how are we different?

If you type on Google the phrase “ergonomic tips”, you will receive over 30 million links, which are mostly articles on how to maintain a good posture at work, or at least that’s what the highlight in the Google search will tell you:

In light of all the new evidence and body of scientific research, these tips can easily be considered outdated and lacking context. This is where WellFit steps in. While most ergonomic tips and suggestions rotate around how to fix yourself in exhausting and unusual postures that are only aesthetically appealing and drive you to buy expensive office furniture and equipment, our model relies on eight pillars:

• Workstation organization (desk organization)
• Tools and equipment (keyboard, mouse, telephone…)
• Workstation design (space, layout, desks, chairs…)
• Work habits and postures
• Office environment (lighting, ventilation, noise, temperature, vision…)
• Work stress
• Manual material handling (lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, reaching, carrying and holding materials…)
• Mobile devices (laptop, tablet, smartphone…)

For each pillar, we conduct three actions:

assessment

To provide you with the most individualized and customized intervention, our team at WellFit has designed an evidence-based assessment plan. Our thorough assessment is designed to identify any work-related health hazard that can lead to an injury, and to study the prevalence and severity of work related pain and injuries in the workplace.
Our approach is two-fold, and relies on easy and practical self-reported questionnaires that are filled by you and the staff, as well as a full risk analysis run by the WellFit team. We analyze the data gathered and provide you with a detailed report that scores the level of health risk present and suggests the necessary changes that need to be taken.

Fear not, our assessment is not designed to create problems that don’t exist and then sell you a solution that doesn’t work. Our questionnaires and assessment tools are all evidence-based and designed by scientists and researchers to provide accurate data and suggestions.

Intervention

Our intervention is designed carefully by our certified ergonomic experts to provide you with an individualized plan that meets your needs as well as your budget. We offer evidence-based solutions instead of standard, outdated, and impractical guidelines that you often see on media platforms. Our solutions are based on the outcomes of the assessment, and involve seven different scopes of intervention, which includes but is not limited to:

• Workstation organization
• Tools and equipment
• Workstation design
• Work habits and postures
• Office environment
• Work stress
• Manual material handling
• Mobile devices

These scopes of intervention involve the worker as well as the workplace. Instead of only asking you to buy expensive equipment, we focus on building better and healthier habits for you and your team, as well as provide you with affordable options in case there is a need to upgrade the workspace.

Our intervention can improve productivity, reduce and prevent musculoskeletal injuries, as well as increase loyalty and employee satisfaction within your workspace.

Post-intervention Evaluation:

After providing you with a tailor-made intervention program, we perform regular follow-ups to assess the efficacy of the program, the commitment of the staff, the practicality of the solutions provided, and if present, the health hazards that are still present. To guarantee that you got the best outcome from your investment in your and your staff’s health and wellbeing, we provide you with guidelines and further solutions to optimize the efficacy of the intervention.
Now you may think: if the intervention is efficient, then why would I need further solutions?
The answer lies in the exact reason why ergonomics as a science was developed: the human factor. In our post-intervention evaluation, we can detect how much you and the staff are compliant with the guidelines provided. We can also understand the long term effects of our solutions regarding their efficiency and practicality, to guarantee the sustainability we promise you. We will evaluate our intervention on three separate occasions to assess the progress done on the short and long term. This is our guarantee in providing sustainable solutions for a healthier, more productive future!

What does this mean?

Our model is designed to provide you with the solutions you need. Our thorough assessments of each pillar highlight the possible health hazards of your workstation and guide us to take necessary actions in our intervention which is focused on providing you with the most valuable, sustainable, and affordable solutions. In other words, we won’t just ask you to fix your posture and buy expensive office furniture and accessories. We will help you improve your work habits with the tools that you already have and can afford, leaving more costly solutions only to necessity. After our intervention, we evaluate your adherence towards the solutions we provided so that we can fine-tune them to be even more individualized and tailor-made to you.

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References

If you want to read more why ergonomic tips centered on sitting and standing postures are now considered outdated, we suggest you read these articles:

Wong AYL, Chan TPM, Chau AWM, Tung Cheung H, Kwan KCK, Lam AKH, et al. Do different sitting postures affect spinal biomechanics of asymptomatic individuals? Gait Posture. 2019;67:230–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.10.028

Sowah D, Boyko R, Antle D, Miller L, Zakhary M, Straube S. Occupational interventions for the prevention of back pain: Overview of systematic reviews. Journal of Safety Research. 2018 Sep 1;66:39–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2018.05.007

Slater, D., Korakakis, V., O’Sullivan, P., Nolan, D., & O’Sullivan, K. (2019). “Sit Up Straight”: Time to Re-evaluate. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 49(8), 562–564. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2019.0610