By now we all have heard about the importance of good ergonomic design in the work environment. However, we do not always understand or calculate the true costs of a poorly designed work environment. For example, according to the Society for Human Resources, the average cost to hire a new employee is over $4,000 and that doesn’t account for the training to get the employee up to your work standards. On average, this takes about another six months. Six months of pay for a $60,000 salaried employee could cost companies another $30,000.
According to OSHA, lower back pain and upper extremity Muscular Skeletal Disorders (think neck pain or shoulder discomfort) accounts for 31 percent of all occupational health injuries today. Firms that have well-defined ergonomic plans in place have shown dramatic results in lowering employee turnover (about 34 percent less) and number of lost work days (about 72 percent less). You may think that these types of injuries only occur in manual jobs, but you would be gravely mistaken. Two of the more prominent risk factors contributing to these types of injuries include static postures and repetitive motions – think about sitting all day, typing and mousing on a laptop with your neck and shoulders hunched over in a poor posture!
The point of sharing these statistics is to help us realize that retaining employees and avoiding injuries is more productive and far less expensive than one would assume. Thus, when asked by a client looking to design or remodel, we need to probe further to obtain additional details and peek under the hood to see first-hand what we are dealing with.
What kinds of work are they doing in the office? What work tools are they using and how are they using them?
The advent of many new ergonomic workplace tools in today’s modern office are sometimes as entertaining as they are creative. Today’s work environment is as much about design and functionality as it is about entertainment. But, we need to truly dig deeper into the details to actually support employee ergonomics. What makes them a productive worker? How exactly does that fit in to the work culture and improve productivity of the employee or the office? Below are some examples of when these thoughts and questions were not considered.
Design Horror Stories to Learn From
I once worked with a federal agency that had a beautifully re-designed certified green office building. As such, all of the exterior offices had large windows to allow natural light to enter. My client felt that this was wonderful in the summer, but during the later afternoons in winter, the lighting in the office was too dim and employees needed additional light their work. We were shocked to learn that a traditional task light in the room and or on the desk was not allowed as it would violate the green standards that the office was trying to maintain.