Employer Responsibilities

Employers have a responsibility to provide their workers with safe and healthy working conditions. They must make every effort to prevent injuries and implement safety controls.

Where to Begin? Identifying Problems

Employers should begin by identifying where the problem areas are in the workplace. Once problem areas are identified, work can begin on finding ways to improve or minimize their effects on workers.

Some methods of identifying problem areas are simple and include ergonomic checklists and questionnaires. Others are more involved and include worker motion studies. Motion studies are detailed analyses that break down jobs into specific movements (such as reaching, grasping, placing, typing, and lifting). The studies measure the amount of time spent on repetitive tasks and can be useful in identifying redundant, harmful, or wasteful work processes. In any case, the effort to identify problem areas can begin by asking the following types of questions:

• Who are the workers that should be involved in an ergonomics improvement program?
• What are the best sources for current ergonomic data involving your industry?
• What types of workstations are in use, and do employees know how to adjust them?

OSHA provides a helpful computer workstation checklist, as well as an eTool for analyzing and making changes to a workstation.

To learn more about Office Ergonomics visit our Office Ergonomics Online Training web page.