business case

“Location, location, location!”  We’ve all heard those words when it comes to real estate.  The same house located on a lake is of more value and therefore worth much more than when it is located on a street in the city.  The same can be said for where the roles and responsibility of an ergonomic program resides.  The value to company can rise and fall depending on the location.  If you read this month’s (December 2011) feature article you probably have a good idea on the best location.  The most common location for ergonomic programs is in EHS or HR.

Determining and demonstrating the value of your ergonomics initiative for specific engineering improvements are commonly requested.  Unfortunately, many of us struggle to even begin to justify improvements, let alone choose a meaningful calculator to demonstrate the benefits of improving workplace conditions.  A quick Google search turns up available calculators: Equipois Return on Investment (ROI) Calculator and

In an article I wrote last year, “To Stretch or Not To Stretch”, I concluded that stretching programs for the purpose of reducing injuries were not shown to be or not be effective.  As such, businesses should closely evaluate the costs of devoting time and resources to stretching programs compared to the supposed benefits.  I’d like to follow up that article with research done by Hess and Hecker on Workplace Stretching Programs:  The Rest of the Story.  In their research

If I had a penny for every time I’ve heard that ergonomics is “expensive” I wouldn’t be writing this blog but instead sitting on a beach somewhere.  The perception that ergonomics is expensive seems to be a widely held belief in many people I’ve talked to whether they are clients, potential clients or at people I’ve met at conferences, meetings or networking events.  I’ve seen this perception prevent the implementation of ergonomic programs at more companies that I’d care to admit.  The question that must be asked is, “Is the perception true or false?”  The answer is both, true and false, d

“Ergonomics doesn’t work.”  “Ergonomic changes didn’t solve the problem—it continues just the same.”  “Ergonomics just frustrates me—it just doesn’t seem to produce the type of changes (benefit) I think it should.”  Those of words I’ve heard from clients who have tried ergonomics and obviously, have not had good results.  I know more people who are frustrated with ergonomics or don’t put much stock into ergonomics after seeing little or no benefit from implementing “ergonomic changes”.  Have you ever heard or said those words?  If so, keep reading.  I’d like to address what I see are the to

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.

One of the things I frequently do as a consultant for my clients are ergonomic assessments because of this I often get asked about what an ergonomic assessment is and what does it involve?  Well, I hope to answer this question and some others about ergo assessments in this blog series.  Of course, ergo assessments can vary as what I look at and analyze depends on what it is I’m specifically assessing but the nuts and bolts of an assessment are the same.

Basic components of an assessment

The second phase of creating a project brand, in our case an injury prevention (IP) project, is planning.  This is the four blog in the series on Branding:  Why All Projects Need One.  In the last blog I discussed the first phase in the brand campaign which was the pitch.  Phase 2 is the PLAN.  This is fairly self-explanatory—the Plan identifies the project goals, activities and steps involved.  It is also defines who is involved from the key stakeholders to those who will have minimal but necessary involvement.  The roles and responsibilities of each person/group involved defined as well a

One of my recent clients that had me analyze the design of their products also asked to me assess the human factors of the brand and associated marketing and instructional material.  What was very interesting for me was to learn about the process they undertook when developing a brand campaign for their products.  That experience serves as part of the basis for this blog.  There is much to be learned and can be applied from an external customer focused branding/marketing campaign to an internal project branding/marketing campaign.  The framework and phases involved serve as the foundation o

“Image Is Everything!”  That was the branding/marketing message for Canon cameras back in the early 90s.  Tennis star Andre Agassi was their spokesman for TV and print ads.  In writing this second part of my blog series on branding this branding message immediately came to mind.  Why?  Because more often than not the approval and success of a project depends on its image—whether inside or outside an organization.