What affects worker wellbeing?
Ergonomics is the study of the fit between workers and workplaces. Wellbeing has been defined as “the combination of feeling good and functioning well.”
As an ergonomist, my primary concerns, when I consider worker health, are the design of the job, and the worker’s use of good biomechanics. I see workers during their shift, and I can understand the stresses placed on their bodies. For example, I can study a manual handling task and identify that the forward reach, or the handles, or the pallet height are causing a high risk of injury. I can also identify work strategies that might protect the worker. For example, I can work with employees to identify that a different foot or hand placement, or a slight nudge with the hip, can make a task easier to perform. These improvements are usually aimed at making workers more comfortable, which ultimately translates into fewer strain/sprain injuries, better efficiency, fewer mistakes, and happier workers. For example, a worker who spends the day reefing on a tool to rotate an underground valve might:
- stretch out the morning and afternoon breaks to recover (meaning fewer service calls over the day),
- call in sick or seek a job elsewhere
- feel crabby all the time and not be a great work partner
- eventually suffer a back injury and lose time from work
This worker won’t be feeling good or performing well. However, if we can provide a better tool that reduces the effort to turn the valve, the worker will feel better and perform optimally. The employer will get more out of that worker.
What affects after-worker wellbeing?
I also understand that what workers do in the workplace is only part of their health story. Workers go home after work and live a whole other life; we might say they become “after-work-ers”. For some of them, that means nutritional challenges, sleep troubles, or manually demanding leisure or household tasks. While employers can’t control or fully understand these external demands, they undeniably impact work performance. And yet, when employees experience non-work-related pain of any sort (muscular, nutritional, metabolic, fatigue, etc.), ultimately their work performance is affected. So the employer still pays for it, even if it’s not through worker’s compensation.
How can we optimize overall worker and after-work-er health?
Of course, we need to take care of the workplace – this is the part that employers do have control over. There’s no point complaining about poor performance if you have not made an attempt to optimize work design and encourage the use of ergonomic work strategies. (Which, by the way, is a whole lot more than “bend your knees while lifting”!) That pallet on the floor could be raised. Maybe the crates could have better handles. Maybe a lift-assist is in order. Providing a safe workplace and teaching workers to use safe work practices isn’t just a smart business practice, it’s the employer’s legal responsibility.
Offering support to employees for their health outside of work also makes good business sense. A worker who is pain-free, healthy, sleeping well, and well-fed is also going to be productive, produce good quality work, and contribute in positive ways to your workplace. Paying attention to changes in the body and addressing any pain early is key to reducing the risk of injuries inside and outside of work. Working through pain often worsens conditions and leads to more complications, and becomes harder to treat. Healthcare professionals, such as chiropractors and physiotherapists, are highly skilled in assessing and treating repetitive strain disorders and other commonly experienced work injuries. And, in the end, can save companies thousands of dollars spent on WSIB claims, sick days, and other injury-related costs.
And the “bonus” part of this approach?
Employers pay out-of-pocket for ergonomics assessments, interventions and support, so some employers have a difficult time justifying the expense. When employees use WSIB benefits, employers experience a significant cost (an understatement, at best). There is, of course, an excellent return-on-investment for improved work design, but sometimes we need to dig pretty deep to reveal it.
By contrast, access to services such as chiropractic care, physiotherapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, chiropody, and psychotherapy doesn’t financially penalize the employer. When employees use these benefits, employers do not get charged a surcharge by the insurance carrier. So why wouldn’t they actively promote them? Even if the employer were to pay directly to provide these services, ultimately the benefits return to the employer through improved productivity, work quality, and employee engagement (demonstrated as reduced turnover and absenteeism, for example), the same way that ergonomics support pays off.
The bottom line
If you’re taking care of worker health in the workplace, you’ve started down the right path. But don’t stop there. Make sure your after-work-ers are taking care of themselves, so they can bring their best selves to your workplace. Similarly, if you’re taking good care of your after-work-ers by supporting their health, don’t turn a blind eye to their workplace exposures to strain/sprain injury hazards.
Author’s note: Carrie Taylor, founder of Taylor’d Ergonomics Incorporated, a team of ergonomists in Mississauga, Hamilton, Cambridge, and London, wrote this article to celebrate a new informal partnership with Innova Integrated Wellness Center in Mississauga. These two companies truly believe in supporting “worker” and “after-work-er” health and wellness.
