Audit of staff with musculoskeletal disorders in large county council

We were asked to carry out an ergonomic audit of all County Council staff that had previous assessments by Access to Work and other workstation assessors for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), or who had been given specific equipment such as ball chairs, alternate mice, and assistive software which was not picked up by inexperienced Display Screen Equipment (DSE) assessors.

The ergonomic audit found a number of problems, i.e. equipment that was wrongly specified by outside advisors, equipment that was not setup correctly, the accessibility of parts of the building were poor and for some staff no PEEP had been put in place. As such a comprehensive ergonomic assessment was undertaken.

An ergonomic audit is essential for organisations that have had a number of different risk assessors carry msds assessments, or employ staff with special requirements. The objective of this assessment is to ensure that the County Council is meeting its legal and moral obligations and is able to demonstrate that it is proactive in its use of ergonomics in safeguarding its workforce.