The 5-Yard Line - An almost successful ergonomic story
Luke Curtis, C.P.E. October 8, 2019
I was visiting a mid-sized tech company the other day to provide ergonomic assessments and training to a handful of employees. When I was contacted by the company, I was ensured that everyone had “all” the ergo equipment including sit/stand workstations, ergo keyboards, mice, monitor arms, and ergo chairs. I thought that was great! What a progressive and engaged company!
When I got there, I saw they weren’t kidding: they had all of that and more! They even had curved HD monitors, mounted to Humanscale arms. Curved screens are great because they keep the viewing distance more consistent as we scan across the screen. This leads to less internal adjustment of the eyes and ultimately less eye strain/fatigue throughout the day. Wow, they seemed to have it all! This was going to be an easy day.
As I started making my way around to visit people and help them dial in their workstation setups, I realized a systemic issue in the office. Almost everyone was working off of laptops. They had all this expensive equipment intended to create a healthier and more comfortable workspace, but no one was actually using it. Of the 80-some employees in the office I met with, only three were using the ergo equipment correctly. I thought this is a damn shame! Tens of thousands of dollars were being wasted right in front of my eyes.
I started asking the employees whether their equipment wasn’t working or if there were some other explanations for this disconnect. I’m kidding, of course; I was very nice and easy to talk with, but you get my point.
It didn’t take long to identify the underlying cause. They hadn’t consulted with an ergonomics expert before purchasing the equipment and made a few crucial mistakes.
First, they didn’t purchase docking stations for the employees’ laptops. Without a docking station, most people won’t take the time to manually connect their laptops to external monitors, keyboards, mice, etc.
Second, they purchased one style of chair for everyone in the office. While there are some really great adjustable chairs on the market, I have never seen one that fits everyone.
Last but not least, the employees hadn’t been given adequate training to use the new ergo equipment. But once I started explaining the benefits they would gain by using the equipment properly, everyone was very receptive and excited.
The takeaway is to always hire a Certified Ergonomist to perform training and complete assessments. Just because you have “all” the ergo equipment does not ensure it will be used properly, or in this case, used at all!
One chair never fits all. Purchasing a couple of demo models and having your employees try them out is a great way to ensure a proper fit. This is also another good time to consult a Certified Ergonomist.