Washington Ergonomics is drastically
changing the way companies address employee safety/ergonomic issues in the workplace.
William R. Brough, founder and president of Washington Ergonomics, Inc., is a Certified
Industrial Ergonomist and a Board Certified Professional Ergonomist with over 27 years of
design work experience. Brough founded Washington Ergonomics, Inc. with the belief that if
managers are to create a proactive approach to reducing injuries they must have data that
provides the opportunity to identify and quantify risks. All too often companies go into
reactive overdrive after an injury has occurred and management focuses on post-injury
damage control. This ineffective strategy of simply chasing the problem exists because
injuries come to management’s attention only after the injury has occurred.
Currently, most companies use incident rate as a measure of safety performance.
Unfortunately, incident rate is reactive data showing only which injuries have already
occurred. How can management possibility be proactive in the control of an injury after
the injury has occurred?
The concept of using proactive risk data as a tool rather then
relying on reactive injury data seems logical to Brough. Following this simple and
effective concept, Washington Ergonomics, Inc. created a revolutionary new type of
web-based application that allows workplace risk to be measured and prioritized. This
early warning and tracking system provides employees with common sense ergonomics training
and gives them the skills necessary to use that common sense to evaluate their own risks.
The employee evaluations are then captured in a database and harvested in a series of
management reports. By focusing on identifying high-risk areas and/or individuals,
Washington Ergonomics has been tremendously successful at helping companies understand how
to use ergonomics as a tool to improve human performance, create a participatory process,
solve problems and produce necessary documentation. This documentation is critical for
demonstrating success to managers, employees, and regulatory agencies.
Washington Ergonomics has also revolutionized the field of ergonomics
by eliminating the "elitist" image. Traditionally, the ergonomists or ergonomics
teams have descended upon the workplace with video camera, clipboard, and stopwatch in
hand. They observe workers and presume that within a short evaluation period they will be
able to create a management report indicating all the problems with the workplace. Their
theory is that the ergonomist is the only person with the scientific training and
knowledge to accomplish this evaluation. Brough on the other hand believes that if
ergonomics is to be of any real value it must become "common sense" and used by
everyone including the worker. However, common sense is only common sense after everyone
has obtained and uses that "sense." To create this simple approach the
individuals performing the work must receive training they understand and evaluation tools
they can use. The goal of Brough's web-base application is to enable businesses both large
and small to implement this concept.
No business, large or small, can afford the high costs of injury in
terms of employee suffering, workers' compensation dollars, and lost production. For large
business these costs are increased due to the number of employees exposed to injury. For
smaller business increased costs are due to the percentage of the workforce lost following
an injury. It does not matter whether fulltime employees deliver the safety/ergonomics
program, as is often the case in a large business, or if one person wearing many hats
delivers the safety/ergonomics program, the problems of obtaining and distributing quality
programs are the same. However, web-based technology solves these problems by delivering a
quality program at any location throughout the world at an exceptionally low cost.
Employees now have access to this application wherever a computer exists and whenever the
information is desired. No longer are people required to stop work at a specified time and
sit through a training lecture. The training section of the application is also designed
to provide as much, or as little, information as required by each individual user. This
concept reduces training costs by saving time and improving effectiveness.
The Washington Ergonomics’ "Job Evaluation Suite" has
proven to be beneficial to both management and employees. Management receives the data
necessary to effectively manage and truly be proactive. Management uses this data to
establish the current baseline, set improvement goals, effectively allocate resources, and
measure success. Employees receive the knowledge and skills necessary to begin working
with management to become a vital component in quantifying risks and improving
performance. Employees see improvements made to the workplace based on concerns they have
identified. For both management and employees the true measure of workplace improvement is
when the employees say the workplace has improved.
Real World Example: A high-risk report created by the "Job
Evaluation Tool" alerts a division Loss Control Manager that one of the units in her
territory has exceptionally high scores. She emails these reports to the local plant
manager indicating her concerns. Because the emailed reports are dynamic, the plant
manager can create additional reports showing a department-by-department comparison. He
then emails this report to the manager of the department where the greatest risks have
been identified. This department manager creates a report sorted by tasks and finds that
the task of replacing lighting fixtures has received high scores. The department manager
now creates a separate report comparing the scores for replacing lighting fixtures at her
facility to the scores for similar tasks at other facilities. She then contacts the
facility where lower scores exist and finds that they reduced their scores when ladder
size was increased and stability improved. She shares this idea with the people performing
the task and they approve of the change. After implementation, a second evaluation
demonstrates and documents the improvement.
Brough says, "Never show me your last five injuries; rather,
anticipate your next five." To identify the next five injuries a business must be
able to identify risk. After identifying high risks, the effort moves to targeted
reduction. This is how to be truly proactive in the reduction of injury.
