How to Choose Short and Long-Term Ergonomics Metrics

Ergonomics metrics are an important tool to keep your ergonomics team focused and aligned on the right activities to identify and control risk. Read this article to learn how to choose your short and long-term ergonomics metrics.

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
“Which road do I take?” she asked.
His response was a question: “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”
– Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Much ink has been spilled on the virtues of setting specific, measurable, actionable, time-dependent (aka SMART) goals. You’ve likely encountered this advice many times before. Maybe even with respect to your workplace ergonomics process.

Sometimes when you hear something over and over again you tend to brush it off. So, like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, I have to ask: Do you know where you want your ergonomic assessment process to go? Have you set your ergonomics goals?

And, further, have you documented the specific metrics you’ll track along the way? These metrics will tell you whether or not you’re on the right path. Whether you’re making the right day-to-day decisions. If you need to dedicate more or less resources.

The documentation piece is particularly important because the members of your ergonomics team frequently come to a fork in the road.

Every day they make decisions about how they allocate their time and energy. All of those decisions are forks in the road. Your documented ergonomics process metrics tell them which way they should go.

Ergonomics Metrics 101

While every organization’s ergonomics metrics might look a little different, you should set your metrics based on a few best practices:

Ergonomic metrics should include both leading and lagging indicators
Ergonomics metrics should align with the ergonomics improvement process
Ergonomics metrics should take into account the current state of your ergonomics program

1. Ergonomics Metrics Should Include Leading and Lagging Indicators

The ergonomics metrics you select will be a combination of leading and lagging indicators.

Leading indicators: measures preceding or indicating a future event.

These metrics are used to proactively drive activities carried out to prevent and control injury.

Lagging indicators: measure a company’s incidents in the form of past accident statistics.

These metrics are used to quantify after-the-fact results.

We recommend clients adopt a combination of each type with a focus on leading indicators to drive proactive actions.

2. Ergonomics Metrics Should Align with the Ergonomics Improvement Process

Your ergonomics metrics should be aligned with each step of the ergonomics improvement process:

Assess risk
Plan improvements for moderate to high risk jobs and tasks
Make improvements to jobs and tasks
Measure effectiveness of controls

You should have a corresponding metric for each of these steps to measure your ergonomics team’s operational effectiveness.

3. Ergonomics Metrics Should Take Into Account the Current State of Your Ergonomics Program

The metrics you set should be based on an evaluation of the current state of your ergonomics program. It is helpful at this point to conduct a comprehensive audit so you can understand the current state. The audit will likely identify specific shortcomings you want to focus on.

Short-term Ergonomics Metrics

This series of articles revolves around how to get started with ergonomic assessments, so let’s assume you’re just getting started with a formal, proactive ergonomic assessment process or you’re making an investment into revitalizing an existing process.

Your short term ergonomics metrics should include what it’s going to take to launch (or revamp) your ergonomic assessment program and what you hope to have accomplished in the first 90 days of your launch.

Committing to achieve these metrics will get your ergonomics process off to a fast start and generate the momentum you need to sustain it.

Ergonomic assessment process launch (30 days)

Given the short time frame, these are likely to be leading, activity-based metrics. It’s more of a checklist of items you need to accomplish to get your process off the ground than it is a specific number to hit.

Establish ergonomics metrics: Determine your short and long term ergonomics metrics.
Establish the ergonomics team: select a multi-disciplinary ergonomics team with representation from safety, engineering, maintenance, supervisors, and industrial athletes. Decide who on the team is responsible for conducting ergonomic risk assessments.
Select ergonomic assessment tools: each team member should be using the same methods and tools to assess ergonomic risk factors to ensure a one-to-one comparison across departments, jobs, and tasks.
Train the ergonomics team: the team should be trained to develop the knowledge and skills required to accomplish their roles and responsibilities.
Select an ergonomics data management system: determine in advance how you are going to manage the data generated from the ergonomic assessments.

Ergonomic assessment process rollout (60 days)

Now that you have everything organized and in place, it’s time to execute the ergonomics process. These metrics should align with the process of assessing risk, planning and making improvements, and then measuring the effectiveness of those improvements.

Number of Assessments Completed: we recommend setting an activity-based goal for the first 60 days after the launch for number of assessments completed. This gives your team an opportunity to start fast and build momentum for the new ergonomic process.
% of Jobs at Moderate to High Risk with Improvement Plans in Place: Ergonomics isn’t just about assessments, it’s about making improvements. Make sure the team is planning improvements for jobs and tasks that fall outside of recommended thresholds.
% of Jobs at Moderate to High Risk with Improvements Made: Again, the goal is to reduce risk by making improvements. Track that improvements are being made by conducting post-improvement assessments.
% Risk Reduction: Did the improvements you made reduce risk? Be certain your control methods are effective by tracking risk reduction percentages.

If you’re just getting started, the numbers you select here will likely be small. That’s okay! You’ll improve over time.

The key is to make sure you’re tracking all four of these measures from the beginning. This is about building good habits. You’re reinforcing the fact that ergonomics isn’t just about conducting assessments, it’s about making improvements. Ergonomics is a process. Track this right from the start.

Long-term Ergonomics Metrics

Now that you have your ergonomics process off the ground, it’s time to sustain it. You can use your long-term ergonomics metrics to guide you.

Ergonomics Training Metrics

% of Ergonomics Training Plan Completed: Always make sure ergonomics teams have the knowledge and skills to do their job, even as members of the team naturally come and go.

Ergonomic Design

% of New Jobs/Processes Implemented at Low Risk: Make sure you don’t introduce any jobs and processes to your worksite with ergonomic risk factors present. The best time to consider ergonomics is during the design phase.

Ergonomic Improvement Process Metrics

% of Jobs Assessed for Risk: The job improvement process starts by understanding the ergonomic risk factors at your worksite.
% of Jobs at Moderate/High Risk with Improvement Plans in Place: Ergonomics is about making improvements! Make sure improvements get planned for moderate/high risk jobs.
% of Jobs at Moderate/High Risk with Improvements Implemented: Ensure improvements actually get implemented.
% Risk Reduction: Ensure workplace improvements are effectively reducing risk.

Bottom Line Results

% of Jobs at Low Risk: This is the ultimate leading metric for your ergonomics process. The goal of your ergonomics process is to drive this number as high as possible.
Number and Cost of Musculoskeletal Disorders: Track the number and cost of musculoskeletal disorders at your worksite.
Return on Investment: Make sure you are getting a return on your investment in ergonomics.

Documenting Your Ergonomics Metrics

It is important that you document your metrics and make them widely available to everyone on the team and to all stakeholders.

Sometimes the biggest benefit of documenting something is that it forces you to think it through all the way. You need to boil down all the thoughts and ideas in your head to make them concrete. When they’re written down, they’re solid. They’re tangible.

The other major benefit is that you can use these metrics to gain support throughout your organization. You’ll be able to show, with exact numbers, how your efforts have contributed to your organization’s success. The more support you gain, the more sustainable and effective your ergonomics process will be.

So make sure you do the work to document your ergonomics metrics. You’ll be glad you did.

Now, do you know where you want to go?

Tracking your ergonomics metrics over time will be what guides your team to make decisions. When they come to a fork in the road during their workday, they’ll be able to look at the metrics and determine the course of action that will get them closer to where you want them to be.

Not only does this help you focus the efforts of the team, but it’s also a better experience for team members. It feels good to have clarity. It feels good to make progress toward shared goals.

A happy, productive team leads to a more sustainable process, creating a reinforcing loop of success. You’ll start to build momentum and your ergonomics process will begin to take off.

Your Free Ergonomics Planning Guide and Complete Toolkit

This article is an installment of the How to Get Started With Ergonomic Risk Assessments series, which is now available to you free of charge as part of the Ergonomics Planning Guide and Toolkit.

Your toolkit includes:

How to Get Started With Ergonomic Risk Assessments
How to Choose Short and Long Term Ergonomic Assessment Metrics
How to Build Your Ergonomic Assessment Team
How to Select Your Ergonomic Assessment Tools
How to Train Your Ergonomic Assessment Team
How to Leverage Technology to Get the Most Out of Your Ergonomic Assessment Data
A free spreadsheet to help you track progress as you launch or revamp your ergonomics process

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