Prevention of Injuries in the Workplace of sedentary workers

We see a lot of people coming into the practice who’s injuries have been prevented with a few easy steps. From a business owner’s or employers’ point of view, it’s important to try and prevent injuries from happening – as this can be quite costly to the business. Your employee might be out of the workplace for some time, which will reduce productivity and end up costing more for Workers’ compensation insurance. There’s also the risk of your employee suing you in the event that their injury could have been prevented.

Simple things like maintaining a safe workspace include making sufficient space for people to be able to move around safely. Keeping floors free from trip hazards, ensuring that any hard flooring is non-slip and dry, and securing any objects that could potentially move if leaned on or bumped. These types of precautions will help to prevent injuries like falling over, tripping over things, and so on.

another important factor is to ensure that all equipment in the workplace is in good working order. For example, if an office chair has a faulty gas lift, it could mean that the person using the chair is either sitting too high, too low – or even worse, may have the chair suddenly lower without warning, resulting in a spinal jarring.

While good chairs for office workers are key, good chairs for any workers who are required to sit are essential. This is in order to maintain the support of the spine and posture. Having the correct desk height is also essential, as this will help avoid postural stresses caused by maintaining postures that are not aligned well.

Many offices now offer their workers stand up desks or sit-stand desks that can be used in either position. This change in posture avoids accumulation stressors on the body, which in turn helps to prevent neck or lower back strains.

Additionally, it’s essential for anyone working at a desk to get up and walk away every hour in order to get some movement back into the body. This will relieve any stress that has built up in the body as a result of their working posture. Another way to avoid repetitive workplace injury is to ensure that your employees have a variety of tasks to do so that they are not repeating the same action all of the time. This will prevent accumulation stressors arising and help to prevent injury from occurring.

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Office workers should have access to a place where they are able to perform a few exercises that will help them carry out their duties safely, and that will help to eliminate any built-up stress that has accumulated in their muscles or joints. An exercise program designed by a physiotherapist to help your employees maintain strength, fitness, and postural integrity can reduce the number of sick days your employees take, and may even help productivity.

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Corporate Wellness 5 - Prevention of Injuries in the Workplace of sedentary workers

If you need assistance, an assessment of the work environment by a qualified physiotherapist can go a long way in identifying any issues. It can also be beneficial for the physiotherapist to assess all of the employees in the workplace. They can identify any problems with movement weaknesses, range of motion, posture, or anything else to do with the body. This can then be corrected allowing the employee to be able to perform their job in more comfort and with less risk of injury.

Additionally, an experienced physiotherapist will be able to identify risk factors with regard to individual workers. A program of general exercise is great for creating a culture of health within the workplace and also will help to maintain strength, range of motion, posture and endurance of all your employees. This program could be as simple as 10 minute pf exercise per day that your employees can do on site, which helps prevent injuries and days lost in sick leave due to pain.

To organise an assessment on your workplace, to reduce the of injuries in the workplace call us on 07 3278 1186.

corp injury - Prevention of Injuries in the Workplace of sedentary workers

Prevention of Injuries in the Office workplace

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What all workers should know about injuries and rehabilitation

As most office workers come in with injuries connected to their posture, correction and strengthening is the key. Most will complain of neck pain or strained eyes if their computers are not positioned correctly. Neck strengthening exercises are vital for these clients. We have also found that a pain prevention “Tool Kit” in the workplace can be helpful.

This Tool Kit comprises of:

a Neck Tek and pilates ball to help strengthen the neck and upper back
resistance bands to help strengthen the glutes (as those who work a lot at a desk are at risk of weakened glutes and are predisposed to lower back pain)
a swiss ball to help maintain spinal mobility.

The Graceville Physio Pain Slayers are experts in designing programs to help your most important asset, your employees, remain happy, active, and pain-free.