Ergonomic Assessment: Questioning Guidelines Part 2

In this blog series I’ve been focusing on ergonomic assessments.  The first one dealt with the 5 components of an assessment.  The second dealt with the type of questions to ask for the gathering background information and physical ergonomics.  In this blog I want to provide some examples that relate to understanding and examining the impact of the mind and the organization.

To review, cognitive ergonomics is about designing for the mind—how humans think and behave.  Organizational ergonomics can be thought of as having a 30,000’ view on the task, area, department, etc.  It considers the culture and systems in which the particular task or work is done.

Here are some examples of questions that you can use to get you thinking about these two categories of ergonomics:

• Are there sudden changes in workload or season changes in volume?  Are there mechanisms in place for dealing with the change?  If so, what are they?
• Are there incentives for production?
• Are there incentives for injury reporting/lost work days?
• What is the culture of the company/department?
• How are production pressures handled?
• Is there a union?  If so, what is the relationship between management and union?
• Is the task repetitive and boring?
• Is the task “information overload”?
• Does the task require high concentration for prolonged periods of time?
• Do policies/procedures related/reflect reality?

These are just a few questions that related to cognitive and organizational ergonomics.  I hope these have got you thinking about what else to ask during an ergonomic assessment.  Remember, there are no such things as “stupid” questions.  Failure to ask a question can lead to the wrong root cause and therefore ineffective solutions.