Apart from direct exposure to hazards, employees are also prone to ergonomic risk factors due to their postures maintained during lifting heavy items, bending, reaching overhead, pushing and pulling heavy loads, working in awkward body postures, maintaining same body posture for long working hours and performing repetitive tasks. Poor ergonomic work practices or poorly designed workstations can lead to musculoskeletal disorders including neck and back pain, shoulder and arm pain, headaches and repetitive injury strains.
The best way to prevent poor ergonomic work practices is to provide employees with the right information to be able to identify the issues or risk factors before they cause an injury. By up skilling employees, organizations are able to actively improve their working environment and make positive changes to the company’s workplace culture. Asilia’s Ergonomic assessments and ergonomic workshops are a great place to start when addressing these issues.