Ergonomics affects all working environments. Body mechanics and ergonomic best practices go hand in hand. Many injuries reported involve poor body mechanics. Applying ergonomic best practices to your work tasks will help support proper body alignment while performing tasks such as walking, standing, sitting, or lifting. In many cases, this helps limit the risk of serious injury relating to body movement and complacency. State and federal resources exist in support of ergonomic best practices. The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are two of the most common resources. These entities offer insight into industry best practices at no charge. More information may be found in the SORM’s TERM Guidelines.
Ergonomic Assessments
SORM does not currently offer a training course in ergonomics; however, we support our state agencies with ergonomic workstation assessments. Ergonomic workstation assessments do not include a review of medical conditions.
SORM assessments evaluate your workstation against ergonomic best practices only. We take measurements specific to the individual’s workstation and make recommendations to help employees achieve ergonomic comfort while working.
Scheduling an Assessment
If you want to schedule an assessment, please email the Enterprise Risk Management Consultant assigned to work with your agency. Once we have received your request, we will confirm that we are cleared to perform the assessment with your agency’s Risk Manager.
Here are a few things we will need to schedule your assessment:
- Name and Contact Information for the person to be assessed
- Functional Job Description showing the physical requirements of your job
- Name, position, and phone number of the person requesting the assessment (such as Sally Jo, HR Director, 512-123-4568)
- Proposed date, time, and location of assessment (please provide three dates and times)* – Note: We do not perform ergonomic workstation assessments in remote home offices.
Please note that we try to schedule your assessment within 45 days of receiving your request.
*Assessments require a dedicated date and time with no other work functions occurring. This allows us to provide a more comprehensive assessment that is better suited to identifying ergonomic areas of improvement. If your assessment is delayed by more than 15 minutes, we will reschedule the assessment.
What’s Next
We will coordinate scheduling your assessment and confirm the date, time, location, and other information, such as check-in requirements. If you need to cancel and reschedule your assessment, please send an email within 48 hours, if possible.
Once your assessment has been completed, we will send your risk manager and the person who assessed it a report with ergonomic recommendations.