Workplace ergonomics
April 1st 2004 In the UK especially, compliance is seen as a cost. Somewhere between the lofty aspirations of the Board of Directors and the mundane reality of the shop floor or call centre, best practice dilutes to minimum obligation. Ergonomists, occupational health and health & safety personnel are often obliged to address issues piecemeal, justifying costs on a project-by-project basis, rather than demonstrating the benefits as an integral part of a corporate improvement policy (perhaps incorporating Lean or 5S processes*). The result is a micro-ergonomics culture rather than a macro-economic one.
Two recent events have made me stop and think about the business of ergonomics in the UK. One of our customers recently implemented a new laptop policy involving the issue of a laptop kit ( stand, keyboard and mouse) to every laptop user. In the process, he was able to resolve the issue of expensive docking stations. Not only did he dramatically upgrade the performance of every laptop user by improving their comfort and operational flexibility. He also reduced his companys annual capital expenditure by a six-figure sum. It is noteworthy that this particular manager was not involved in health & safety. His decision was almost entirely a commercial one. Our contribution was obviously to guide him towards an ergonomically valid decision but this was not his primary consideration. The result however was another example of Good Ergonomics = Good Business: with benefits for both the employer and employees.
I visited the National Ergonomics Conference in the USA last December. In the United States, there is no recent statutory legislation and therefore no such thing as compliance as we know it. The most recent applicable legislation is the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970. With no compliance imperative, companies are driven by fear of litigation (Workers Comp to use the vernacular) and the need to provide a good business case for any proposals. As a result, ergonomists justify their proposals by demonstrating how quickly they pay back. Rather than the UK culture of compliance = cost, the philosophy is ergonomics = investment. Performance, productivity and reduced litigation costs are routinely measured and compared to investment in ergonomics and improved health and safety. Significantly, these processes are frequently incorporated into the development of Lean or 5S management philosophies and procedures.
At the conference, speaker after speaker made presentations with titles like Ergonomics: A Core Business Principle, Measuring the Return on Ergonomics Investments and Improve Ergonomics, Improve your Bottom Line. These experiences untypical in the UK - have brought me to the conclusion that the current regulatory structure has created a compliance culture which may even be impeding progress towards good business practice in the UK by causing organisations to focus on short-term compliance rather than long-term investment. So often, those at the centre of the profession here are addressing only the compliance issue. It is my belief that many corporate health & safety professionals are constrained by the management structures in which they operate and would jump at the opportunity to adopt the macro approach. Similarly, ergonomists are usually invited into organisations as external consultants, and often after a project has commenced. They may then find their brief confined once again to a single project or aspect of the organisation.
We have found that professionals who are able to take the wider good practice view can not only justify their own cost but can, through improved performance and productivity, reduced absenteeism, lower staff turnover and reduced litigation, demonstrate genuine financial gains to the employer. Our own experience suggests that such people are still in the minority. The what do we have to do to comply culture seems to be pervasive amongst middle management, particularly in the public sector, and we are convinced that the lack of opportunity to step back from the compliance issue is frustrating and demotivating for many skilled and imaginative ergonomists, occupational health and health & safety professionals.
It is over a decade since the original publication of Oxenburghs Increasing Productivity and Profit through Health and Safety and the 2nd Edition_ has just been published. Is it not about time we gave more thought to the Oxenburgh model and similar tools? The role of the ergonomist or health & safety professional should be central to the management of any forward-thinking organisation. They should be part of the policy-making caucus so that good practice and its benefits can be integral to the corporate culture. Forget compliance think investment!
*Lean Management: The process of Continuous Business Improvement through waste elimination and the removal of non value-added activities.
5S (Sort, Straighten, Sweep, System, Sustain): a set of lean management tools derived from the Japanese Kaizen principle.
Increasing Productivity and Profit through Health and Safety, Maurice Oxenburgh, Pepe Marlow, Andrew Oxenburgh, ISBN 0415243319 More articles from Osmond Group Limited: | 
