Digitizing Ergonomics: How Wearable Tech Revolutionizes Workplace Safety

Blog by: Alexa Shelley, Associate Ergonomist and Customer Success Manager

 

In the ever-evolving landscape of workplace health and safety, professionals are constantly seeking innovative ways to enhance their ergonomics programs. The rapid advancement of technology has enabled health and safety practitioners to digitize their approach in a way once deemed impossible. At the heart of this digital transformation lies a multi-point wearable solution: LifeBooster. 

LifeBooster’s solution is a  game-changer that collects and analyzes motion, posture, heat stress, and vibration data against trusted risk standards. This article will review various aspects of ergonomics programs: risk assessments, baselines and analysis, tool comparison, and return to work. You’ll find that the solution to many challenges in ergonomic programs lies in embracing groundbreaking wearable technology.

 

Digitizing Risk Assessments

Traditional methods of assessing and prioritizing risk face a number of challenges, including:

  • Assessor subjectivity, where different approaches or tools lead to inconsistent assessments.
  • Varied interpretations of data, which introduces an element of inconsistency in results and contributes to generic and imprecise risk prioritization.
  • One-to-one approach, where a single assessor can only conduct one assessment at a time, making data collection cumbersome and unscalable.
  • Inaccessibility of specific areas (small, crowded or high-risk zones) to assessors, or increased barriers to assessors that further reduces the number and quality of assessments.

LifeBooster emerges as a solution that addresses these challenges by minimizing assessor dependency and fundamentally transforming the risk assessment process.

  • Digitally-powered risk assessments remove the influence of subjective judgments, ensuring more objective and uniform assessments across an organization.
  • LifeBooster’s advanced analytics platform also enables a uniform analysis across an organization’s data, allowing for precise and specific risk prioritization.
  • Use of remote multi-point wearables allows assessors to simultaneously conduct assessments across an organization, with little involvement.
  • The small, unobtrusive wearables are also IP54 rated (protection against dust and splashes) and operate under temperatures of -20°C to +55°C, allowing them to be used in a variety of environments where a traditional assessor would have difficulty.

As a whole, LifeBooster’s solution solves many of the challenges traditional risk assessments face, providing organizations with a holistic understanding of risks across various work environments and sectors of the business. Assessors spend less time to collect more data, and the analytics platform brings a new level of precision and reliability to the process.

 

Risk Baselining, Analysis, and Prioritization

Wearable technology and data analytics platforms have revolutionized risk management, transcending limits of generic assessments by providing a multifaceted view that allows for prioritization at various levels, comparisons across different contexts, and the identification of outliers to inform targeted interventions.

With the ability to collect mass amounts of data, it is now possible to establish a baseline across an array of risk factors. This baseline and a continued assessment of these risk factors allows health and safety professionals to compare and prioritize risk between different parameters, including:

  • Facilities
  • Departments
  • Job types
  • Individual workers
  • Specific tasks
  • Workstation types
  • Equipment
  • Exposure type
  • Demand severity

Health and safety professionals are able to use a baseline in order to identify deviations from the norm, such as specific tasks that are a higher risk, and design programs to effectively mitigate those risks.  The baseline comparisons can also identify low-risk outliers, which is  invaluable in identifying training gaps and discerning best practices.

The ability to baseline and perform comparative analysis enables tailored risk mitigation programs. It’s a quantum leap forward, empowering health and safety professionals to craft strategies that are not only accurate and efficient but also tailored to the unique dynamics of their work environments.

 

Comparison and Validation of Tools, Equipment, or Training Protocols

Selecting the appropriate tools, equipment, or training protocols is pivotal for fostering a safe and productive work environment. LifeBooster enables health and safety professionals to go beyond mere selection – it facilitates the validation of chosen tools and methods through leading-edge data. By systematically collecting data on tool usage, postures during specific tasks, and their impact on users, professionals can make informed decisions about the most suitable tools or protocols for their distinctive work environment.

Such changes often come with significant upfront costs and potential challenges, but LifeBooster enables effective change management in a number of ways:

  • Risk assessments help decision-makers understand the need for change. By providing concrete data, health and safety professionals can show decision-makers the numbers behind the proposal whilst demonstrating the risk of maintaining the status quo.
  • Readily available data allows professionals to anticipate and manage potential challenges associated with change. The availability of this data allows professionals to proactively address ergonomic challenges, optimize workspace design, and ensure that changes are implemented in a manner that supports both employee health and organizational goals, ultimately leading to smoother transitions during periods of change.
  • Validation of risk controls enables further support for health and safety programs. The ability to compare risk before and after the implementation of a risk control allows professionals to demonstrate its effectiveness and build more support for other programs.

In summary, LifeBooster goes beyond empowering professionals in tool and protocol selection; it transforms the way these changes are approached in the workplace. By providing data to justify business cases, seamlessly integrate change management processes, and validate risk controls wearable technology becomes an essential in the pursuit of a safer, more efficient, and adaptive work environment.

 

Return to Work Programs

The intricacies of return-to-work programs become more streamlined with the integration of technology, and wearable devices are invaluable tools in this domain. In the context of a gradual return and accommodation needs, LifeBooster offers a revolutionary approach:

  • Data analysis enables the categorization of jobs or tasks based on joint-specific risks. For an employee recovering from a shoulder injury, this platform can filter all job tasks related to shoulder risk. This level of precision allows health and safety professionals to pinpoint suitable tasks for the individual’s gradual return, ensuring that they start with responsibilities aligned with their physical capabilities.
  • Individualized risk profiles allow professionals to offer continuous support and avoid re-injury. By collecting individualized data, professionals can optimize the return-to-work plan, ensuring that each step is aligned with the employee’s unique situation.
  • Advanced data analysis will inform future return-to-work programs. Being able to aggregate and compare data from individuals returning to work will allow professionals to develop programs that meet the needs of future employees more effectively. 

The incorporation of technology in return-to-work programs is a game-changer. Beyond benefiting the individual employee, it significantly contributes to the overall success of the initiative. This tech-enabled precision not only enhances the employee’s experience during the return but also fosters a culture of adaptability and innovation within the broader context of workplace health and safety.

For more information on how to build a successful return to work program, visit the Loss Control Learning Center.

 

Conclusion

In the digital age, the landscape of ergonomics programs is undergoing a profound transformation. Health and safety professionals are discovering new avenues to enhance workplace safety, and LifeBooster is at the forefront of this revolution. By digitizing risk assessments, baselining and prioritizing risks, comparing tools and training protocols, and optimizing return-to-work programs, LifeBooster is proving to be the key to a safer and more efficient workplace.

 

As we celebrate these advancements, it’s important to acknowledge the role of wearable technology in shaping the future of ergonomics. The powerful integration of motion, posture, heat, and vibration data collection, coupled with the analysis against trusted risk standards, sets the stage for a new era in workplace safety. So, as health and safety professionals embark on their journey to digitize differently, let wearable technology be the silent hero that ensures a safer, healthier, and more productive work environment for all.

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