A day in the lives of two ergonomists

Have you ever wondered what our ergonomists do while we are on-site with a client all day? Here is the story of one real day at an “On-Site Ergo +” (OSE+) client, with Carrie and Danielle.

Danielle is the “novice” ergonomist who works with this client two days per week; Danielle interned with us after completing the post-graduate diploma program at Fanshawe, and she started with us full-time in July. She does most of the leg work for the program. Carrie started out one day per week at this client, but now visits every second week, to direct the program, review draft reports (QC), and provide mentorship for Danielle. Carrie also provides technical support for work that is beyond the scope of a novice ergonomist, until she is trained to complete these types of projects.

Danielle’s day

8:00 set up computer, and and check in with Carrie and Safety Manager
8:30 ergo project #34 biomechanical analysis
9:00 audit meet with Carrie, Safety Manager and JHSC Co-chair
11:00 ergo project #34 ask supervisors if they received the ergo survey back from workers
11:12 ergo project #34 input survey data obtained
11:30 ergo project #34 arm force field data analysis
12:37 ergo project #34 recommended cumulative recovery analysis data analysis
14:00 ergo project #34 compile recommendations
16:00 program meet with Carrie re goals for next 3 days
16:10 ergo project #34 compile recommendations
16:30 pack up

 

Carrie’s day

7:45 set up, and open audit docs
8:05 program meet with Danielle to set priorities for today, check in with Safety Manager
8:30 audit set up template report for audit
8:50 program email follow up on outstanding recommendations
9:00 audit meet with Danielle, Safety Manager and JHSC Co-chair
11:00 audit start to complete audit report
12:35 program make a sign for ergo contest rollout
13:00 ergo project #25 meet with engineer to identify implementation plan, and email information to him
13:40 audit create workplace inspection checklist “ergo” criteria
14:05 ergo project #34 review analysis results for Danielle
14:20 ergo project #34 meet to review approach with Danielle
14:30 program create template recommendations log for danielle to populate
14:45 audit finish draft audit report and send to Safety Manager
15:55 program email request for injury statistics to be sent monthly
16:00 program meet with Danielle to plan for next week
16:10 ergo training identify appropriate core presentation to edit for 3 target groups identified in audit (employees, supervisors, JHSC)
16:30 pack up

When we’re running an ergonomics program on a part-time basis, sometimes we wish we could accelerate progress by coming every day. But we’ve found that most clients need the days between our visits to digest our reports, trial products, and get surveys filled out. One or two days/week is a perfect service rate for our mid-sized clients, with 200-1000 employees.

Our OSE+ program is meant to launch with a high volume of “entry level” projects such as physical and cognitive demands analyes (PCDAs), office assessments, or best practice projects. The novice ergonomist is trained to handle these projects, and the senior ergonomist provides the training and quality control, program leadership (audits, goal setting), and technical support. Danielle has been completing the PCDAs for this client, and we regularly meet with the return-to-work coordinator, to ensure that reports that are needed for accommodation and claims management are prioritized for completion. Danielle has recently started to take more responsibility for ergonomics (risk) assessments and, soon, employee ergo training. She’s progressing on-track toward managing an ergonomics program independently. Soon enough, she’ll be mentoring a new batch of novices!

If you have questions about how an ergonomist could help you, please get in touch with carrie@taylordergo.com! OSE+ programs (with novices) launch in July and August, but we start planning in January. Don’t miss out.

(OSE programs with our experienced ergonomists can launch at any time.)

(Curious how we accounted for every minute? Activity logging is part of our process – the client always knows how our time is spent.)

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