Christel Fouche | Passionate About SHEQ!

Ergonomic Considerations

South African organisations need to realise that ergonomics is not another marketing tool, but a value added activity. Ergonomics will not solve all problems at work, but will establish intervention programmes to implement and support any technological or system changes.

Defining Ergonomics:
Various definitions or explanations of this term exists. The most common of these include:

• The relationship between the employee, the task and the working environment
• Human factor science or engineering
• Man, machine and task – the effective safe, healthy and environmental friendly interaction between the three

Ergonomic considerations and requirements can find a place across all functions of any organisation.

When manually handling items in the workplace, employees should ask the following six questions in order to assess the risks related to their answers.