The Impact of Ergonomics on Work-life Balance

It’s helpful to take a broad perspective of what ergonomics is and how its core concepts might be applied from time to time, whether it's coming from an ergonomics expert or someone new to the topic.

At its finest, you’ll be able to understand how much the area of ergonomics affects people’s lives, particularly at work. As a result, individuals and businesses must have a better understanding about the impact of ergonomics in the workplace.

Let’s dive right into it and reveal the relationship between ergonomics and work life balance!

What Ergonomics Entails?

Ergonomics essentially means the fit between an individual and their environment, meaning the workplace in this context. Employees spend long hours week in week out performing a number of tasks for several hours straight, whether it’s working on a computer or pushing, pulling, and lifting heavy items. So, one could imagine that if these tasks are performed in an incorrect manner, it could cause all sorts of musculoskeletal disorders such as muscle strains, back injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, and tendinitis among others.

Ergonomics as a whole may help achieve their full potential at work while also reducing stress. It strives to design safe, pleasant, and productive workplaces by taking into account human strengths and limits, such as body size, strength, skill, speed, sensory capacities, and even attitudes.

The unfortunate thing is that many people still believe that ergonomics is only concerned with just simple placement chairs and other work tools while in reality, the purpose of ergonomics is to improve the workplace and its environment to reduce the likelihood of accidents. 

The Scope and Principles

Now that we know what ergonomics is and all that it entails, let’s take a deeper look into the scope and principles of ergonomics. One of the objectives of putting these concepts into practice is to make people feel at work. That feeling of security may have a favourable impact on employee productivity. In general, ergonomics in the workplace includes a wide range of applications that enhance the quality of life at work.

There are 4 main scope of what ergonomics covers and it includes:

• How employee do their tasks
• The postures and motions that people make while at work
• Employees’ work-related equipment
• The impacts or effects of the current issues on employee health and comfort.

With the scope taken care of, let’s have a firm grasp of their principles. These principles include the following:

• Lighting Compliant with Regulations

Overly dark or too bright lighting may cause disturbance towards employees’ attention span, diminish workplace comfort, and make work more difficult as a whole. How to avoid this? Just modify the room’s suggested light brightness. The location, shape, and colour of walls affect how much light comes into a room. Modifying these aspects will ensure success levels remain the same or even better and increase overall productivity.

• Room for Movement and Stretching

Employees must stretch. That is it. If you work continuously for an extended period of time, your body will get fatigued. As a result, stretching may help employees become more productive by reducing tiredness, improving muscle balance, and realigning your body posture.

• Minimising Excessive Force

When you are doing tasks, your body has to work hard. People get tired and have more chances of getting a muscle strain or a broken bone if they work too hard. The goal is to notice when work or endeavour demands excessive force and then discover solutions to lessen it. Eliminating this force will reduce worker fatigue and other body injuring risk. That’s where ergonomics comes in. These kinds of gadgets and mechanical aids such as counterbalance systems, adjustable height lift tables, and workstations minimise job effort and muscle strain.

How to Implement Ergonomics

With all being said, implementing ergonomics in the workplace is easier said than done, and if you want it to be implemented properly then there are processes that need to be followed. The core of this process is what’s called proactive ergonomics.

A proactive ergonomics process identifies ergonomic risk factors and then reduces them through engineering and administrative controls before an injury occurs. This process has 6 steps of tactical elements, which includes:

• Step 1: Prioritise Jobs for Ergonomic Analysis

This prioritised list should be developed by the ergonomics team based on an initial facility tour, review of MSD history and data collected by employee surveys.

• Step 2: Conduct Ergonomic Analysis

This analysis will objectively measure risk for each job in the workplace and help you develop an ergonomic opportunity list.

• Step 3: Develop an Ergonomic Opportunity List

Developing an ergonomic opportunity list allows you to prioritise company resources in order to effectively and efficiently reduce risk by putting the appropriate controls in place.

• Step 4: Determine Best Solution with Team Approach

A multi-disciplinary team should be involved in determining the best controls for implementation.

• Step 5: Obtain Final Approval and Implement Solution

If the improvement requires a significant capital expenditure, cost-justify the solution to gain approval.

• Step 6: Evaluate the Ergonomic Improvement for Effectiveness

Once improvements are in place, close the loop on the project by evaluating the ergonomic improvement and measuring its effectiveness.

In Conclusion

The impact of ergonomics on work-life balance cannot be overstated. The integration of ergonomic principles in the workplace plays a pivotal role in fostering a harmonious balance between professional demands and personal well-being. Integrating ergonomics into the workplace is an investment in both the physical and mental health of employees. By prioritising ergonomics, individuals and organisations alike can reap numerous benefits that extend beyond physical comfort.

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