Far from being just a cost for businesses, investing in office ergonomics, stand apps, stretching apps, office stretches reminders and ergonomic assessments is an untapped opportunity for growth. Improved office ergonomics in the workplace can help unlock immense workforce potential and drive new business success. Here are some of the ways office office ergonomics investments can improve organizational performance:
Improve workforce productivity
By improving the overall ergonomic setup of workstation design, and by providing things like hourly reminder apps, ergonomics consultants and posture reminders businesses can enable workers to simply get more done in a given day. Research shows that good office ergonomics allows workers to stay comfortable alert and productive in their work for longer.
Reduce injury costs
A large proportion of the workers compensation costs, within a typical organization, are related to ergonomic issues, RSI, MSDs (musculoskeletal disorders). Elimination of ergonomic issues and risk factors in the workplace reduces the occurrence of those costly RSI and MSD injuries. There are also indirect costs of worker injury that improved human factors and office ergonomics can also help mitigate such as project disruption, skills and knowledge loss. These downstream costs can be many times the direct cost of treating an injury. Investment in ergonomics consultants, office ergonomics guidelines and software can deliver significant reductions in those musculoskeletal disorders and all the lost workdays, worker’s compensation costs and average costs per claim.
Improve work quality
Quite simply, poor office ergonomics setup leads to stressed, fatigued workers who cannot do their very best work. With improved ergonomics in the workplace, businesses can deliver significant reductions in work errors because workers minds are on the job not on their discomfort.
Improve employee engagement
Employees really appreciate knowing that their employer prioritizes their ergonomic workspace health and safety. Visible investments in employees’ posture reminders, stretching apps, ergonomic consultants and workspace ergonomics can help reduce staff turnover, decrease absenteeism, improve morale and increase employee involvement in the business.
Create a stronger health and safety culture
Visible investments in human factors and workplace ergonomics demonstrate your company’s commitment to health and safety as a core value. This helps define the culture of your company more generally. Fostering the safety and health culture, within your company, will help generate higher levels of human well-being and performance throughout your organization.
But you cant manage what you don’t measure
It’s very had to argue against the business case for improving human factors and ergonomics within your workplace. But its also important to remember that you can’t properly manage anything you don’t accurately measure. As organizations invest to improve their workplace ergonomics checklist they should also be putting in place ergonomics and risk management reporting systems that can track the adoption and use of ergonomic tools and best practice. There are now a wide range of stand app, stretch break and other software tools available to give organizations that ability to live monitor, manage and improve their workplace ergonomic outcomes.
