Ergonomics In The Workplace

While the body and mind can take a lot of abuses and still function, they eventually reach a stage when they would say “enough is enough" through pain, stress or will completely shut down to prevent further abuse.

Ergonomics is, “The science of designing the job, equipment, and workplace to fit the worker”, and is also called human factors engineering which studies the physical and behavioral interaction between people, the task and their environment. This environment could be the workplace, at home, on vacation or at leisure places.

The objective is to minimize the amount of physical stress in the workplace generally, and requires the continuous study of the ways in which people and technology interact.

The use of special designs and techniques (recognition, evaluation, and control) are applied to make task/s, equipment and the environment more compatible with human abilities and limitations, in order to improve productivity and quality to reduce workplace stress, and also reduce the risk of injuries and illnesses and increase efficiency.

The main goal of ergonomics is to reduce the demands (physical, environmental and mental), and increase comfort, productivity associated with a given task to make the experience rewarding, pleasant and safe.

Amongst its benefits are;

Improved health and safety for workers
Higher morale throughout the workplace
Improved quality working relationships
Improved products and productivity
Improved competitiveness
Decreased absenteeism and turnover
Fewer worker injuries/health problems

Ergonomics should not be an “add on” activity in the workplace, but an inherent part of an organization’s function.