Ergonomic Positive Effect Workplace Health and Safety - Report Example

Name) (Instructor) (Institution) (Course code) (Date) What Ergonomics is It is the act of planning and designing workplace and job in order to fit the staff which makes him or her safe. By so doing, the staff becomes more efficient when doing his or her. It is therefore very essential to implement ergonomics it makes the workforce feel comfortable and thus increase their productivity. Importance of implementing it There are several importance and need of implementing ergonomics at workplace. By implementing it, members of staff will be doing their daily job routine while they bodies are not stressed due to factors such as extreme temperature, awkward posture and unnecessary movements which will affect the musculoskeletal movements. Failure to implement it, those who work in such environment will feel some discomfort, pain and fatigue which are the primary signs of musculoskeletal disorder Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) is a wide field that pays attention to the safety and health of the staff. The OHS sets and enforce guiding standards which are very useful in the maintenance of safety at work place. They to this through trainings, outreaches, provision of safety education. They also call for continual improvement of the safety in the place of work (Chaturvedi, 2006, p. 148). Occupation Health and Safety work in collaboration with World Health Organization and International Labor Organization. They work hand in hand to ensure that there is promotion and maintenance of the highest possible degree of not only social and mental well-being, but also physical health regardless of the occupation one is engaged in. OHS has put forward policies that need to be implemented in every workplace setting to minimizing accidents and prevent the workforce from any harm that arise as a result of work related factors Studies have shown that countries that put much emphasis on Occupational Health and Safety are known to perform well economically as compared to those that do not. It is true that most of the industries, firms and companies in the developed countries put a lot of emphasis on the Occupational and Safety Health in order to improve and maintain high productivity and therefore has led to competitiveness in the market apart from wrecking huge profits Benefits of positive effects of implementing it There are numerous benefits of implementing ergonomics at workplace. These benefits include reduced absenteeism at workplace, increased productivity, increased savings, increased morale among members of staff and fewer members of staff feeling pain. These benefits are as discussed below. Implementation of ergonomics drastically lowers the compensation cost resulting from injuries associated with the workplace. It has been established that a well implemented ergonomics has the potential to lower the compensation cost for the firms by sixty percent on average. This savings can go up as high is up to 90 per cent in some case. Firms and companies that implement it normally do not accept to incur huge compensation losses resulting from ergonomics. Another savings that can be achieved by implementing ergonomics include prevention of injuries and injuries such as musculoskeletal. This is achieved by minimizing both mental and physical stress that arises due to the setup of the workstation. Ergonomics is not only concerned with the tools being used but also concerned with the physical setup of the workplace. By focusing on them, the risk of injuries occurrence is much lowered. It is also important to evaluate demands for speed in the workstation, worker rotation, and work process, quality as well as task variety so as put in place workable ergonomics strategies. By checking on this the compensation and other cost related are minimized or eliminated therefore saving the firms and companies a great deal of finances. By working intensively for a long duration of void of taking some breaks increases the risk all kind of injuries. Member of staff are required to take regular breaks from work being either intense or not. During these breaks, they need to do some light exercises like minimize the risk of occurrence of motion related injuries. These breaks need not to be so long. Three to five minutes is enough. Another way minimize is changing task in every 20 to minutes (Mayer, Gatchel and Polatin, 2000, p. 276) By implementing ergonomics in workplace, it results in moving saving to the firms and companies. This is because movements within the firms and companies are minimized. Such many movements are normally wasteful in nature. It is therefore important to assess and identify the best way to tackle and eliminate unnecessary movements at the workstation. It is also important to note that such unnecessary repetitive movements are a rich source of injuries. Implementation of ergonomics at workstation minimizes the cost incurred in the maintenance and downtime. Some of techniques and tools can be very useful in the maintenance of task. For instance, motion reductions, lowering exertion and provision of clearance have the potential to speed up the time the time required to bring the operations back to norm Implementation of sound ergonomic is economical in reduction of wastes. It also minimizes absenteeism by the member of staff. Absenteeism is mainly due to them experiencing early stages of musculoskeletal disorder. The workers will not feel comfortable to report to a workstation that hurt that hurt them (Gatchel and Schultz, 2012, p. 163). Apart from absenteeism, implementation of ergonomic lowers the rate of turnover in an organization. When the workstation is not properly set, workers become dissatisfied due to working in uncomfortable postures, fatigue, there is pain and discomfort resulting from injuries, there is likelihood of increased employees’ turnover (Gatchel and Schultz, 2012, p. 163). By the implementation of ergonomics at workplace, it results in improved morale. Pains, aches and frustrations resulting from poorly designed tools and equipment directly affect the morale of those affected by them. Dissatisfaction at workstation is normally created by these little things. For instance, a sharp edge on equipment used continually by an employee causing irritation without fixing will result in dissatisfaction. Such problems can be easily and cheaply fixed leading to the huge benefits to the organization (Snell, Morris and Bohlander, 2015, p. 158) Another advantage of implementing ergonomics in an organization is save the company from heavy fines imposed on them upon failure to implement them. It is important to note that OSHA imposed huge amount of fines on companies that do not comply with the set standards mostly. Most of these fines are related to those that have caused musculoskeletal disorders and or failure to put place measures to minimize the occurrence of the same. This though should not be a big motivation for companies to implement Occupation Health and Safety standards Implementation of Occupation Health and Safety standards is of great benefit to companies and organization in the identification of wastes. By implementing appropriate strategies in the company that touches on the operations of the company, the company will be in a position to identify shortcomings in the system that lead to waste. Such wastes cost the companies huge amount of money that are meant for generate a lot of profit (Manuele, 2003, p. 344) Implementation of ergonomics standards scales the efficiency to higher level. Efficiency will translate to a higher productivity with minimum cost and therefore huge profit margin. Efficiency is achieved through the removal of barriers along the working paths or placing tools and equipment at appropriate positions that makes it easy to reach. These tools must also be placed in areas that will minimize occurrence of accidents. Improved efficiency is achieved when the employees are position a good posture that will not make them stain while working (Cacha, 1999, p. 1). Ergonomics in workplace creates a human system interface. Human system interface makes work easier for the employees without putting a lot of pressure and effort. It also makes work to be easily understood. Human system interface has the benefits of reducing the occurrence and intensity of injuries on the workforce (Cacha, 1999, p. 1). The implementation of Occupation Health and Safety standards, it leads to the development of good labor relations. It is mostly good for joint problem-solving between the workforce and the higher authority. By the re-designing of workstation using Occupation Health and Safety standards, it leads to win-win situation for the member of staff and the management (Tatiya, 2011, p. 256). Ergonomics is a tool that helps many organizations to boost workforce involvement. It is not an outdated tool for empowering people through involvement. Ergonomics has been used by many companies and organizations to involve employees in various activities including decision making. Its implementation is very simple with direct benefits to the members of staff. These benefits go a long way bringing benefits to the organization by coming up with a platform where ideas are shared and hence a foundation for expanding other issues (Tatiya, 2011, p. 256). Implementation of Occupation Health and Safety standards usually offset the barriers that affect the aging employees. These employees are undisputedly having a huge experience that is beneficial to the organization. They are also educated, trained is reliability to cherish. When organizations put in place Occupation Health and Safety standards, these older staff has the potential to be as productive as the younger generation of staff if not more as (Snell, Morris and Bohlander, 2015, p. 158) Implementation of Occupation Health and Safety standards is another way of protecting human resources by various organizations. When the size of organization is small, there will be a high risk of disruption should the organization loose a key person. The disruption will be massive even if the individual is absent for few days for even back pain. It is will be hard for the organization find a person who matches the skills of the lost individual or the learning curve be extended (Gatchel and Schultz, 2012, p. 163). Implementation of Occupation Health and Safety standards helps boost organization overall productivity. Studies have shown that ergonomics usually increases the productivity by between 10 to 15 per cent. In other cases, it has shown to even increase the productivity to a whopping 25 per cent in computer workplaces. This also improves the workforce well-being while at the same time minimizing the physical demands on the employees (Snell, Morris and Bohlander, 2015, p. 158) Implementation of Occupation Health and Safety standards helps in bring new and fresh insights into the operations of the organization. By implementation, ergonomics also help bring about and identify areas to improve. This is in addition to its key aims of abolishing problems faced at work like excessive and unnecessary movements, awkward working positions and fatigue (Gatchel and Schultz, 2012, p. 163). Ergonomics leads to renaissance of engineering methods. Many of the current industrial ergonomics are in a way like the old-fashioned one which has been rejected in the past decades. Maybe the result of our interest with the latest high tech advances we have left behind of the primary factors. Ergonomics therefore help to bring these techniques back to the industries and workstations in a new, improved and advanced format (Gatchel and Schultz, 2012, p. 163). From the above discussed benefits of implementing Occupation Health and Safety standards in workstation and in industries, it therefore an essential practice that every workplace should have so as reap the rich benefits associated with. As discussed, these befits in summary include reduced absenteeism at workplace, increased productivity, increased savings, increased morale among members of staff and fewer members of staff feeling pain. References Cacha, C. (1999). Ergonomics and safety in hand tool design. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, p.1. Chaturvedi, P. (2006). Challenges of occupational safety and health. New Delhi: Published for Safety and Quality Forum, Quality Council of India by Concept Pub. Co., p.148. Gatchel, R. and Schultz, I. (2012). Handbook of occupational health and wellness. New York: Springer, p.163. Manuele, F. (2003). On the practice of safety. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, p.344. Mayer, T., Gatchel, R. and Polatin, P. (2000). Occupational musculoskeletal disorders. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, p.276. Snell, S., Morris, S. and Bohlander, G. (2015). Managing Human Resources. Boston: Cengage Learning, p.158. Tatiya, R. (2011). Elements of industrial hazards. Leiden, The Netherlands: CRC Press/Balkema, p.256. Read More