Lessons We Can Learn From Undercover Boss

Undercover Boss on CBS is a reality show that has some great applications for everyone who works from entry level employees all the way up to CEOs. For entry level employees, they need to realize that every individual that they come in contact with during a work day is important and can have profound impact on your future. For CEOs and upper level management, it becomes a great chance to get a better handle on the everyday workings of your company.

One of the issues that we see when we go out to perform ergonomic reviews of job tasks for the purpose of creating customized job descriptions is that management and supervisors don't truly have a good handle on the actual physical demands of the position. Often, this is not due to a misunderstanding of the task being performed - many of the supervisors worked their way up the ranks. It becomes more an issue of "well, I think that object only weighs about 20 pounds". The most recent episode involved Dina Dwyer-Owns, CEO of The Dwyer Group, going undercover at several of the company's service related franchises. One of the tasks involved working with a technician from Mr. Rooter who was installing a new water heater. Ms. Dwyer-Owens was amazed to find out that the hot water heater weighs approximately 185 pounds. The weight of this water heater places the task into the very heavy category (100+ pounds). For Mr. Rooter, two options might be appropriate:

1. Looking at options to reduce the strength required for taking the hot water heater off of the truck. Possibly a lift gait or some other similar device or maybe a second person to help reduce the strength required by half.
2. Putting in place a Post-Offer Pre-Employment testing process to make sure that new hires are strong enough to perform the required tasks of the position.

One of the smart things noticed in this segment was the water cooler on the landscaping trailer. The landscaper was working in 100 plus degree temperatures and noted that it was company policy to stay as hydrated as possible.

Two weeks ago, Undercover Boss aired an episode about Diamond Resorts International which owns timeshare resorts. During a segment with a painter at one of the properties, CEO Stephen Cloobeck learns firsthand that the facemasks provided for his employees aren't very functional and that sanding drywall patches by hand is very timeconsuming. During the reveal, he tells the employee:

1. The facemasks will be replaced with facemasks that not only stop the dust from being breathed in but also keep the dust out of the repairman's eyes.
2. Power sanders will be provided to reduce the time it takes to sand walls after making repairs.

Each of these fixes are very important from several aspects.

1. A better face mask that doesn't allow dust to get in the eyes improves safety - and reduces time lost from trying to clear dust from the eyes, especially since there wasn't really a good irrigation source to do this.
2. Providing power sanders reduces the amount of time that the employees are performing repetitive shoulder height and overhead tasks, which in turn reduces strain on the shoulders and cervical spine.

The take home questions for managers is "When was the lsat time that you went out and took a solid look at how your employees perform their job tasks and is their anything that can be done better to improve safety,reduce preventable injuries, and make task performance more effective?"

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Several years ago, my barber injured his right rotator cuff. You may wonder how a rotator cuff injury to my barber has to do with an ergonomics blog. It’s everything to do with the title of this post – “Necessity is the mother of invention”.

At the time, my barber who was in his late 60s owned his barbershop which was truly a one man operation – think small town, old school barbershop. Woodworking, in particular making furniture and bookcases, was his away from work hobby. When he tried to catch himself during a trip and fall, he injured his right rotator cuff. While going through conservative treatment, he found that each day he could perform less haircuts than the previous day before the pain in his shoulder would stop him for the day. Being that he owned the shop, even bringing somebody in to work while he underwent rehabilitation would cause a significant decrease in his income. Thus, finding a way to keep working while dealing with his injury was the necessity.

Now comes for the invention. He put the knowledge gained from his hobby in woodworking to good use. He realized from both a practical and a biomechanical standpoint that his shoulder didn’t hurt if the person who’s hair was being cut was at a low enough height that their head was approximately at the height of his elbows. He spent a couple of days playing with seating positions of his customers to keep them at this optimal height, but realized that moving the customers around wasn’t necessarily the best solution.

My barber then realized that if there was an ideal height for the customer’s head, but moving the customer wasn’t the best choice the next best thing would be to move himself. He experimented with a small stool to stand on but found it cumbersome to move the stool as he worked around the customer’s head. While the stool was cumbersome, it was easier than moving the customer around. So, the barber decided to build a platform around the chair. This gave him room to move around the customer while keeping the customer’s head at a comfortable level – and still allowed access to the chair controls to elevate shorter customers to a comfortable height. And most importantly, solved his necessity – it allowed him to be able to maintain his income and keep his business running.

The reason why I bring this example up is a recent visit to a new client. While observing a work task that has generated some level of upper extremity complaints, we quickly noticed that the work surfaces were at a height that required the workers to elevate their shoulder in order to generate enough “space” to perform the task. A lowering of the table heights would allow the workers to perform their tasks while reducing strain on their upper extremities.

Do you have worksite tasks that are causing complaints? Not sure how to modify the tasks to alleviate the problem? Give Biokinetics a call at (732) 741-5085 and we'll give you a hand in finding the optimal solution.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

One of the numerous occupational health mailing lists that I subscribe to has a discussion going on about dealing with the implementation of Safe Patient Handling protocols within facilities. The discussion was started with a search for patient transfer devices to help reduce friction to help make patient transfers easier. The problem becomes that as some people focus on the use of machines, such as lifts, to help reduce the incidence of lower back injuries among medical personnel (don't get me wrong, this is incredibly important, we've lost track of the people performing the jobs.

Number one, as shown by the fact that a representative for a health care facility is seeking sources for devices to decrease friction during transfers, there is still a physical demand to performing patient transfers even when using an assistive device. You still need to be able to get the harness for the lift underneath the patient. Even in the video for the Sandel Z-Slider, there is still a need to be able to manipulate the patient to get the Z-Slider film underneath - but once you have it underneath, it does an amazing job of reducing the required forces.

Number two, the patients still need to be moved around the facility. In health care facilities that we have performed on-site assessments for the purpose of post-offer pre-employment testing and functional capacity evaluations, an initiation force for pulling or pushing of 60 pounds is required to move a hospital bed with a patient. This force can be as great as 80 pounds or more when transitting ramps that connect uneven floors between buildings. One commenter on the above mentioned thread talked about using powered gurneys that can transition among many different uses in order to not require a person to be able to physically push the patient from area to area.

Number three, in the event of unforeseen circumstances that requires large numbers of patients to be moved quickly from one area of a facility to another there may not be enough devices and/or time to permit "Safe Patient Handling" to be performed within the time constraints of the situation. This is not to say that proper biomechanics shouldn't be used in these situations.

So where does that bring us? All attempts should be made to make "Safe Patient Handling" a part of all facilities. But, we need to make sure we still see the forest for the trees. We need to take a look at the individuals that are hired. Are they strong enough to facilitate the placement of harnesses and/or other devices that are used in safe patient handling? Do they have the physical strength to push/pull hospital beds that require 60 pounds of initiation force on a frequent basis? Does the facility provide high quality training in proper lifting techniques to their employees? Are proper lifting techniques emphasized routinely through the year whether through routine assessment or refresher training?

If your facility is not answering yes to these questions, give Biokinetics a call at (732) 741-5085 so that we can help you with this process.

The Importance of Defining Essential Demands

While not quite an ergonomics issue, a recent letter from the EEOC to several employers that advised the employers that their practice of requiring a high school diploma as a job requirement may violate the ADA. David Boyer in the Washington Times has an interesting article on the situation that may be caused by this "letter" which is not an actual decision.

However, it's not necessarily a problem for all employers - provided that they have a good handle on why they have established a particular job demand as essential.

“The EEOC may be inclined to test its view on the high school diploma requirement and its impact on the disabled in a court case,” said Ms. Metzler, who is advising clients to “review their job descriptions to determine if a high school degree is truly necessary, or would aid the employee in performing the essential functions of the particular job."

A lawyer from the EEOC also stated in the article that "issue would come up only when high school graduation standards are not related to a specific job."

As we noted here on the blog earlier this week, it's important to spend time to carefully define the essential demands - in all aspects - that are listed in your customized job descriptions. If you have questions as to the essential physical and postural demands of the employees at your company, give us a call at (732) 741-5085 or drop us an e-mail at info@biokineticsllc.com.

Happy New Years (and check your job descriptions)

Hopefully everyone had a safe and Happy New Year’s. With a brand new year upon us, it’s a good time for employers to take a look at how they can make 2012 an even better year. One of the areas that deserves a look is your current job descriptions for your employees. A couple of questions to ask yourself are:

1. Do we have customized job descriptions for our employees?
2. If you have customized job descriptions, how explicit are they? Do they list the minimum essential demands that must be performed as a function of the job position?
3. Do they explicitly define the essential strength demands into how much weight the employee must be able to lift, carry, push and pull? Do they describe what heights the lifting tasks are performed at (floor, waist, shoulder, etc.)? Do they describe the frequency with which these tasks occur?
4. Do you have an explicit description of all the tasks associated with the job title that are your basis for the essential demands?

Having a good, solid customized job description provides an employer with important information that can be used to establish a post-offer pre-employment testing process, the foundation for a solid stay at work program that can provide detailed information to treating physicians in determining appropriate modified duty, and a solid basis for comparison when a Functional Capacity Evaluation is required to determine whether an injured employee can return to work.

The importance of having detailed information became even more clear several years ago when we were asked to generate a customized job description for the job of mechanics assistant within a public works department for a large municipality. The town had a custom job description for their mechanics and mechanics assistants that rated the position as an occasional 100 pound demand. As this was the only weight load listed, it allowed the injured mechanics assistant’s lawyer to argue that there really wasn’t that much “heavy” work to do and that the work could be performed by an assistant (yes, an assistant to the assistant). An onsite review revealed a significant number of essential tasks that were between 60 and 100 pounds and well in excess of the injured employee’s physical ability as determined by a functional capacity evaluation.

If you have any questions about your current job descriptions or need a customized job description for positions at your company, give Biokinetics a call at (732) 741-5085.