Ergonomics and the Recession

June 16, 2009 - PRLog -- The recession has had a major impact on all industries including the ergonomics industry.  Organisations are undertaking major cost cutting exercises which are aimed at increasing profitability and protecting people’s job and above all the organisations survival.

Whilst cost cutting is a necessary evil to ensure that organisations survive through this financial turmoil we must ensure that this is not done to the detriment of the health and well being of employees.

Employees in some organisations are already sacrificing both physically and psychologically by putting in many more hours as well as accepting pay cuts.  This coupled with reduced job security can have a compounding affect on employees and can contribute to stress and physical health issues.

Ergonomics came into the mainstream working environment when the Display Screen Equipment regulations were formed in 1992. Ergonomics was specifically mentioned and suddenly became something organisations must consider and implement.  Ergonomics received further exposure with other regulations such as the Manual Handling Regulations as well as the explosion of Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI) and accompanying litigation cases.

Initially this ergonomics expenditure was seen as an expense without a tangible benefit.  Over the last 17 years this has been proven wrong as the injuries and discomfort caused by poorly designed working environment has reduced significantly and the cost of time off work and associated indirect costs (such as compensation and lower productivity of colleagues due to cover) has been reduced.  So arguably ergonomics and ergonomists have helped save millions of pounds over the two decades alone.

What is concerning through this downturn is the number of ergonomists I have come across who have been made redundant.  In addition to this the rates at which work is being asked to be completed for is diminishing rapidly.  This is leading to work not being conducted at all by suitably qualified ergonomists (many ergonomists have studied over 4 years and have many years of experience) or is being conducted by people who may have only completed a short course or in some cases only a day course in ergonomics. Is this really a cost saving?  I would like to argue that it isn’t and in the years to come this could led to latent issues which may rear their heads and cost companies a significant sum of money.  The great progress that mainstream ergonomics has made to industry and the well being of employees should not be undone in this short term turmoil.  

Ergonomics and ergonomists are an invaluable resource to ensure that all aspects of man made products and systems are assessed with the user in mind.  People should be put at the centre of any system and cost cutting departments and projects should take into consideration what a false economy cutting health and safety and occupational health budgets can be.

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