Most people oversee the effects of non-physical ergonomic risk factors. Most of what comes to mind are such physical factors such force, posture, and repetition in prevention of ergonomic injuries. Nonphysical should be examined for a full holistic approach to address more of the cumulative related risk factors. Employees that are not satisfied with their current situation or feel as if they have no power to decide on job tasks end up reporting ergonomic injuries at a higher rate. Organizational, psychosocial, and behavioral nonphysical ergonomic risk factors lead to long term absence (indemnity), higher workers' compensation costs, and reduced productivity. Organizational Risk Factors Examples include being short staffed, work task autonomy, and feelings of job insecurity. These are linked to such subsequent results as extended work hours and irregular schedules that place excessive stress on the worker's body and mind. This increases cortisol levels and inflammatory factors that can exacerbate a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD).   Psychosocial Risk Factors These include workplace stress, mental fatigue, and job dissatisfaction not to mention various other factors that make an employee feel as if they have too much on their plate and loose focus of their job tasks. They become inundated with distractions that make them feel unappreciated and unable to make a positive impact on their own situation and void of satisfaction with what they work to achieve. Examples include, inability to decide on how to perform a task how they choose to often found when performing repetitive tasks. Behavioral Risk Factors Well humans are human! We make mistakes and the feeling that you have to be perfect is stressful. Some jobs require perfection i.e. a surgeon, etc. but if we feel that the mental or physical demands are too great, and can't voice or control this notion, it's frustrating and we see in statistics that it increases reporting of injuries. Having to work on a team but not all teammates are great team players can stir up a lot of stress in the work environment. Communication issues and performance based problems arise to the point it can also lead to a lack of concentration on work tasks and increases in stress levels throughout the team. It is important to do company wide surveys to do a health check ever so often to determine the company culture to ensure it's health is up to par. If you want to learn more about all the ways that you can improve physical and nonphysical ergonomic risk factors in the workplace, call Ergobility and speak to a specialist today.