We hear a lot about the robot revolution and the use of AI in the workplace, but despite the massive rise in the use of machinery and robotic equipment in industry, there are still many jobs which are highly repetitive. As we know, repetition can result in many physical ailments such as repetitive strain injury (RSI) and carpal tunnel syndrome, but there are many more risks created by repetition from the lack of focus it creates in the operative and the task at hand!!
As a business owner, it is essential that you and your management team keep a close eye on the health and wellbeing of your employees. Repetitive tasks can pose a risk to not only the physical health of a person but their mental health and general wellbeing. These tasks are not just something boring an operative needs to do on any given day such as ticking off inventory, but instead, they are tasks where the employee has to do the same thing hour after hour, day after day and week after week.
As far as a worker’s physical health is concerned, doing the same movements over such long periods of time can lead to conditions such as tendinitis, and carpal tunnel. If significant manual handling is involved in this work, they can suffer from other complaints including slipped discs and hernias. In this case, health and safety training which includes a significant amount of manual handling training may be required.
It can often be overlooked by managers who just see a job that needs doing and assign a worker to do it, but the effect of repetitive tasks on an employee’s mental condition can be severe. Just as stress can contribute towards mental health issues, extreme boredom through the endless repetition of a menial task can begin to adversely affect the mental state and wellbeing of an individual. It can also make them extremely demoralised, unhappy and desperate to leave the company which will result in recruitment costs and lost time as a new person is brought in and given all of the induction training necessary for a new starter, resulting in a continuous spiral of recruitment, wasted time and increasing costs.
To combat and reduce the susceptibility and chances of a worker suffering a condition caused by repetitive tasks, the appropriate steps can and should be taken. These steps include introducing job rotation so that the worker has a change from doing the same thing all of the time. Arranging and performing risk assessments on their working area is also a vital step to ensure that the workplace ergonomics facilitate comfortable working over long periods of time. Managers also need to closely monitor workers who are engaged in repetitive tasks at work to try and prevent health issues occurring in addition to making sure that they take adequate breaks when they are due.
The management of the health and safety issues is not something that, as a business owner you need to take the burden of alone, you can outsource to an experienced and compliant consultancy, such as ourselves.
KS Health & Safety Consultancy offers clients a practical and solution-based approach to professional health and safety service on a consultancy or retainer basis. Our business works with associated H&S professionals who have a wealth of heavy industry experience and who deliver practical HSE solutions. These HSE solutions enable all our clients to get the cost-effective, competent H&S advice they desire.
Our health and safety documentation service is a great support to any business. At KS Health & Safety Consultancy we can create bespoke Health & Safety documentation tailored to your organisation’s requirements. We specialise in, but are not limited to the following…
- Health & Safety Policies
- Workplace Procedures
- Method Statements
- Risk Assessments
- Contractor Management
- Induction Packages
- COSHH Assessments
- Manual Handling Assessments
- Incident Investigation
- HSE Improvement Strategy etc.
Get in touch to find out more; we look forward to finding out about your business.
