When to Get an Ergonomic Assessment

Ergonomics is often associated with adjusting a chair, raising a monitor, improving posture, or choosing equipment labelled “ergonomic.” These changes can be useful, but how do you know when to get an ergonomic assessment?

Basic ergonomic guidance is a useful starting point. Employees can adjust their equipment, change the position of frequently used items, vary their posture, and discuss workplace concerns with their supervisor. The University of Toronto’s Environmental Health & Safety program, for example, uses training and workstation self-assessment as initial steps for office ergonomics. If concerns continue after changes have been made, further ergonomic assistance may be appropriate.

When straightforward adjustments do not resolve the concern (or when the work involves multiple interacting risk factors) it may be time to look more closely at the work itself and consider an ergonomic assessment.

What is an Ergonomic Assessment?

An ergonomic assessment examines the relationship between a worker, the tasks they perform, the equipment they use, and the environment in which the work occurs.

It is not simply a checklist to determine whether someone has the “right” chair. Instead, an assessment asks a broader question:

How well does the work fit the person performing it?

Depending on the workplace and task, an ergonomic assessment may consider:

physical demands and repetitive movements;

forceful exertion;

awkward or sustained postures;

lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling;

workstation dimensions and layout;

tools and equipment;

reach distances and working heights;

frequency and duration of exposure;

work procedures and organization; and

the conditions under which the work is performed.

A professional assessment therefore looks beyond a symptom and considers the work that may be contributing to the concern.

The issue may not be one isolated factor. Ergonomic risk can involve a combination of force, repetition, posture, duration, equipment, and work organization.

That is where a more detailed assessment can provide information that a generic checklist cannot.

When Does a Workplace Need an Ergonomic Assessment?

Not every ergonomic concern requires a professional assessment. For straightforward office concerns, training, workstation guidance, employee self-assessment, and reasonable adjustments may be appropriate first steps.

A more detailed assessment may be worth considering when:

concerns continue after reasonable adjustments have been made;

employees repeatedly report discomfort associated with a task;

work involves significant repetition or force;

employees regularly lift, carry, push, or pull materials;

awkward or sustained postures are part of the task;

several ergonomic risk factors occur together;

multiple employees performing the same work report similar concerns;

new equipment, workstations, or processes are being introduced;

previous controls have not adequately addressed the concern; or

the organization does not have the internal expertise to properly evaluate the task.

Consider a warehouse employee transferring boxes from floor-level pallets onto a conveyor throughout the day. Telling the employee to “lift properly” addresses only one part of the situation. An assessment could examine the weight and dimensions of the load, lifting frequency, starting and ending heights, reach distance, twisting, pallet configuration, workflow, and whether mechanical assistance is practical. The resulting solution could involve changing the work rather than simply asking the employee to change their technique.

An ergonomics specialist assesses work and workplace demands and does not, by itself, diagnose the medical cause of a worker’s pain or establish that a workplace caused a specific medical condition.

Instead, it helps employers answer this question:

What demands are present in this job, what ergonomic risk factors may exist, and what practical changes could reduce those demands?

What an Ergonomics Specialist Does

A professional ergonomic assessment differs from information found in an online video, poster, or workstation checklist because it examines a specific worker-task-workplace relationship.

The assessment often begins with observation. A job description might state that an employee performs “material handling.” Watching the work could reveal much more: the employee lifts from below knee level, reaches across a pallet, turns while carrying the load, places it at another height, and repeats the movement many times throughout the shift. Those details help the specialist understand how risk factors interact. Workers themselves are also an important source of information. They may identify difficult parts of the task, periods of higher workload, equipment limitations, activities associated with fatigue or discomfort, and adjustments they have already tried. The specialist can then examine factors such as repetition, force, posture, duration, material handling, vibration, equipment design, reach distances, working heights, loads, and workflow. Recommendations then depend on what the assessment finds. They might include changing workstation dimensions, relocating materials, adjusting working heights, changing tools or equipment, reducing unnecessary reaching or force, introducing mechanical assistance, modifying material-handling methods, improving adjustability, or changing aspects of workflow.

This reinforces one of the most important principles in workplace ergonomics:

The solution should not automatically be to ask the worker to behave differently when the work itself can reasonably be improved.

Basic ergonomic advice remains valuable. But when concerns persist, work is physically demanding, or several risk factors interact, generic recommendations may not tell an employer enough about what is actually happening.

A professional ergonomic assessment provides a closer look at the work, identifies relevant risk factors, and helps employers consider practical ways to improve how the job is performed.

This article provides general educational information. It is not legal or medical advice and does not guarantee compliance with occupational health and safety requirements. Applicable requirements vary by jurisdiction and workplace circumstances.