ErgoANSWERSTM Talking to Your Employees About MSDs
In order to get a good feel for how prevalent musculoskeletal disorders are in your organization, you need to gather some information. Someone needs to talk to a sampling of your employees about it. This should be someone who can talk to employees and keep them at ease.
Do not simply ask "How are you doing today?' as the typical response is "Fine." Ask the employees if they have any hand, wrist, arm, elbow, shoulder, neck, back or leg pain. Are there any episodes of shooting pain or waking up at night from pain? Ask them how the pain effects their ability to do their job. Ask them if they have been to a Doctor about the problem. Discuss what they think can be done to prevent the problem and if they know of anyone else who is having similar issues. Prepare to be shocked by what you learn. Then contact ErgoANSWERSTM for a comprehensive ergonomics program.
You might be tempted to think "How do I know if these injuries occurred here or away from the job?" Consider this, from a cost and productivity perspective you don't care. What? Why? The reason you don't care is that the cost of reduced productivity, accuracy and morale to your company far outweighs the cost of changes needed to reduce these injuries. It will benefit you to take a view of - We want to improve the circumstances of any injured employee. We want them to heal and to not be injured again.