Burning Questions and Answers About Ergonomics
As a consultant, I find myself asking people their beliefs about ergonomics and find their responses to be quite interesting. It tells me that most have a very limited view of what ergonomics is and where it belongs within their company.
The first question I ask is “what do you think the primary function of ergonomics is?” The great majority of the responses are related to safety and injury prevention. It’s not that I don’t agree that ergonomics affects safety and injuries, but it’s a rather limiting definition. After all, if injuries aren’t an issue, then would ergonomics even be needed? I believe the primary function of ergonomics is to optimize performance, specifically the human in relation to the system and environment. The view that injuries are the primary function comes from the false assumption that injuries are the root cause of the problem when in fact injuries are a symptom of poor system design.
Another question I ask is “where do you think ergonomics should or does reside within your company?” The two primary responses are in the Environmental, Health and Safety department or Human Resources. Is EHS and HR the right departments for ergonomics? I strongly suggest that it does not. Think about the root cause of ergonomic issues—the design of the workstation, task, work space. Who is responsible for the design? Engineering, operations and/or facilities. Putting ergonomics under EHS and HR doesn’t make sense as they aren’t responsible for the design, purchase of equipment, productivity quotas, etc. It would be like holding the sewing machine at a custom clothing shop responsible for the clothes being returned for not having the right fit.
A third question I ask is “what process do you think ergonomics is best used for—reactive, proactive or advanced?” The response is almost evenly split between proactive and reactive with very few choosing advanced. This is very disappointing to me. I’d love to have everyone respond with advanced and then proactive. Why? Because an advanced process is the goal of ergonomics. It means we are designing in ergonomics from the very beginning—before buildings are built, before the task is designed, before workstations are put in place and before equipment/products are installed.
If all companies had advanced ergonomic processes put in place the result would be significant to the bottom line—productivity and efficiency would be maximized, injuries would be virtually nonexistent and employee satisfaction would be high. What company wouldn’t want those results?