You know that an effective ergonomics improvement process can systematically identify and reduce injury risk.

You understand the role good workplace design plays in not only preventing common and costly injuries, but also in maximizing human performance and making steady gains in productivity and product quality.

You’ve seen many other leading companies have success with their ergonomics initiatives.

You recognize that it is your responsibility to provide a job within the capabilities and limitations of the person you are asking to perform that job.

And finally, you’ve made the logical decision to implement (or improve upon) your workplace ergonomics process.

Congratulations!

Your next logical question is …

What’s next?

Creating an effective, sustainable ergonomics process is hard.

But it’s not hard like climbing Everest or launching eBay.

Many companies have been able to create a successful ergonomics process using internal resources, and many have been able to do so with the help of an ergonomics consultant.

The goal of this series on selecting an ergonomics consultant is to guide you through the decision-making process of either hiring a consultant or simply managing and guiding the ergonomics process using internal resources.

You might be wondering why we would ever guide you to use internal resources when we would benefit from you hiring us. The simple answer to this question is that there are many situations where it wouldn’t make sense for you to hire us and it will save us both time if you can recognize them. We only partner with companies who fully buy in to our guiding principles and who we know we’ll get outstanding, long-term results for.

But enough about us – let’s talk about you.

Question 1 – What are your challenges?

The first question you’ll need to answer is, “What are my challenges?”

Have you had costly musculoskeletal injuries and disorders at your facility in the past year?

Are you effectively identifying and removing ergonomic risk factors in your workplace?

Is your workforce healthy, fit and engaged? Are you measuring this?

Do you have management buy-in for ergonomics?

Do you struggle to create a culture of safety and wellness across your organization or facility?

These are a few of the common challenges we’re seeing today. A good place to start understanding your specific challenges is to conduct an audit of your entire ergonomics and MSD prevention process. This will let you know where your challenges reside and give you a good indication of the kind of resources needed to make improvements.

(If you need a handy MSD prevention and ergonomics audit, you can download ours for free. Just click here to go to the download page.)

Question 2 – What are your goals?

Second, you need to set goals for your ergonomics process. Get a crystal clear picture of where your process currently stands and where you want it to be. Look at your list of challenges and set SMART goals for your process.

What do you hope to accomplish with your ergonomics process?

What are your goals for reducing risk and improving workplace design?

What are your goals for creating a healthy, fit and engaged workforce?

What metrics are you going to use to measure success and what is your timeline?

What are your long-term, BHAG goals?

Additional questions to consider are:

• How do these goals align with your company’s overall goals and objectives?
• How do these goals align with other OHS goals?

Every company is unique, so the answers to these questions will be different for everyone. But once you have your challenges and goals firmly in your mind, you can begin to determine if you have the internal resources to accomplish your goals or if you’ll need the expertise and experience of an ergonomics consultant and the collective resources of a consultancy.

Question 3 – Do you have the internal expertise?

Maximum human performance is achieved at the intersection of good workplace design and a healthy, fit and engaged workforce. Because of this, you will need internal expertise in two areas: the science of ergonomics and the art of creating a culture of safety and wellness.

In addition to these two areas, your internal experts will need to implement these two elements of human performance in a comprehensive and integrated process.

Do you have an in-house ergonomics expert with the qualifications and skills to implement and maintain an effective ergonomics process?

Your in-house ergonomics expert should be capable of:

• Implementing and maintaining the ergonomics process. At the heart of this process is identifying and reducing ergonomic risk factors with cost-effective workplace improvements. This expert should be able to conduct ergonomic evaluations, prioritize and implement solutions, and evaluate those solutions for effectiveness.

Because we know that maximum human performance is achieved at the intersection of good workplace design and a healthy, fit and engaged workforce, you will also need an internal expert in the art of creating a culture of safety and wellness.

This internal expert should be capable of:

• Educating and training your workforce on MSD prevention, ergonomics and wellness.
• Implementing and maintaining an early intervention process – a proactive strategy to uncover early warning signs of MSDs and prevent them from happening. (You can learn more about early intervention here.)

It is vitally important that all of the parts to this process are implemented in a comprehensive and integrated way for the best results – for maximum human performance.

Question 4 – Do you have the internal experience?

“The only source of knowledge is experience.”

~ Albert Einstein

Do you have internal resources with experience implementing a process that includes ergonomics, education / training and early intervention? Do they have the business management experience to implement this process in an integrated and comprehensive way and evaluate it for effectiveness? Do they have experience obtaining leadership support for a new initiative and integrating it within existing operations?

Chances are good that you know someone at your company who has at least some experience in one or more of these areas. The key is to get all of these pieces of the process working together as one, and the best way to do that is through an experienced professional who has been there before and understands how all parts of this process work together.

(Note: One red flag that you do not have the right amount of internal experience is that an effective and sustainable ergonomics and human performance improvement process does not exist at your facility. If the right people with the right experience are already in place, your process should already be up and running with great success!)

Question 5 – Do you have the other internal resources?

So far you’ve uncovered your challenges, developed SMART goals and determined if you have the internal expertise and experience you’ll need for execution.

The next question is, do you have the other internal resources you need? Namely, time and buy-in from leadership.

If you do have someone with human performance expertise and experience, do they have the time to execute and maintain this process? Are they willing to dedicate themselves to it? Do they have the credibility and leadership support to take this process and run with it?

If you’ve found the internal expertise and experience you need, make sure they are both capable and available to execute this process for the long term.

In Conclusion

Deciding whether or not to hire an ergonomics consultant can be a difficult decision. Answer these five questions and you’ll have a clearer understanding of the decision-making criteria.

If you find that after answering these questions, you feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle, it may be time to explore the option of hiring an ergonomics consultant.

A great ergonomics consultant will bring the expertise, experience and passion for injury prevention and human performance that will help you win that battle.

New Series On Selecting an Ergonomics Consultant – Stay tuned for more!

This is the first post in our new series on selecting an ergonomics consultant (if you need one in the first place). Next week we’ll be covering the different types of ergonomics consultants and the pros and cons of each.

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