5 Signs ANY Workplace Needs an Ergonomic Assessment (Not Just New Equipment)

Most companies that need an ergonomic assessment don't know they need one. They've bought new chairs. They've done the wellness training. They've put up the stretch posters. And people are still hurting. So they conclude that ergonomics doesn't work, when the real problem is that they've been buying solutions without ever diagnosing the actual problem.

In this episode, we break down 5 clear, observable signs that a workplace needs a proper ergonomic assessment and why recognizing these signs is one of the most powerful tools an ergonomics consultant has for starting a real client conversation. We unpack the research behind why comprehensive ergonomic intervention outperforms equipment-only and training-only approaches, what each sign is actually telling you about the underlying problem, and how to use this framework in your marketing, your proposals, and your very first conversation with a prospective client.

In this episode:

• Why buying new equipment without an assessment almost never solves the problem and what the research says about equipment-only interventions
• The 'improvised fixes' signal: why cardboard boxes under monitors are a diagnostic finding, not just a quirky habit
• Why cross-departmental complaints are the red flag that changes the conversation from 'individual problem' to 'systemic issue'
• Why 'we don't know what's causing it' is the single most expensive position a company can be in
• The 40% reduction finding  and how to present comprehensive assessment ROI to a client who's already tried 'fixing it' on their own

Whether you're a new ergonomics consultant building your client base or an experienced practitioner looking for sharper language to open doors, this episode gives you a framework you can use in your next sales conversation this week.

If you're a healthcare professional and this episode got your wheels turning about office ergonomics - good. I've got free resources to help you take the next step at ergonomicshelp.com/resources. 

Transcript

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Welcome to the show. Today, we are talking about the most common indicators that a company that maybe you're prospecting, maybe you're talking to, maybe you're building that relationship with, that they need ergonomic solutions. This episode is gonna break down the most common indicators in a way that a company can understand. Welcome to the Business of Ergonomics podcast. I'm your host, Darcy Jeremy. I'm a board certified professional ergonomist with over 15 years of experience delivering ergonomics programs to employers of all different types. In this podcast, I share what other healthcare professionals are already doing and being with ergonomics assessments and how to land those clients that you dream of. Without further ado, let's jump into this episode right now So today's show is gonna be focusing on the office side of ergonomics, but quite frankly, what we're talking about with trends where injuries are happening is almost more comparable to bigger type of physical work, like in industries or warehouses where people are doing more manual labor, because we're gonna be talking about clusters of injuries, and if it's popping up in more than just, like, an individual scenario, and it's all about building a business case for your services. I wanna start today from square one, in a scenario that I think almost every ergonomics consultant has walked into at least once, and maybe you get a call from a company. We all get those, and they've been having complaints from employees, whether it's neck pain or shoulder issues. They're basically saying that workstations are uncomfortable. So the company did what most companies do. All they did was bought new chairs for the office. Maybe, in fact, they wanted to jump on the bandwagon, and they bought new sit-stand desks. Maybe they threw an, an ergonomic keyboard here because they saw an ad. Maybe they threw a random monitor there because someone said they needed to sit up straight to reduce their back pain. So they spent real money, like real money. We all know how expensive a chair can be, a sit-stand desk, and we all know the research that says if they're not properly adjusted for somebody, then they're likely causing a lot more damage, and we know how expensive sit-stand desks are, especially for those individuals that just never use them, and they think that's gonna solve all their problems. But the sit-stand desk is only a sitting desk. People are still hurting. The solutions that they thought was gonna work because they saw a really awesome ad, not working. So I've seen this countless times before. Basically, the company has concluded one of two things. Either ergonomics doesn't work, or their employees are just difficult and they're a bunch of complainers. But here's the thing, and I'm sure you can relate to this if you've worked in the ergonomics industry for any period of time. Neither of these conclusions are right. We know that ergonomics is all about the fit between that workstation and that individual. And if we're cramping a lot of people into workstations that weren't looked at thoroughly enough, we're gonna come into some issues They bought solutions without ever diagnosing the problem. They just jumped the assessment. They went straight to the intervention, and when you just skip the assessment, we all know that you just get the wrong treatment, right? Whether you're pulling from your clinical expertise as a healthcare professional, or we're dealing with real world ergonomic situations Today we're gonna be talking through the five most common signs that a workplace actually needs an ergonomic assessment. Not a Band-Aid solution, not more equipment, not more training, not more posters, a proper systematic assessment. And I'm gonna show you how to use these five signs to move that sale forward, because, you know, we gotta get that cash flow going, because each one of these conversations is an opener for a client conversation But let's talk big picture here, like building relationships, adding value, growing that relationship. This is stuff that I think every ergonomics consultant should be doing regularly, whether you're sharing this information in a blog post or an email or even an infographic. Marketing takes time, And ergonomics consultants who aren't spending the daily time marketing to grow their businesses, they are seeing opportunity left on the table. And that's why I think done-for-you resources are really important for ergonomics consultants. We have done-for-you point-and-click resources that you can put your logo on. You can write ergonomics reports faster, or you can find what the latest, greatest office ergonomic equipment are so that you can spend less time in the busy work, the non-billable time, and more time doing the actual things in your business to move the needle forward, to get customers, to sign contracts, to get out there doing assessments. And if you're not having a system to help you get more assessments and build more relationships, how are you actually spending your time? So for more information about Accelerate the Business of Ergonomics, head to our website. And you could also go to ergonomicshelp.com/biz. The big thing, one of the big reasons why I think this is so relevant to ergonomics consultants when we're talking about these five main objections is that, one of the big things that I think is so important that I'm gonna be addressing in today's episode is that we're actually talking about managing objections to ergonomics, and I'm giving you the things that probably your ideal client is gonna be caring about. So in order to share this information, manage those objections, it can move your conversation forward. And the really neat thing is you can use this as part of your marketing content. You can have this in a conversation when you're at the workplace with that client. There's so many benefits to getting into these five issues. So let's get into it So let's get on the same page here. I want to lay out one piece of research that I think is foundational to everything that we're gonna be talking about, and it's a Cornell University study, and it's from Alan Hedge. You probably know Alan Hedge because he's one of the, he's one of the most prominent figures in ergonomics. So what he did back in 2001, he looked at the effects of ergonomic interventions on musculoskeletal problems, and they found that a comprehensive ergonomic intervention, meaning the assessment plus equipment plus training, reduced musculoskeletal problems by 40%. 40%, that's huge. And here's the part of the finding that matters just as much. Equipment or training by itself, absolutely not, not effective And if you have been in the ergonomics industry for any period of time, you probably know this. You probably recognize this. If you're just coming in and you're not offering the full picture, if you're not diagnosing the issue based on the root cause analysis, offering equipment or training, you're not gonna get the full effect of what ergonomics can do we know that the companies that bought the sit-stand desks and did nothing else, obviously the research says that's not gonna be effective. It's gonna be a waste of money. The companies that ran the stretch and strengthen wellness programs and called it ergonomics, like a flavor of the month wellness, you know what I'm saying? Also not effective. We know that the only approach that produces meaningful outcomes is the comprehensive one. And the way you start this is by doing an office ergonomic assessment, or if you're in the industry, even more important because there's way more risks, an industrial ergonomics assessment I found a systematic review from 2025, and it's from the Journal of Clinical Medicine. They found that a multifaceted ergonomic intervention that includes physical, cognitive, and training-based strategies, this offers a way more comprehensive approach to MSD prevention than a single component by itself. A meta-analysis shows that the ergonomic intervention reduced MSD rates by 71% when implemented as part of a full, proper ergonomic program. And Blue Cross Blue Shield, after implementing a full ergonomics program with employee training, assessments, and equipment implementation, saw a 70% reduction in lost workdays and an 89% decline in workers' compensation costs. That's your ROI, and I wanna, like, put a little asterisk next to this information. You can use this content in your marketing funnel. Share this on social media. Connect with this with your ideal clients. Put this on your website. This proves the business case for ergonomics. Okay? So that's huge. A lot of us ergonomics professionals are the worst marketers out there in the world. And I'm sorry to say this, if this is like an honest truth pill right now, but we are not doing a great job of representing our skill set and the value add that we can bring to organizations out there. So if you do not have any of your own case studies or testimonials for your own work, just get this information from this podcast, put it on your website. Boom. That will help move the sale forward and represent what us, as ergonomics consultants, can truly do for an organization. So let's jump into these, these five factors that are really good indicators that a company needs an ergonomics assessment. The first sign is that they bought new equipment, but the complaints never stopped. So you've seen this scenario before, it's so familiar, whether there's new chairs, new keyboards, new monitors. People are still uncomfortable. They're still in pain. They are still complaining The company is trying to do something, right? They identify that there is a problem. They've invested money in trying to address it. But they've purchased equipment without knowing whether the equipment was actually the limiting factor, which means they spent real money on the wrong intervention I want to be really clear about something here, because I don't want to be dismissive of equipment. Good equipment matters. Adjustable chairs, really good. we all know the anthropometry studies, right? People are small and big, and there's no such thing as average across all anthropometric measurements. So we need to have things that are adjustable. And not only that, we need to have things in the proper placement as well, like monitor risers or, or like monitors, right? But equipment is only one variable in the ergonomic equation. If someone's sitting in a 500 buck chair, but it's set up wrong for their body, or if it's still in that smallest possible packing arrangement, in that box, then, you know for a fact they're probably gonna be sitting with the height too low, the backrest not supporting their lumbar curve, which is probably the most important feature of a chair, armrest not adjusted, and they're probably gonna be in, in as much pain as the old chair. But the thing is, while they probably needed a new chair, the chair didn't fail, it's just not adjusted. The setup failed. There's a huge opportunity for us. Let's dive into some research. Amick and colleagues makes this explicit. The combination of training with appropriate adjustable equipment is way better for working postures and musculoskeletal symptoms than either training or adjustable equipment alone. And you might be sitting there to yourself thinking, "Thank you, Captain Obvious." It is not obvious for a workplace, for a company. They are not experienced in this. They are busy. They are managing everything with the administrative aspects of a business. ergonomics can be the last thing that they're thinking of, and they don't have the expertise to deal with it. So this is way more common than you think So when you hear from a prospect, a client, they tell you that they bought the ergonomic chairs and it didn't help, your response shouldn't be, You bought the wrong chairs, you dummy." your response should be, "Equipment without setup is like a prescription without the dosing instructions." Bam. It might be exactly the right medication, but if no one told you how much to take and when, it won't work the way that it should. And that's what the assessment does. For ergo consultants, this is probably gonna be the most common entry point into working with a company. The companies probably were very frustrated. However, they are willing to invest. They've already tried to solve the problem. They just solved it out of order. So to me, that means that that conversation is more warm than cold, and it's probably gonna be a lot easier to book that client, get them to sign that contract. Let's move on to number two, the same body parts keep popping up. This is really relevant for more of the industrial, more physically heavy types of work. if the same body parts are still coming up, and I'm talking about broadly for, a various position when multiple people are doing the same type of job, whether it's neck and shoulders or lower back, when multiple employees, not just one, multiple report pain is in the same body regions it's really not a coincidence. That's something that is building a case that an ergonomics assessment is really important. From a more sedentary situation like computer work folks, office ergonomics, this is still relevant, especially if an organization has bought the same type of equipment for multiple employees. And if they are still coming up with neck or shoulder, lower back, or wrist issues, then that's a huge sign that something needs to be addressed It's a common exposure. Something in the work design, the workstation configuration, the task demands, or the environmental factors that's creating some sort of ergonomic risk that is surpassing the tissue's tolerance level As an ergonomics consultant, this is something that can be very powerful. One way that you can use this is to use a triage document, like a discomfort survey, to kind of figure out what exactly is going on in an organization, especially if they have never received any help with ergonomics before. However, some companies do already track this information, and if they don't and they're just receiving complaints from employees, that's a real situation too that needs to be dived in. The point that I was making there, sometimes companies don't realize that discomfort is an issue. However, if a company is reaching out to you as an ergonomics consultant asking for help, one thing that I might recommend you move forward with, if that company is triaging discomfort survey, and that will let you know if this is a more of a systematic issue than just a one-off And that can totally steer the direction of the situation, and also it's data. And if you are analyzing data, that's something that they can pay for. So it helps with cash flow as well In the US alone, MSDs account for one-third of all workplace injuries, costing employers an estimated $50 billion annually. In the EU, 30% to 80% of workers in physically demanding jobs report MSD complaints. In office settings, neck, shoulder, and lower back are the most commonly affected regions due to prolonged sitting and poor workstation setup. With discomfort that pops up, the body part pattern tells us something specific about what to look for, and this is something that I really think is very interesting. as an ergonomics professional, what I really am constantly intrigued with is that the body part pattern that you get from doing a discomfort survey or if that workplace does their own discomfort type of things, it gives us something to look for. So if you're seeing like neck and upper shoulder complaints, that usually means that something is just too high in that workstation. Implications for an office setup could be like the monitor height or the screen distance, things like that. It's just too high. Keyboard tray nonexistent or working from the desk height that's too high, higher than a neutral posture. Wrist and hand complaints could means there's something going on with the hand working height, whether it's a keyboard or how high that workstation is relative to their neutral elbow height. Lower back complaints can mean things are a little bit too high, or they're not getting enough support in a chair, or they're just spending too much time sitting. It's really interesting to just have pre-made hypothesis before going into that ergonomics conversation, whether it's with the client or, with that individual employee. But this is the important part with looking at these patterns. The pattern alone doesn't tell you the cause with certainty. That is what the assessment is for. This pattern in the discomfort survey is just like a ninja hack for hypothesis to save you time in an assessment and to build a case to why a company might want to work with you And for consultants, this factor is the best argument for why a discomfort survey should be one of the first things any ergonomics intervention or program implements. Before you touch a single workstation, survey the workforce, find out where the pain is, map it up against job function, department, and task. The map is worth more than any single workstation modification because it gives you direction. It builds a business case. It shows you where the highest risk exposures live and what to focus on first the next thing that we're moving on I think is very interesting because I've certainly seen this often, often, often. It's my personal favorite to spot during a walkthrough, whether it's industry or office, because it's incredibly telling once you know what you're looking at, and it's that employees are building their own fixes. And I'm sure you can reflect on your own consulting career up to this point and some really creative solutions because those employees are the experts. It could be cardboard boxes under monitors, stacked reams of paper raising a laptop to eye level or under the feet, or a travel pillow repurposed as a wrist rest These are a major sign that workstation, it just doesn't fit and in absence of a proper solution, they have this Band-Aid makeshift solution to improve their comfort level In ergonomics, we call this worker adaptation. And while worker adaptation is a sign of human ingenuity People are incredibly clever at finding workarounds. It's also a sign of systematic failure. The workstation was not designed or configured to fit the person, and rather than that system being fixed, the person patched it The problem is the patch solutions are rarely the best biomechanical solutions, and often the risk factors are still present, but that person is just a little bit more comfortable And more importantly, the presence of an improvised fix tells you that the employee recognized a problem, wanted to solve it, but had no access to a proper solution or process or resources. So that's a bigger conversation that comes up, that it's a workplace culture and system, and system signal And that's something to think about and have a conversation with that person who's managing HR or safety at that organization. What happens to a person who says that they have aches and pain at a workstation? Do they get help? Do they know who to contact? Is there any possibility of an early intervention? The next thing that I wanna talk about is that complaints that span multiple departments This is a really interesting fact because we're changing it from just an individual type of response to more of a systematic response. And it could be that the solution might point to an ergonomics process. So let's say in that last example, someone is complaining of discomfort. They fixed it themselves because they didn't know what resources were available. This would be a really good qualification to that. So if something happens, who does that employee contact? Is there any possibility of getting an early intervention? and from an equipment standpoint, is it making sense that random things were purchased in random departments, and everyone who has complaints has the same equipment? That's something to consider And it's something in how that organization approaches workstation setup, buying equipment, onboarding or training is producing the same problem across different populations in different physical spaces. And a really common systematic cause for this would be like a one-size-fits-all equipment approach that doesn't account for the range of body sizes and job requirements across a workforce, or an onboarding process that doesn't include workstation setup guidance, or an IT policy that restricts monitor placement options or dictates desk configurations for reasons unrelated to ergonomics think this last example I have seen so often in certain fields. It's a facilities management approach that prioritizes aesthetics or floor space over workstation adjustability. I have seen this so often, especially in new, modern, sleek workplaces. None of these are individual problems. All of them produce individual complaints, and the only way to identify which systematic issue is driving the pattern is a systematic assessment For us, it could be that we're looking at a cross-departmental complaint, and that's probably gonna be, like, the strongest indicator that we're looking at a program need here. And, if there's any possibility of you getting that information, that would be huge And really, when you're in a conversation with an HR director or a safety manager about cross-departmental complaints, I wouldn't say something like, "I'll come in and fix the workstations." Instead, consider saying something like this, that we're looking at an organizational ergonomics problem, not just an individual workstation problem. and the solution is a structured program that identifies the root cause and builds the organizational capacity to address it consistently. Okay? So that's something that is more valuable to that workplace, because we're not talking about expensive solutions here. We're just talking about how we can go about reducing injuries before they occur in a simple process. It doesn't need to be rocket science. Okay, we're on to number five. Many ways this is the most important because you're not sure what's exactly causing the problem. Is it the chair? Is it the desk height? The monitor? The way work is organized? If you're guessing, you're probably spending money on the wrong things, and the organizations I see doing this, and I see it often, are spending real money, and the interventions are, aren't working. Nothing's working. This is what we're looking at as one of my favorite things to recommend, and it's the ergonomics without an assessment. It's not that these organizations are irresponsible. They're doing what seems logical, right? So it could be that equipment looks like the problem because people are sitting in really old chairs. Or training looks like the solution because people say they don't know how to set up their workstations. But without a structured assessment, they're just guessing. And in complex ergonomic situations, educated guesses are often wrong The research on this is clear Meta-analysis shows that ergonomic interventions alone without proper assessment may only have a small effect on MSD outcomes. The reason is exactly this. Interventions applied without the proper diagnosis only addresses the symptom, not the cause, and workplaces need to know that And obviously if there's a Band-Aid solution put on the situation and the cause isn't addressed, the symptom's just going to come back For ergonomics consultants, I think this is probably the most universal thing that comes up They are managing complaints reactively. They are making purchasing decisions based on intuition rather than data, and that is not a good call. They're just guessing So the value proposition in this situation is not about not spending money anymore. They can spend money on their employees. We're not gonna stop that. We just want them to spend smarter. And the assessment doesn't add cost to the ergonomics program, it just reduces the waste. It identifies which interventions will actually work for the specific workforce in this specific environment, and it produces data that allows you to measure whether the intervention worked, which means the client can see clearly what they got for their investment The companies that have been guessing for years are often more receptive than you'd expect because they're exhausted by this vicious cycle. They've tried things, they don't work, people complain, and they're just like scratching their head thinking what else can they do? And that's where you come in So as I close this episode, I want to tie things together practically, cause I wanna leave you today with something that you can use and get more paying clients, help you with marketing, build better relationships. And these five things here, they're not just random aspects that I thought up about. They're thoughtful conversation starters You can use this in a LinkedIn post that speaks directly to an HR director or safety manager who's, like, currently in the weeds in this situation. Maybe this is something that you can use in a cold outreach email. If you're not marketing, then who knows that you exist? The thing that I think is really important when delivering content in marketing is that we're not trying to make the hard sell in ergonomics here. We're just sharing symptoms that someone might be in this situation and they need ergonomics We're talking to the symptoms The fun fact with this episode is it's actually a lead magnet that I've already designed. This lead magnet is only accessible through Accelerate: The Business of Ergonomics, and this is available in three separate sizes. It's called Five Signs Your Workplace Needs an Ergonomic Assessment. Many of our members will use this as a LinkedIn post or or an Instagram post. Others will use this as a landing page lead magnet. so an HR professional wants to know more about these five issues that leads to an ergonomic issue or leads to an ergonomic assessment, and they give you a value exchange for that email so that they can download that lead magnet. This is something that is simple, it's high value, and the reason why it's an accelerate is that you can put your logo on the bottom of this and use it like it's yours for all extensive purposes. There's nothing on this to say that Ergonomics Help developed it, and you can just get out there and start marketing so you're not losing countless hours in busy work. You can build those relationships, get those clients, and do more ergonomics assessments Sign up at ergonomicshelp.com/biz. Go to our website, see information about Accelerate the Business of Ergonomics. This program is gonna help you get more clients in, save more time, and become that go-to ergonomics expert that your city needs The second thing I want you to consider is to use that 40% stat that we talked about in this episode in every proposal you write. The comprehensive ergonomic intervention, so that's the assessment plus equipment plus training, this reduces musculoskeletal problems by 40%. Equipment alone is not effective. and if you wanna go deeper on building your ergonomics consulting practice, the language, the proposals, the business system, head to ergonomicshelp.com/biz to get on the wait list for Accelerate the Business of Ergonomics. I would love to have you in there. Thanks for listening. I'll see you in the next episode