Ergonomics is not new; in fact, it has been around for over 150 years (See our blog: 150 years of Ergonomics). However, even within companies with well-established ergo programs, employees often don’t really know what ergonomics is, or what it should do for them. If people don’t know what it is, they probably can’t benefit from it! Improving and maintaining ergonomics awareness is a key objective for a successful ergonomic program.
How well do you and your colleagues understand ergonomics? When we test ergo awareness, we typically ask front line or plant floor employees a series of questions. We track the results, and create a score. Here are a few sample questions that you can try out:
How well did you score? (The answers, in order, are b, d, c, d, c.) Now, try the survey with employees at your facility. If people are scoring less than 80% on average, you’ve got some work to do!
Contact us for help in establishing an ergonomics program, if you’re starting from scratch. We’ll begin with an ergo audit, which considers criteria such as program infrastructure (including whether employees can provide a reasonable definition of ergonomics), physical and cognitive demands analyses, ergonomics assessments, proactive approaches, training, and peripheral programs. We can then plug in whatever services and training you need to create a successful ergo program. Contact carrie@taylordergo.com for info.
If you’ve got an ergo program but just need some help raising ergo awareness, consider purchasing our ergo awareness package, which includes 12 bulletin boards (one per month for a year), 52 ergo thoughts (one per week), and 50 one-page summaries (30 articles and 20 puzzles/contests). Click here to purchase.