Infographic: How You Can Minimise Back Pain at Workplace

This infographic titled ‘Back Pain: the Leading Cause of Disability’ tells us about how different parts of the spine are affected by pain. It also tells us how employers can minimise situations that can lead to back pain among employees. Back pain means loss of manpower in the form of leaves, training replacement employees and rising healthcare costs. More worryingly, back pain is the leading cause of disability. In terms of simple productivity, it means that you can lose a valuable employee.

Creating a healthy environment for employees, on the other hand, ensures that they are physically at their best. It increases their productivity and brings you goodwill. Remember, a healthy employee is a happy employee and a happy employee is a productive employee. There are some simple measures you can take to ensure this:

Stay active: Encourage employees to stay active. Exercising is the best way to stay fit and ensure their muscles are in good shape. Exercise can also help in maintaining the right body weight, which reduces the strain on the spine.

Report: Encourage staff to report symptoms of back pain immediately. Most back pains can be treated with simple measures, provided one acts quickly. When your employees report any such problems, encourage them to seek out a doctor’s opinion as soon as possible. Check up on their progress to ensure that the problem does not worsen.

Design: A number of back pain troubles arise at the workplace because of bad design. Uncomfortable seats or tables at the wrong height can play havoc with the posture and the spine. Just incorporating measures like ergonomic design can make a huge difference.

Educate: Educating people about their posture, symptoms of back pains and tactics to deal with them is equally important. It is the first step in preventive techniques. You can ask experts to hold informative sessions and workshops.

Clean: The last thing you want is someone slipping and hurting their back. Make sure the office is clean and free of any potentially hazardous items.

Medical assistance: If an employee does complain of exceptionally severe back pain, call for medical assistance immediately.

For more ideas, please refer to the infographic below.