HOW ERGONOMICS TRAINING CAN BENEFIT YOUR EMPLOYEES AND INCREASE YOUR PROFITABILITY
Ergonomics training is a highly effective program for keeping your employees aligned and aware of their bodies.
Ensuring that your employees remain healthy and safe while on the job boosts morale and increases your company’s profitability. Ergonomics training involves using scientific knowledge of anatomy and engineering to reduce the amount of strain your employees experience while performing normal work tasks. An ergonomics training program is designed to lower the risk of work-related injuries and improve employee productivity and morale through well-being. Increase your profitability by maximizing your workforce’s satisfaction and productivity.
Basics of Training
The exact training procedures for ergonomics depend on the type of work environment; your ergonomics trainer will formulate a program based on whether you operate out of traditional offices, retail businesses, construction sites or industrial warehouses. In general, ergonomic training involves teaching employees basic ergonomic principles and how to apply those principles to the workplace. Topics that are typically covered during training include safe work practices, greater awareness of tasks that raise the risk of injury, and the proper use of workplace tools, machines, and equipment. For example, in an industrial ergonomics program, employees who operate heavy machinery would learn how to stand properly while working to reduce their risk of developing lower back problems or other musculoskeletal disorders. Employees who have desk jobs would learn how to position themselves at their computer to reduce strain on their neck and upper back. After going through ergonomics training, employees should also understand how to report workplace injuries or health conditions. Understanding why it is important to recognize and report injuries as early as possible helps ensure that employees receive proper medical care to prevent their condition from becoming worse, potentially leading to work absenteeism.
Benefits of Ergonomics
Ergonomics training provides several benefits for both workers and business owners, including the following:
- Improved morale Employees experience less physical discomfort on the job, which makes them better able to perform well on a consistent basis. Ergonomics training also shows your employees that their employer is taking measures to protect their health and safety, leading to improved relations between you and your employees.
- Increased productivity Ergonomics principles make it easier for employees to do their job efficiently, which helps them become more productive. With the greater ease of movement that ergonomics allows, employees can accomplish more in a typical workday than they would when experiencing discomfort or strain while working.
- Improved attendance Ergonomics reduces the risk that your employees will develop health problems or sustain injuries that cause them to miss work. Employees will also learn to recognize problems early on, resulting in prompt treatment that can prevent injuries from becoming more serious.
Increased Profitability
Ergonomics training can boost your company’s bottom line by ensuring that your employees are working as efficiently as possible. An increase in efficiency and productivity means that work tasks and projects are completed on schedule, leading to satisfied customers and clients. Because ergonomics also decrease the risk of worker injury, you can reduce the costs involved in lost production hours and high-turnover rates. It’s almost always cheaper to keep the employees you have happy than to re-train a replacement.
Fewer injuries and work-related health conditions result in a lower number of compensation claims, which can add up to considerable savings over time. Having an ergonomics assessment can help you determine if your company is doing enough to protect your employees.
For more information about ergonomics training in Arkansas, contact SEA Inc. at 501-568-3111 to speak with one of our certified trainers.
A Quick Guide for Industrial and Manufacturing Facilities By Keina Jennings, CEO/CFO, SEA
By Don Harkness, East Coast Regional Manager, SEA Ladder Inspection Safety At-A-Glance Ladders of all types are useful in the workplace. They are tools that allow workers to safely reach another level. Working at elevated levels poses plenty of risks, ones that have been covered in many regulatory training courses you have attended. Walking, Working Surfaces and Fall protection all focus heavily on the different hazards, of which SEA would be honored to share with you, but today, I want to focus on what needs to happen prior to using the ladder. The Right Tool for the Job And make no mistake, ladders are tools, and only perform as well as we, the operators, allow them to. So, what do we need to consider when picking the right ladder for our job? Several key factors include, but aren’t limited to: What are we doing? What style do you need? Step Ladders, extension ladders, and platform ladders all serve different purposes! What is the weight limit of my ladder? Note that the weight limit includes you and all the tools/equipment you are wearing, including fall protection! What height do I need my ladder to be? Ladders come in all shapes and sizes, so ensure you pick one that allows you to not put yourself at risk, even if it takes a little extra time to go and get it! What material should my ladder be made of? Most ladders are fiberglass but also come in several other materials. Make sure you plan for the task and don’t pick a metal ladder when working with electricity, for example The Most Important Step After choosing the ladder for our task, we need to perform an all-around inspection of the ladder. How often do we need to perform this inspection? Does it need to be documented? Ladders must be inspected before every use to ensure that no damage has occurred. As far as documentation goes, it is required that a documented inspection occur once a year, but your company policy can dictate more frequent documented inspections.
By Alison Jennings, VP Operations, SEA Sometimes it takes a real-life moment to remind us how quickly routine tasks can turn into injuries. Recently, I had a reminder of just how quickly something simple can turn into an injury. I was hanging a picture frame at home. Nothing complicated—just one of those quick projects you knock out in a few minutes. I picked the frame up by the sides to move it into position. As I lifted it, the bottom of the frame suddenly gave out. The glass dropped straight down and landed directly on the top of my bare foot. Within seconds, what started as a simple task turned into a trip to urgent care. The cut was deep enough that I ended up needing eight stitches. Looking back, there were a few things I didn’t think about in that moment. I was barefoot. I didn’t consider the possibility that the frame might break. I didn’t think about what could happen if the glass slipped or fell. It really wasn’t a dangerous job. I wasn’t using power tools or heavy equipment. I was just hanging a picture. But that’s the reality of many injuries—they don’t happen during obviously dangerous activities. They happen during everyday tasks when we assume nothing will go wrong.