Enabling Access Blog

As an employer, whether you conduct your ergonomic assessments in house or contract a professional ergonomic specialist to come in, you want to ensure that you are saving your time and money where possible, while still preventing costly work related injuries.

Unless your company is committed to a strong preventative ergonomic program and has budgeted for mass individual ergonomic assessments, you are probably not offering all of your 50 office staff ergonomic assessments. Instead, the compromise is usually reached by providing assessments in reaction to those employees who have identified an issue or the ergonomic risk factors are obvious.

In either case, you are addressing ergonomics in your workplace and you want to know that you money is being spent wisely. Each ergonomic assessment usually results in recommendations for repositioning equipment, teaching new work behaviour, adjusting furniture and in some cases it means purchasing new equipment or furniture. Often employers link ergonomic assessments with having to spend money, instead of looking at the long term savings the assessments bring, preventing injury claims, employee lost time and retraining, not to mention some assessments include no or very  low cost solutions.

An  Office Ergonomic  Survey is a great way to prioritize those employees who need their workstations assessed the most. It also can be used to screen your employees for those who might be at risk of developing a musculoskeletal injury and to prioritize those who are already dealing with these associated symptoms and may be incurring regular sick time due to their pain.

Resistance to these surveys comes from fear that these surveys will indeed identify many ergonomic risk factors that the employer will then have to spend money on to solve. It should be made clear that including  the employees in the process will instil loyalty, foster improved employee engagement and let  staff know that management does care about their health. You can expect a rise in complaints at the onset of any ergonomic program, as word spreads that the company may be willing to spend money on new furniture.  It's what I call the preschooler "I want a new ball too" phenomenon that strikes employees when they hear that their co-worker got a new chair, but the risk identifiers and complainers will settle down as the novelty wears off. The survey allows a starting spot for your ergonomic program focus, it does not promise anything, other than your attention to ergonomics in the workplace.

The survey can be customized for your current office equipment set up  and can include information about the workstation, the chairs, the equipment and the workflow, to generate answers that will help you in identifying the risk factors that need addressing and those employees most at risk.

The following is an example of a short survey I created for a company of 50 office employees, who wanted to offer assessments to their employees but budget limitations meant they couldn't do everyone's in the first year. Feel free to reformat and customize this survey to your workplace  ergonomic goals, so employees are engaged in the process, know you care and might even offer solutions you had not thought of to save money and prevent injuries at work!

Remember that the interpretation of this survey relies on the evaluator having knowledge of office ergonomic guidelines and you will want to include your safety officer, or ergonomics specialist. Please email me if you would like a copy of our ergonomics guidelines and tips sheet at marnie@enablingaccess.ca.

Marnie Courage, OT Reg.(MB)

Managing Driector 

Enabling Access

[Company Name] Ergonomic Survey

1. Do you have any of the following symptoms of pain or discomfort while sitting at your workstation?

   Numbness or tingling in legs or feet           yes        no

   Numbness or tingling in arms or hands    yes        no

   Pain or discomfort in neck or upper back   yes        no

   Pain or discomfort in low or mid back         yes        no

   Pain or discomfort in the arms or hands    yes        no

Other:____________________________________________________________________   

2. Do you find that your chair is comfortable   yes         no               If no:

    Is your chair adjustable in seat height and depth?                          yes      no

    Does your chair's back rest adjust in height and recline?              yes      no

    Are your arm rests adjustable in height and width ?                        yes      no

    Is your chair adjustable in seat height and depth?                           yes      no

    Are your feet flat on the floor or footrest?                                             yes      no

3.  If using the phone frequently, do you have a head set? yes      no

4. If using a built in  or external keyboard tray, are both mouse and keyboard positioned at the same level?        yes       no

5. With your keyboard and mouse both on the desk or keyboard tray are you able to position the tray or your chair height so that your elbows are bent at 90 degrees?     yes       no

6. With a monitor stand, phone books or built in monitor height adjustability, are you able to adjust your monitor height so you are viewing the top 1/3 of the screen when looking straight ahead?         yes      no 

Other ergonomic concerns or possible solutiosn to risk factors in your work area:

____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Working for an industrial manufacturing company, inherently brings with it higher physical demands and exposure to more risk factors than an office setting.  With the increase in awareness of ergonomic and environmental risks, it is not surprising that these industrial workplaces are having to put more energy and resources into protecting the health and safety of their employees. 

After meeting with the Safety and HR reps of a manufacturing company and hearing their frustrations with employees who bring in doctor's notes and report they are no longer able to do their job for medical reasons, I am left bothered by the power of these scribbled notes. I know how easy it is for a patient to get a note from their physician to support their complaints or self determined limitations. I am also certain some physicians are writing these notes without knowing what are the physical demands of their patient's jobs and are not providing qualitative assessment results to support the imposed restrictions. 

I share the goals of the Safety and HR reps of preventing injuries and promoting employee health, yet I am compelled to advocate for the employer to protect them from costs and headaches related to the malingering employee, who demonstrates poor employee engagement, is away sick frequently, and comes armed with doctor's note, scribbled with questionable and vague restrictions.

How much value should the employer place in a doctor's note that reads:  "unable to perform job demands" or  "no heavy lifting", or "light duties only", when the physician has not seen a  Job Demands Analysis (JDA) to know what the physical demands of the job are and has not tested to see what the employee is capable of doing?

JDA's provide information about the frequency, force and duration of these physical demands that would qualify any decision a physician could make about what is reasonable for their patient, but the majority of these doctor's notes are being provided based on the patient's request for a note to give their boss.

Employers are left feeling helpless and usually attempt to accommodate the individual as best they can, but without the specific medical information as to what the employee is actually able to do, they are not adequately protecting the employee from further potential injury.  So while the employee continues to be at risk, the employer is also at risk, for costs associated with the potential for future employee injury.

Here are some options for employers:

1. Have Job Demands Analysis conducted for the high risk jobs to identify the physical and cognitive demands of the job. The JDA can be used for writing better job descriptions, accommodating injured workers and used to  in the  Functional Capacity Evaluations(FCE) to determine if the employee can do the specific tasks safely.

2. Request from physicians more specific information regarding the notes they write to qualify the restrictions. Instead of challenging the physician's opinion, ask them to add specific forces, frequency and durations to their restrictions, to assist in the job accommodation process. 

3. Have Functional Capacity Evaluations conducted for any employee who claims they are "unable to do their job" or is returning to work after injury. The FCE is a clinic based, full day, standardized assessment that measures the capabilities of an employee to assist with job matching and job accommodation. This is an effective tool for spelling out exactly what tasks they are able to do safely and provides recommendations for accommodations where required.

4. Develop a new policy about the criteria for when and how FCE's will be conducted and talk to the Union reps to ensure they are on board with these new procedures.

Protecting employees from injury is the priority of the occupational therapist, physician, HR, Safety and Union reps and they all play a role in ensuring the injured worker is accommodated successfully. Caution should be given to those who rely solely on the doctor's note for job accommodation and instead should use best practises to conduct assessments that provide qualitative and quantitative information as to what an employee is able to do safely and what administrative, engineering and behavioral solutions are required. Are you up to the challenge? 

 Marnie Courage, OT Reg (MB)

 Owner/Managing Director

 Enabling Access