Therapist Versus Ergonomist for Home Office Evaluations

The lifestyle changes that have been brought about by sheltering at home can take a large toll on us, both mentally and physically. 

We are all under a tremendous amount of stress during this COVID-19 crisis.  As we acknowledge Stress Awareness Month here is some information on recognizing and dealing with stress.

Solutions available to help you maintain productivity during this crisis.

Here is our position on the current COVID-19 crisis and our actions to health and safety protocols.

Here are a few tips on how you build ergonomics into your home work area.

Have you ever considered the effect mindful living can have on the safety, injury rates, productivity and overall well-being of your employees?

Sit to Stand Workstations - Sitting is bad for me so I should stand all day.

We sell our office ergonomics software, AtlasOffice™, to numerous clients. However, doing so is not our only office-based revenue stream since we also provide telephonic and onsite assessments for thousands of sites across the county. Therefore, unlike some of our software-only competitors we have a bit more financial flexibilty, which benefits you.

What drives excellent safety programs?  Leadership is what builds the culture of a successful ergonomics program. 

When implementing ergonomic solutions to control injury risk consider the Hierarchy of Ergonomic Controls.

The Strain Index is a tool used when you need to calculate the risk of developing a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) in hand intensive work.  Repeated tasks with the hands can lead to levels of discomfort in the hands, wrists, and elbows.

Research says it takes 66 days to create a new habit but we say do it until you begin to crave the reward.  

By the time most of us recognize the need for change, unhealthy behaviors have already become deeply ingrained habits.

Join us for a Jan. Webinar:
"26,000 Employees Teach Us the Top 5 Things an Office Ergonomics Program MUST Have"

Follow these proven strategies to reduce your weight and boost your health.

Read our recent article in Professional Safety Journal Magazine on the relationship between demographics and discomfort in the truck driving industry.

Either approach to address office ergonomics is fine, no matter what people say. At Atlas we have consultants in over 15,000 locations to assist if needed. 

Here are some quick tips about the uses and limitations of REBA.

Using a physical therapist to address discomfort within the office environment is often the best choice for several reasons. 

Leave it to ergonomics professionals with experience to quickly and accurately assess jobs.

One of the keys to good ergonomic design standards is using relevant anthropometric data.

Don’t ignore the complexity of jobs with high task variability when doing ergonomic risk assessments.

“What do you get when you put 20 software programmers in a room?” This sounds like the beginning of a joke, but for those spending countless hours on a computer in pain, the punch line isn’t funny. The obvious answer to the question is “simply more software.”  

How much can your employees safely lift?  Consider the WISHA Lifting Calculator as a base tool to calculate simple ergonomic risk assessments on manual lifting or lowering tasks.

One of our goals at Atlas is to make ergonomics simple and less complex and intimidating.

The key to effectively implementing a solution enterprise wide is to pilot and test the solution prior to moving forward with implementation.

Looking for a quick, simple, easy to use table to assess ergonomic job hazards?  Consider using The Liberty Mutual Tables.

When we developed AtlasWork™, we did so with the goals of breaking the assumption of remote services and reducing the cost to analyze ergonomic risk, as well as developing solutions.

Here are some quick tips and reminders to share with your employees about the positive results from applying The Neutral Posture.

While a JDA sounds better than sliced bread, a typical JDA also usually comes with three weaknesses that restrict it from providing its maximum benefit.

Here are some quick tips when completing discomfort surveys with your employees.

Our own Kris Corbett explains the importance of an individual's overall wellness, stress level, listening skills, injury risk and safety in the workplace. 

AtlasWork™ was designed to break communication silos and outdated paradigms surrounding ergonomics, return-to-work, and how information is shared about labor intensive work.

Our own Tony Silva highlights the importance of Early Intervention and ergonomics to help laundries improve efficiency.

Another Settlement Highlights Importance of Properly Designed and Monitored Pre-Employment Screening.

Trucking Company Settlement Highlights Importance of Properly Designed Pre-Employment Screening.

An appropriately designed post-offer pre-employment screen program must be sensitive to and support your unique business objectives.

Of all our injury prevention solutions, post-offer pre-employment physical function screens provide the highest level of legal anxiety for current and potential clients.

When employers think about physical ability screens, they typically think about a post-offer pre-employment configuration. 

The last of our video series, with this one discussing how GINA impacts your hiring process.

When it comes to workplace injury, soft tissue massage is considered first aid for record keeping purposes no matter who provides it.

Injury prevention solutions come in all shapes and sizes. They depend on numerous factors, including the characteristics of the injuries, the type of work, the work environment, the number and distribution of employees, budgets, and most important—the client’s goals.

Do you know your numbers?  Learn more and support High Blood Pressure Awareness Month.

A quick video showing how the design of a screen program can get you into legal trouble.

May is Employee Health & Fitness Month.  Learn more.

A quick discussion on how the pre- and post-offer stage affects the hiring process.

To be clear, we are not saying that lawyers are bad people. However, a lawyer can turn a good day into a bad day for an employer by challenging the legality of a business practice.  

A quick video discussing the relationship between essential functions and the ADA.

Another 2 minute video discussing the impact of essential functions on the hiring process.

Here is part two on our topic of providing employers guidance on hiring practices.

Here is a quick 2 minute video providing employers guidance on hiring practices.

One of the difficulties with stress is that people experience stress in different ways. Although stress isn’t avoidable, it is manageable.

Here is a quick 2 minute video discussing ADA and its impact on post-offer screens.

Here is a quick 4 minute video discussing legal issues that arise when different perspectives and expectations collide.

You may have heard that conducting post-offer physical ability screens on job applicants is a great strategy to avoid injuries. As a leading provider of this service, of course we agree, but we are also objective enough to say, “It depends.” To help you look at this injury prevention option realistically, here are some things to consider.

The challenge for employers, however, has not been believing in the value of the service but finding the service in a format and at locations that easily align with their operations and budget.

Here is a short video discussing our view on the “active release” technique.

Here is a short video discussing ergonomics and early intervention.

Here is an excellent short video discussing early intervention and when an event becomes recordable.

Here is a quick video discussing early intervention, OSHA, and exercise.

Here is a quick video discussing where early intervention services should be performed.

Here is a quick video discussing different service provider options.

Here is a quick video discussing the different ways the service can be configured.

Here is a quick video discussing why the early report of symptoms makes sense.

Here is a quick 1 minute video discussing why you should consider an early intervention program.

As long as I am standing my body postures don’t matter as much.

Everyone needs to have a sit‐stand workstation.

Recently I stated one of our guiding principles is ‘Ergonomics Is Not The Only Answer.’ The risk in making such a statement is leading people to believe it is okay to leave ergonomics out of the solution set. The truth is—doing so is as risky as believing ergonomics is the only answer.

If you are interested in exploring your options for launching an office ergonomics program, please contact us. We support office ergonomics programs of some of the largest organizations in the world.

What is your office ergonomics philosophy?  

Do you believe software can provide the complete solution, or is human contact required at some level of risk? If you answered human contact is required, our philosophies align. 

When we launched our company in May 2002, we named it Atlas Ergonomics. We did so because our focus was solely on office ergonomics software, services, and the use of a patent-pending process for call centers. 

Injury prevention solutions come in all shapes and sizes. Our approach conflicts with the views of some in the industry because we believe there is no single right answer.