Ergonomic audit – IT dept of local authority 

A medium sized council asked enricoSmog ergonomic practitioners to carry out an ergonomic assessment of their IT dept. As staff were reporting musculoskeletal discomfort and pain. There was also a high incidence of absence and high staff turnover.

Each staff member was assessed, and a task analysis carried out. One of the main tasks was to upgrade laptop and desktop systems, other tasks included dealing with network issues. In all cases  a lack of workspace and cramp working conditions was found to be the main culprits.

A number of suggestions were made, the main one  was to remove the large volume of equipment off the DSE users desks and onto computer racks, where it was easier to test between 8-10 laptops at a time. The large desktops could be placed on  bespoke workspace.

Equipment redundancy was achieved by using a switchbox to allow access for 6-10 machines using just one monitor, keyboard and mouse.