Your employees are surrounded by ergonomic features and adjustments. How are you teaching employees the benefits of the equipment they already use to get maximum health results?

To help you maximize health results with ergonomic features, we asked business professionals and leaders this question for their insights. From work-from-home yoga to sending out fitness and wellness guides, there are several strategies you can use to improve your health while you work.

Here are 10 considerations to maximize your health benefits from ergonomic features:

• Try a Newsletter or Video Conference
• Conduct Regular Employee Training
• Promote Work-From-Home Yoga Classes
• Prioritize Company-Wide Communication
• Always Show It in Practice
• Provide Weekly Reminders
• Educate Your Team on the Risks of Bad Ergonomics
• Conduct Interactive Training Programs With an Expert
• Send Out Fitness and Wellness Guides
• Provide as Much Support as Possible

Try a Newsletter or Video Conference

We've utilized two strategies to teach and remind our employees about the ergonomic benefits of the equipment.

For one, we have a dedicated section on this very topic in our weekly newsletter. It's a great reminder for all work equipment (and not just their chair). It's amazing how much the chair, desk height, as well as keyboard, and mouse all play a part in creating a healthy and balanced workspace.

Secondarily, we've also hosted two training sessions on this topic with live video conferencing showing our employees how this looks in practice. While there are plenty of articles and pictures already, we've found it useful to have a real-time session where our folks can share their setup and have their questions answered.

Peter Bryla, ResumeLab

Conduct Regular Employee Training

Proper training is essential to teaching your employees the benefits of their existing equipment to get maximum health results. As a personal trainer, health is a massive concern for myself and my employees which is why we do an annual equipment training each year to learn more about our equipment and the best ways to use them.

Tyler Read, PT Pioneer

Promote Work-From-Home Yoga Classes

We are a fully remote company, which means that there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to ergonomic work setups. We have employees that work from home, coworking spaces, and otherwise. One way we have promoted wellness across the board is with a free-to-attend online yoga and stretching sessions for employees. 

The goal of these sessions is to both promote activity and health during the workday, but also to teach mindfulness about how we work and our body positions. The result or goal is for that mindfulness to extend across all working locations and equipment.

Michael Alexis, TeamBuilding

Prioritize Company-Wide Communication

When you offer features that can provide a health benefit to your employees, it would certainly be a shame to waste those positive effects. The best way to avoid this is to ensure that each employee, whether an existing team member or a new hire, is up-to-date on everything they can take advantage of to boost their health and reduce stress levels.

Consider a company-wide meeting, and then you can always follow up with a reminder email or a newsletter if you begin offering a new feature. There's always a plethora of ways to spread the word about wellbeing!

Greg Gillman, MuteSix

Always Show It in Practice

Employees often skip reading manuals. They seem dull and overly complex for the things they describe. At the same time, the visual form is much more appealing and easier to grasp. Presenting some equipment features rather than describing with words and pictograms is much more effective when it comes to retaining employee attention. It's also faster.

Michael Sena, SENACEA

Provide Weekly Reminders

The success of a company is directly related to the success of the individuals on the team, which means preventing injuries should be a major concern for companies! In order to ensure employees are utilizing the ergonomic features and adjustments that would benefit their health, it's important for companies to incorporate reminders into their weekly routines. 

This can be done by highlighting a different tool during a stand-up meeting once a week or by including a new recommendation in the weekly company newsletter. The reminders don't have to be pushy but can serve as a gentle reminder to make positive health choices and utilize the tools available.

Brandon Brown, Grin

Educate Your Team on the Risks of Bad Ergonomics

Where good ergonomics can improve an employee's experience, bad ergonomics can turn their time at work into a nightmare. From dealing with strained eyesight and frequent pain to injury because of bad posture, there's a lot at stake when it comes to an employee's health. Naturally, the first step lies in creating awareness and offering real-world examples (even from personal experience) that will help employees identify health hazards and mitigate their effects by implementing safety practices.

Harry Morton, Lower Street

Conduct Interactive Training Programs With an Expert

Workplace ergonomics is often overlooked by many because it is deemed something that should be "obvious," and employees are simply expected to know their way around it. 

To break this notion, organizations should look at bringing an expert aboard to conduct interactive programs that highlight both the benefits of ergonomic equipment and the disadvantages of getting it wrong. Rather than simply talking about it, interactive sessions will help employees engage with the equipment and get firsthand experience.

Riley Beam, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.

Send Out Fitness and Wellness Guides

We want our employees to make the most of their ergonomic chairs and the benefits they are able to get out of the features and adjustments. We recommend certain office chairs and standing desks so that when working from home, they are not getting burnout from sitting hunched over a desk or risking hip discomfort. 

We provide different examples of how to sit in certain chairs for better posture and send a list of chairs we recommend, plus stretches they can do at their desk or a five-minute yoga session during breaks. We want the best for our employees and their wellness.

Katie Keirnan, NUE.life

Provide as Much Support as Possible

Employee productivity relies heavily on the tools and resources they have access to, so it's important for companies to recognize this and provide as much support as possible! This can easily be done by providing tools like laptop stands, ergonomic mice and keyboards, and more. To support your employees' current resources, sending out regular reminders via articles is a great step in the right direction!

Jacob Dayan, Community Tax