If something works, why change it? This is why an Oakland based company that is Headquartered near the Emeryville border chose to go with Ergobility to help service their employees at satellite locations across Northern California. Ergobility was still able to onsite services outside of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area and East Bay Areas. Some services can be provided virtually but onsite ergonomic evaluations are typically best. Ergonomics programs should consider both leading and lagging ergonomic risk factors in the workplace. Ergonomics protects employees from musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and creates safer workplaces. If your business is running a successful ergonomics program, it will lean on effective identification and management of both leading and lagging ergonomic risk factors. This is why it is ideal to move from reacting to injuries that occur to proactively preventing them. Lagging indicators measure events that have already occurred. Within ergonomics, these indicators are the outcomes of past incidents so they would provide insight into those ergonomic risks that have already caused harm. So you can see why this isn't the only approach that shall be considered.  You can tell a lagging ergonomic indicator when you hear or read something that goes such as the number of ergonomic related injuries or cumulative injuries, lost workdays due to strain or repetitive motion injuries, and the number of OSHA recordable ergonomic cases. These types of metrics are important because they illustrate the consequence of the ergonomics program. They do not address the current condition that is causing employees to be injured. So lagging factors may not represent those employees that are being exposed to harmful conditions. Leading indicators focus on conditions, behaviors, and activities that help prevent injuries before they occur. Ergonomics is about prevention and this fits along that. They are ways the business is being proactive towards reducing cumulative types of injuries. Typically, you will hear or read things as such: the number of completed ergonomic risk assessments this year, implementation of controls such as ergonomic furniture, and employee participation in biomechanics training. These indicators allow organizations to detect risk early and intervene on time before incidents become recordable. Employee feedback is a great tool as well. Workers will oftentimes notice discomfort much before it develops into a recordable injury which is why early reporting of fatigue or strain is one of the best ways to ensure an organization can act before the incident turns into a more progressed injury. Both indicators matter because lagging indicators highlight where injuries have already occurred and help measure the effectiveness of past controls while leading indicators guide prevention strategies and help organizations stay ahead of potential hazards. Organizations that successfully reduce ergonomic injuries typically will conduct regular ergonomic risk assessments, track discomfort reports and address them immediately, train employees to recognize early on ergonomic issues and risks, and implement engineering controls that have the greatest impact on reducing risk. By combining leading and lagging ergonomic indicators, a business can reduce ergonomic OSHA recordable incidents significantly through a balanced approach. If you need help with your ergonomics program development, contact Ergobility today.