e. ensuring everyone is comfortable) or a Reactive level (i.e. dealing with issues on a case-by-case basis, after injury has occurred). If you choose the Proactive approach, you may want to determine the level of employee discomfort within your company. Surveys (such as the Anderson Ergonomics Consulting Body Comfort Survey) work well for this or, if you have decided on a plan of attack, such as providing an ergonomics training session, you may want to send out an email and determine the level of interest.

Risk Factors Contributing to Discomfort / Injury

There are many Ergonomic risk factors that contribute to discomfort and injury in the work environment. These include:

1. Repetitive Motion (mouse use, typing, box making, meat cutting, etc.)
2. Awkward Postures (out of neutral alignment)
3. Excessive Force (weights lifted, pounding keys on keyboard)
4. Lack of Rest (same muscle groups used all day, lack of support for arms, etc.)
5. Mechanical stress (resting arm on the sharp edge of a desk, holding a tool that cuts into palm of hand, wearing gloves that are too tight)
6. Stress in the work environment
7. Technique
8. Vibration (whole body - e.g. from a forklift, hand-arm - e.g. from holding a grinder)
9. Cold Temperatures

Numbers 1 through 7 can apply to both the Office and the Industrial work environments, while numbers 8 and 9 generally apply to industrial work environments. Numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 can be minimized through training, where employees begin to understand these risk factors and what control they have over reducing them. Numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 9 can be minimized through ergonomic assessments of the person(s) in their work environment and changes made to the work environment.

What are the Best Approaches to Dealing with Discomfort and Injury?

Office Environments

If you have chosen the proactive approach, the best tactic to dealing with large groups of employees who may be having discomfort is to provide training and then offer Individual Mini-Assessments afterwards. The training provides employees with the information to understand the risk factors for discomfort and injury within their work environment and how to set up their workstation properly. The Mini-Assessment afterwards ensures their workstation is set up specifically for their needs.

If you would rather deal with individuals having discomfort on a case-by-case basis, the best approach is to provide them with an ergonomic assessment of their workstation. A complete assessment gives them the individual time, attention, and training they need to ensure their workstation is set up for their particular needs.

As you most likely know and as the chart above illustrates, dealing with employee discomfort is much easier and less costly than dealing with employee injury. In the office environment, it is reasonable to expect that the majority, if not all, of the furniture and equipment within the work environment can be used to create a more "ergonomically-designed" workplace. Items may need to be moved around and other items within the office, such as telephone books, may be used to raise monitors and support feet. Sometimes, other products will be recommended to maximize an employee's comfort, such as keyboard trays and task lamps.

Industrial Environments

If you have chosen the proactive approach, the best tactic to dealing with large groups of employees who may be having discomfort is to identify the high-risk jobs within your organization and provide training on back care, lifting, and repetitive strain injury prevention and then to provide assessments for employees performing those jobs. The training should identify concerns expressed by employees. As part 2 of this approach, you may want to have an ergonomic assessment performed on these jobs to determine methods for reducing risk factors.

If you are unsure which jobs pose the highest risks, a Physical Demands Analyses can be performed on various jobs within your organization. This analysis provides not only a "description"of the job demands for future use, but it also highlights the jobs with higher risk factors.

Extraneous Risk Factors

Whatever approach you take this year to deal with possible discomfort and injury within your work environment, it is important to keep in mind that there are external factors playing a role in everyone's health and safety. Stress levels, physical health and fitness, nutrition, and hobbies and jobs performed outside of your work environment can all impact the comfort and productivity levels of your employees. As a company, you have control over most of the factors identified in the previous section titled "Risk Factors Contributing to Discomfort / Injury". You can take the opportunity to minimize these risk factors and educate employees on the importance of minimizing the risk factors that are within their control. In the end, an approach that has the employee and the employer working together to maximize the employee's comfort and productivity will benefit all.