Ergonomics examines the complex relationship between people (in all their variations of size, proportion and habit), the tasks they perform, the tools they use and the environment in which they carry out this work. It is a way of looking at the designs of tasks, tools, equipment and workplace layouts and the overall organisation of work to fit the job to the person, rather than the person to the job.
By understanding and implementing ergonomics, in other words analyse and adapt work to avoid potential health hazards, we can work in ways that decrease discomfort and the risks of on the job injuries, whilst increasing productivity and reducing the costs associated to a business of workplace injuries and absenteeism.
In addition to absenteeism, there is also the problem of presenteeism, which is when an employee shows up for work but performs at less than full capacity because of illness or other medical conditions. The effects of presenteeism are harder to measure than absenteeism, because these workers are in fact showing up for work. However, they tend to work at a slower pace, make more mistakes and produce lower quality work. Researchers estimate that in terms of lost productivity, the effects of presenteeism are 7.5 times greater than those of absenteeism.
Other direct costs include insurance coverage, worker’s compensation and covering for absent employees. The indirect costs include losing experienced staff and having to incur the costs of recruiting new staff and their subsequent training. Finally, there is also the potential legal costs stemming from employee lawsuits and government fines, the potential for which is increasing as employees become increasingly aware of the rights within workplace law.
The benefits of implementing ergonomics in the workplace may seem common sense and are very often viewed as unnecessary expense. They should however, be viewed as an investment in not only the business itself, but also an investment in it’s employees, their health and well being, but most importantly the continued retention and productivity.
While figures very, most ergonomic improvements are thought to increase worker productivity by 10% to 20%., given that the average worker is productive for just 5 hours a day (300 minutes), that equates to an increase of 30 to 60 minutes. With even just a 5% increase in productivity, that’s 15 minutes a day, or 1 hour and fifteen minutes a week. (M.F. Schneider “Why ergonomics can no longer be ignored”, office Administration and Automation, 46 (July 1985): 7, pp. 26-29)
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