Employees are not just bodies performing tasks: they are also people, with emotions, opinions, attitudes and thoughts.
However many jobs are not designed with an awareness of employees as thinking, feeling people. Job design which does not take psychosocial factors into account tends to have poor injury management and return to work outcomes.
As well as leading to stress – a health hazard in its own right – psychosocial risk factors can contribute to musculoskeletal conditions. Stress-related changes in the body (such as increased muscle tension) can make people more susceptible to musculoskeletal problems. Another poor outcome is when individuals change their behavior as a result of stress and do things like skipping rest breaks in an attempt to cope with deadlines.
The following ergonomic principles offer suggestions as to how organisations can address psychosocial risk factors: how, in other words, organisations can use ergonomics to look after people.
Organisations should…
| • | Ensure that, upon return to work after injury, modified duties are meaningful and useful. |
| • | Enable workers to exert control over their work and work methods. |
| • | Allow workers to make use of their skills. |
| • | As a rule, involve workers in decisions that affect them. |
| • | Avoid situations in which workers only carry out repetitive, monotonous tasks without rotation. |
| • | Allow workers some control over their pace of work. |
| • | Ensure that work demands are not perceived as excessive. |
| • | Avoid payment systems that encourage people to work too quickly or without breaks. |
| • | Develop work systems that allow opportunities for social interaction. |
| • | Balance high levels of effort with sufficient reward, for example resources, remuneration, self-esteem and status. |
Still sceptical about the RTW benefits of addressing psychosocial issues?
The experts concur that psychosocial issues have a huge impact on RTW outcomes.
“International research has shown that psychosocial and other risk factors are far more important in predicting which injured employees will fail to recover or return to work following a workplace injury, than are physical factors such as the nature of the injury.
These risk factors (sometimes called flags) include an individual’s belief and perceptions (for example about pain and injury), and perceived features of the work or social environment (such as unsupportive management, perceived time pressure or low job control).
These risk factors, together with practices in medicine, employment and compensation systems, can lead employees to experience periods of incapacity that can be quite disproportionate to the nature of their injury."
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