Office ergonomics programs. A case study of North American corporations

Abstract

Subject matter experts from 13 North American corporations provided detailed descriptions of the historical development and the current components and operations of their office ergonomics programs. Results were summarized across corporations and presented for the following programmatic topics: backgrounds of key people, initial awareness and preliminary needs assessment, program development, program implementation, program monitoring and evaluation, program components, education and training, workstation and job analysis, early identification of cases, case management, and alternate office environments. The subject matter experts also provided comments about the strengths of their programs, their advice to others, and lessons they learned. These observations suggested the need for an office ergonomics program, and possibly other occupational health programs, to fit into a corporation's culture and capitalize on its infrastructure. Most corporations used multidisciplinary task forces or teams to develop their programs. Communication, which included training, awareness, advertising, and feedback, was also an important issue. Flexibility and simplicity were important attributes of these programs. It is hoped that this descriptive information will be helpful to some occupational health managers interested in or concerned about managerial perspectives and skills related to the development and implementation of programs within their own corporations.