human factors

Last week ErgoWeb published an article title “Stretching and Ergonomics”.  Although the article was written in 2004 I believe the key points cited in the article are still very true today, notably:

The last two blogs have focused on why employees, despite knowing policies and processes and even paying attention to them most of the time still consciously choose to take risks.  The next question that should be considered looks at the flip side, “Why companies/CEOs/directors/managers, even if there’s great evidence that safety solutions are cost effective, will lead to more productivity and profitability, consciously decide to ignore those solutions and continue to permit risky situations?”

Why employees, even when they know the safety policy, they’ve been properly trained in the policy and even paid attention to it, still might consciously choose to take risks?  Part 2

In the Kelby Ergo Design Ergo Advantage March 2013 newsletter the title of the feature article was “Safety is #1”:  Why Employees Don’t Believe It”.  In it we covered the most common reasons why employees don’t believe safety truly is a priority for management despite what the fact that management says they do.  There are two additional questions that should be asked and answered that pertain to this topic.  The first question is the title to this blog, “Why

Patient falls in healthcare settings has long been a problem that despite many attempts to solve still continues to happen all too frequently.  The solution most hospitals and long term care facililities have implemented in recent years are bed and chair alarms.

There was a recent Dibert comic that poked fun at ergonomic consultants and the benefits of standing that gave me a good chuckle.  I think when you read it you’ll agree it has the wit and humor that we’ve come to expect from Dilbert.  I had a couple clients send me the link telling me about it and that they thought it was funny as well.  Let’s take a closer look at the statement from the Dogbert Ergonomic Consultant Company “Standing Be Good”.  Is it true?  Is standing—good?  Is it that simple?  If so, everyone should be standing all of their waking hours each day, right?  Obviously, that’s

Have you ever brought up a new idea at work only to have it “shot down” before you could explain the reasoning and benefits of doing something different?  Or have you been the person who has “shot down” the new ideas?  Chances are we’ve had experience doing both.   Oftentimes we are very quick to put down new ideas because of our bias that new ideas mean more work with a less than certain outcome.  Based upon my experience in working for companies as an employee or as a consultant here the top 10 responses to new ideas that happen but shouldn’t.  Read the list and ask yourself are you sayin

What is the age that you use to define for an “older” worker?  Is it 45, 50, 55 or 65?  Employers across the nation are seeing the average age of their work force getting older each year as people are delaying retirement more than ever before.  This is a trend that has employers concerned for several reasons with two being the most impactful—potential injury/safety ramifications and upcoming knowledge loss.  The “common wisdom” has been that older workers don’t get hurt often but when they do the expenses are very high.  Is this “common wisdom” true?  A

Many companies devote time to training their employees on back safety in which they teach the basics of back anatomy and safe lifting techniques.  The question I have had on this training “Is the time and money spent on back injury prevention worth it?”  Of course, this question (“Is it worth it?”) should be asked of any training.  After all, training takes time, takes employees away from their jobs and therefore is a significant investment by the company in their personnel as well as financially.

In this part two of my blog series on obesity and driving.  In Part 1 of this blog series I discussed a study (1) that examined normal weight and obese truck drivers based on BMI.  The study showed that severely obese drivers were 43% to 55% more likely to crash than were drivers with a normal BMI.  This is a striking correlation between weight and driving accidents.  Reading this study caused me to do a little more research on obesity and driving which is how I came across this second study:  Driver obesity and the risk of fatal injury during traffic collisions (2).