Articles

Recurring stressors inflict many impacts on employees, management, processes, collaboration and of course the bottom line – but how does stress accelerate the development of Musculoskeletal Disorders and why are employers assessing the risk and implementing mitigation programs?

A recent study, among a growing number with similar findings, confirms that an integral component of employee ergonomic risk is their behavior, in particular, how the employee works (or not) in neutral postures, provides recovery time while working and breaks up deleterious sedentary behaviors and static postures with meaningful movement.

A recently published Cleveland Clinic study “Habits of Mentally Healthy People” found remarkable impacts on people’s mental health from taking multiple brief breaks throughout the day for activities that relieve stress, depression, and/or anxiety.

It seems we’re all hearing startling news every week including global inflation, climate-change impacts, how our personal buying power decreases weekly and more. Employers too are navigating acute challenges including supply-chain disturbances, ever-increasing fuel costs, navigating The Great Resignation and more.

The recent abrupt evolution of the “Employee Value Proposition” and “How Work Gets Done” have catalyzed employers into rethinking their Workscape as the logical next step after Return To Work projects. For the vast majority of employers, this extends beyond the physical, as it’s about comfort, safety and productivity.

Today, almost all employers are embracing the “Hybrid” work model for their employees who perform their work using their computers. Recently, before the pandemic, the deleterious effects of sedentary behavior and static posture had recently been red-flagged by the AMA, WHO, HSE and NIH who’ve each identified sedentary behaviors as a significant risk factor for serious negative health outcomes.