Here is a quick quiz for safety, HR, plant managers and anyone else responsible for protecting and promoting the health of workers:
- Is your workforce trained and equipped well enough to make consistent improvements to your workplace?
- Do you have an ergonomics improvement process that is improving productivity and product quality while at the same time reducing injury risk and preventing costly MSDs? Can you prove it through careful evaluation?
- Are your employees engaged and fully committed to health and safety? Do they believe management cares about them enough to make improvements to their workstation and promote their health and well-being?
- Is health and safety a core value at your company? (Not just on your company website, bulletin board or newsletter, but for real.) Is human performance driving business results for your company?
No matter how well (or poorly) you did on the quiz, training and educating your workforce will make your human performance and ergonomics process better. Well-trained and well-equipped people supporting your process is what makes it go, and strong systems combined with strong people will go a long way.
That’s where we’re heading with our series on human performance and ergonomics training. In last week’s article on ergonomics training, I discussed two critical elements for success.
- Understand that everyone at your company is responsible for workplace improvements and this translates to making the best product (or delivering the best service) possible.
- Ergonomics shouldn’t be operating in a silo. It should be integrated into an overall human performance strategy that includes improved health, fitness and wellness of employees as well as making sure they are using proper work practices.
This week’s article will present ergonomics training objectives and best practices.
Let’s get started.
Ergonomics Training Objectives
The purpose of these training objectives are to provide your people with the knowledge and tools to successfully accomplish their designated roles and responsibilities for the process.
(We’ve written about these roles / responsibilities before. For a quick reminder or to catch up, read A Guide to MSD Prevention Roles and Responsibilities.)
Following are learning objectives for specific roles in the process.
Everyone. Everyone at your company should understand the benefits of this process and the overall value and importance it provides your company. Everyone should also have an understanding of basic principles of prevention and the core components of the prevention process.
Leadership Team. The primary objective with leadership is to gain their ongoing support of this process. They should be educated on the goals of the process and how those goals will be met and evaluated. They should also have a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities for the entire process.
Engineers and Facility Staff. Engineers should learn the skills required for them to identify and remove ergonomic risk factors. This should include training on ergonomic evaluation tools and good ergonomic design principles.
Safety / Ergonomics Team. The ergonomics team should be well educated on the ergonomics improvement process. Training should include how to identify high risk job demands and implement practical and cost-effective solutions using a team approach. Training should also emphasize evaluating workplace improvements for effectiveness and utilizing a continuous improvement approach.
Supervisors. Supervisors should be trained on encouraging early reporting of fatigue and discomfort and should be capable of demonstrating and teaching proper work practices.
Employees. Employees should be aware of risk factors (at work and at home) that put them at greater risk for developing an MSD. They should have training on proper work practices, and how they can report workstation improvement ideas through the proper channels. They should be highly encouraged to report the earliest signs of fatigue and discomfort to their supervisor or injury prevention specialist so a proactive effort can be made to reverse the problem and prevent the injury.
Ergonomics Training Best Practices
Practice what you preach. When you walk into the room, your past actions are walking in with you. It is vitally important that you live out every day what you are about to teach in the classroom. Credibility is huge – don’t take this lightly.
Don’t put them to sleep. Let’s face it; ergonomics training isn’t as exciting as the latest Jason Bourne action movie. But just because it isn’t all that exciting doesn’t mean you can’t approach it with a positive and enthusiastic attitude. You set the tone for the training session, so make sure you’re the most enthusiastic person in the room even if the audience doesn’t respond the way you had hoped.
Be hands on. Classroom training is important, but practical application of learning material is where knowledge is ingrained into the brain and real progress is made. Follow up formal classroom training sessions with one-on-one time out on the shop floor or office workstation.
Don’t stop educating. The statistics on memory retention are disappointing for trainers. Sadly, much of what you teach will be forgotten. For this reason, it is important that training doesn’t stop once you leave the classroom doors. Ongoing classroom sessions (as well as the hands-on application training described above) will allow the training content and core learning objectives to sink in over time.
Integrate training and education every day. Take advantage of every opportunity to educate and train your workforce. If every meeting begins with a safety talk, take two to three minutes to reinforce the core learning objectives of MSD prevention training. If you have injury prevention and wellness handouts, post them in high traffic areas. If you have a newsletter, tell a success story of how an injury was prevented or how an employee has changed their life for the better by becoming healthy and fit. When your people come to work, they shouldn’t be there for long without a reminder of their training.
Get better. An employee survey is a great way to get feedback on your training sessions so you can continuously improve your training. Strive to improve your training content and delivery.
Conclusion
Establish core learning objectives for each role in the process and utilize training best practices to build a well-trained and well-equipped workforce to manage your human performance and ergonomics process.
