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Ergonomic risk assessment

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Cutting MSD risks

What are MSDs?

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) affect any workers who undertake repetitive movements, work with unfavourable body postures, have high job demands and those who are in a static position for most of their shift such as factory workers, engineers, warehouse staff, etc. With three in every five workers affected, MSDs are one of the most frequent causes of disability, sick leave and early retirement. MSD ailments include back and neck pain, tendonitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome, which are primarily caused or aggravated by work or the working environment. It is sometimes easy to overlook the fact that light but repetitive work can cause harm, but it’s important to understand that the tasks need to be undertaken regularly to build up to a chronic long-term health issue.

Business impact

The negative impact that this can have on your business includes increased absenteeism, reduced productivity and loss of staff morale which may lead to higher turnover. However, MSDs are often preventable and some small changes can make a big difference to your workers’ health and improve your company’s productivity, service levels and profit. Well-designed work, in which risks are properly managed, can both prevent the development of these conditions as well as support employees with non-work-related MSDs.

Steps to achieve

Three of the four most frequently identified risk factors are repetitive hand or arm movements, prolonged sitting, and lifting or moving people or heavy loads. You don’t have to be an ergonomist to understand the hazards and implement controls, but you do need to start with risk assessments and worker participation (see The next step ).

Tip. Try to do the task for at least an hour yourself so you get an understanding of the strain that can be put on your body. This will help you understand what you are asking your staff to do daily.

Controls

Your ergonomic risk assessment will help you identify practicable controls such as:

• modifying equipment, such as raising work from the floor to waist height
• redesigning the layout of the work area, e.g. provide a chair so positions can be alternated between standing and sitting
• making changes in work practices and give your teams more autonomy to help with job demands
• purchasing new tools or other devices if budgets allow. A reasonably priced electric tool will reduce the effort from a hand tool, e.g. sander rather than glasspaper
• asking your staff for their ideas as they may have a simple solution, such as moving a packing table from right to left to assist a left-handed worker
• training your staff on the symptoms so they recognise and report them before the MSD really sets in.

Tip. Don’t be afraid to ask about a person’s hobbies. That elbow pain being complained of may be down to a golfing habit at the weekends and therefore not work-related!

For our new ergonomic risk assessment form, visit https://www.tips-and-advice.co.uk , Download Zone, year 20, issue 16.