'Sit up straight.' - ergonomics in the workplace - includes tips on workstation ergonomics

HR Magazine, Sept, 1998 by Kathryn Tyler

Despite the absence of national ergonomics regulations, employers have a vested interest in teaching employees proper work methods.

To some employers, ergonomics seems like a dead issue. It has been a year since California passed the first state-enforced ergonomics regulations, and no other state has joined suit. On the national level, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been trying to establish ergonomics standards since 1994 but hasn't had any luck garnering congressional support.

So employers shouldn't waste time worrying about ergonomics training, right?

Wrong. Ultimately, whether or not the government develops ergonomics regulations may be immaterial. Economics, more than compliance, may force the hands of employers facing increasing costs from workers' compensation claims, absenteeism and reduced productivity. That's because illnesses and injuries related to repetitive stress are costing private-sector employers more than $60 billion annually in workers' compensation claims, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office.

One reason for the high price tag? Repetitive motion injuries (RMIs) - also called cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) - are the fastest growing workplace injuries in the United States. The incidence of these injuries has jumped 770 percent over the past decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Factor in the cost of lost work time and reduced productivity and suddenly employers have a very real interest in how much their employees slouch and whether or not workspaces and manufacturing processes are correctly designed.

REDUCING INJURIES

An ergonomics program is useful because it "promotes the health and well-being of your workforce," says Randy Rabourn, Ph.D., professor at the University of Michigan Center for Ergonomics in Ann Arbor.

Such programs also decrease workers' compensation claims - particularly from CTDs because many CTDs are preventable, says Peter M. Budnick, president and CEO of ErgoWeb, Inc., a full-service ergonomics firm in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Want proof? Just take a look at the Normal, Ill., base of automobile manufacturer Mitsubishi. "The first year after training, we had a 20-percent drop in CTDs; the second year we saw a 25-percent drop in CTDs over the previous year," says Lee DeYoung, branch manager of safety, industrial hygiene and ergonomics.

The Stationery and Office Supplies division of 3M, in St. Paul, Minn., has seen similar results: The number of workers' compensation claims is down between 50 percent and 60 percent over a few years ago.

Ditto for the city of San Jose, Calif. "We've seen a drastic reduction in incurred costs of workers' compensation claims," says Marynka Rojas, safety and ergonomics analyst. In May, San Jose was awarded the Outstanding Office Ergonomics Award for the public sector from the Center for Office Technology (COT), a national association dedicated to improving working environments.

Another reason for a decrease in claims: A company with ergonomics training is more likely to be perceived as caring about its workers. "We see a lot of workers' compensation suits filed out of anger or frustration because the employee thinks the employer is not interested in his or her well-being," says Paul Rose, president and CEO of Injured Workers Insurance Fund (IWIF), based in Baltimore, the largest workers' compensation insurer in Maryland.

But employers who work to alleviate or prevent physical discomfort don't generate such negative emotions. In fact, some get very positive feedback.

"After we started our ergonomics training program, a lady came up and hugged me," says Hank Austin, manager of safety/environmental affairs at USAA, an insurance and financial services company in San Antonio, Texas. USAA recently received COT's Outstanding Office Ergonomics Award for the private sector.

As for the happy female employee, "She said her life is completely changed because she doesn't hurt at the end of the day anymore."

BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY

"Good ergonomic solutions are also good for productivity and product quality because in many cases, you are reducing unnecessary motions and providing better access to the product someone is working on," says Budnick.

Recently, 3M conducted a study in conjunction with a telemarketing company that had attendance problems. "We equipped a number of workstations with office ergonomic products and studied those people for six months. Compared to a control group, there was a 13-percent positive difference in attendance," says Tom Albin, manager of ergonomics services.

FINDING ERGONOMICS PROBLEMS

How do employers go about finding ergonomic problems?

"A company can assess needs in a few ways," says Cynthia L. Roth, senior partner at Ergonomic Technologies Corp., an ergonomics firm in Oyster Bay, N.Y. "First it can look at its injury and illness logs. Then it can look for areas where there is employee turnover, absenteeism, a large number of redo jobs, poor quality or where production is not up to speed."