The economics of ergonomics: finding the right fit

HR Magazine, August, 1996 by Dominic Bencivenga

West Bend employs almost 600 people. As important as the increased productivity has been, another big asset is a steady decline in the number of carpal tunnel syndrome cases, resulting in fewer lost workdays, says Lauret. Before the move to the new building, the company sometimes had four of 12 members of a support team out of work due to carpal tunnel injuries.

"The biggest cost to the company is the loss of an employee's work effort," he said. "It isn't the medical cost so much as when a person is missing, it has an impact on that particular area."

To bolster its ergonomic efforts, West Bend brought in neurosurgeons, along with its loss control staff, to learn how to avoid cumulative trauma disorders. One thing the team discovered - the environmental control units, while helping to improve productivity, posed a problem because comfortable employees tended to work longer at their desks, rather than taking necessary regular breaks. Employees are now encouraged to break up their routines by "keyboarding for two hours, then coming back and doing a different job, like filing," Lauret said.

LET THE SUNSHINE IN

Proper furniture and training are integral parts of an ergonomically designed workplace, but lighting is also a critical - and often overlooked - element in improving performance and cutting costs. For example, Pitney Bowes' Newhard said productivity increased 10 to 15 percent in mail sorting facilities when the company placed lighting of 80 to 100 footcandles (a standard unit of illumination) with special lens covers, directly over workstations.

Those types of gains are not unusual. Efficient lighting can cut costs by $1 per square foot per year, says Amory Lovins, director of research at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo. More important, lighting has been a factor in increasing productivity from 6 to 16 percent. "Each 1 percent of increased productivity is equivalent to getting rid of the entire energy bill - not just the bill for lighting - for a year," Lovins said. "The rule of thumb is that companies pay 100 times more for labor than for energy."

The way an office is lit can be more important than brightness. Offices with large numbers of computers can be lit at 15 to 20 footcandles, with swing arm task lights providing 40 to 50 additional footcandles for reading books or other printed materials.

"You can see better with 20-odd footcandles bounced off the ceiling than with 100 footcandles directly down on you," Lovins said. "Generally it's better to throw light on the ceiling where it belongs."

But even before focusing on the efficiency of lighting equipment, companies can improve performance by shifting the angle between computer screens and the user's eye to eliminate glare, Lovins said. Generally, older workers and those performing critical tasks need more light to work by, while younger employees or those performing less critical tasks need less light.

Natural lighting also provides physiological and psychological benefits. As companies downsize and become flatter, managers are being moved away from windows and more employees are being placed "along the glass line." According to Burroughs, "the trend is toward narrower buildings and narrower floor plans."