The support of management is vital as your office begins its ergonomic journey. Following ergonomic policies yourself, talking to employees about their ergonomic health, scheduling ergonomic evaluations and assisting employees in catching and correcting ergonomic risk factors are great ways you can assist employees as a manager. Learn more about the manager’s role in implementing good ergonomic habits below.

Support Breaks

Small breaks throughout the day can do wonders for employees’ well-being. Walking across the office, doing stretches or changing your working position can help to clear brain fog and increase productivity. The key is to take these short breaks throughout the day. No amount of exercise makes up for hours of sedentary work. It’s important to create an environment in which your team feels comfortable taking these breaks so that everyone can benefit from them.

Encourage Conversation

One of the best ways to find out if your team is suffering from aches and pains is through conversation. The entire office benefits when your employees feel comfortable talking to you about their ergonomic journey. These conversations allow symptoms to be caught early before they evolve into a full-blown injury. Early intervention can be as easy as switching out an old office chair or adjusting the height of an employee’s workstation.

Give Educational Opportunities

Workplace ergonomics isn’t common knowledge. It’s necessary to provide ergonomic trainings or workstation evaluations on a regular basis. Encourage everyone to attend so that the entire office is on the same page when it comes to ergonomic health. Ergo works’ trainings are targeted to end-users and management alike. End users will benefit by learning about ergonomic risk factors, receiving an ergonomic evaluation and support in building an ergonomically correct workstation.

Walk Through

Walkthrough your office to take note of potential ergonomic risks or areas of improvement regularly. Focus on posture, work-station layout, incorrect sitting or standing positions, the use of makeshift accessories like shoe boxes as computer stands or pillows as lumbar support. It’s easy for employees to fall into bad habits that they don’t always notice themselves. Sometimes it takes a second pair of eyes to catch ergonomic risk factors before they become damaging.

Make Corrections

After your office walkthrough, follow up with your team in order to make necessary corrections. Some of these corrections may be behavior-based like using correct sitting or standing posture. Others may be equipment based. It’s important to keep track of the condition of office furniture and accessories. Making replacements as needed is a major component of promoting healthy ergonomic practices in your office. Invest in good quality furniture and ergonomic accessories, to begin with, to avoid replacing poor quality items more often.

Ergo Works® in Palo Alto, CA is your ergonomic expert. Our team hopes that the tips above allow the management to support the ergonomic health of end-users. To learn more about office ergonomics, contact us. Our team was developed to combat ergonomic concerns among heavy computer users. Schedule any of our three levels of Ergonomic Evaluations to begin your ergonomic health journey today.

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