The bottom line with safety is that success can be ergonomically designed.

There is a reason that ergonomics hs become “a thing” in safety culture and safety processes; it’s because a majority of the time-loss incidents and injuries in workplaces can be directly attributed to workers’ posture, form and use of their limbs in ways that are inefficient and unneccessarily strenuous on the body.

The Ergonomics of Change

Sometimes changing safety culture can be difficult in a grand sense, but as Robert Pater and Ron Knowles posited in their most recent article in Professional Safety magazine, much about culture change can be addressed through ergonomic improvements among the workforce.

While it may be a sizable investment to get different furniture, desks and keyboards for your workers, the reduction in ergonomic injuries and time lost will be very effective to your bottom line, as was stated early in Pater’s and Knowles’ piece. All it takes is a year or two and changes will show dramatic improvement in overall worker safety.

6 Principles of Safety Success

No matter how your company’s safety program looks, if it touches upon many of these following six principles (as noted by Pater and Knowles), success is sure to follow.

  1. Multiplying Resources: This has to do with knowing what you have available and using it, not just talking about it or just knowing it’s there when you “need” it. In this case, the best resource that most companies have is the workforce; getting it engaged and invested in ergonomics and their value will greatly increase your chance of success in changing your safety culture. It’s more than getting the furniture or keyboards for ergonomics; those do no good if no one uses them.
  2. No Single Magic Bullet: Every ergonomic process is different, and should be, because every company culture and every industry is different. Take logistics, for example, such as those Amazon warehouses. Unlike many workplaces, workers in logistics tend to work as individuals rather than as teams, and they are usually in a state of perpetual motion.  These facilities and activities can lead to any number of injuries, so it’s important to corral all the individuals for weekly meetings to discuss ergonomic improvements in the workplace and get feedback from the workers about their own innovations in this area and to share/coach others.
  3.  Keep It Simple, Silly: This principle is based on the idea of not making things complicated if you are going to have workers be accountable only to themselves for safety. Some jobs leave workers out on an island with little supervision and no teammates. In these scenarios, supervisors and manager should look at putting workers through three steps: Teach them to sense and note risks, then determine a safest course to proceed, and then execute that course. Workers are more likely to take action if they are left not having to think too much about gray areas or conditions.
  4. Get Creative with Available Tech: Ergonomics could be improved in some areas without having to invest in new furniture or technology tools; there are ways to train workers to act and move more safely just by using the resources already available. Find ways to utilize what you already have to bring about the points you need to address regarding ergonomics and safety.
  5. Don’t Rest: While it is much easier to get great results in the first year, don’t relax. As long as there is still progress to be made in reducing injuries, continue to press forward with your various initiatives and continue driving down those injury rates. Maybe you won’t drop the rate by another 40 percent  like you did in year one, but even another 20 percent will be significant.
  6. Creative Delivery: Technology has allowed for safety protocols to be delivered to workers in a variety of ways, but even in a dispersed workforce success can be made in creating a new culture of safety. Having seminars by Skype or Google Hangouts is one way; taking your delivery to the site of your mobile workers (such as flight attendants at hub airports), or having videos posted online that workers can view on their own time, can at least bring about some important safety material without distance or time being an excuse anymore.

If you really want to reduce your soft-tissue injuries in your workforce and adopt a new safety culture, perhaps the best and easiest approach is to focus on ergonomics; developing workers who work and move efficiently can make the most impact on your safety and injury results, and in an especially short time.