The importance of a GOOD injury prevention approach in the workplace

Injury prevention in the workplace – it’s more than just a few stretches.
When injury prevention is done right, it involves:

• Lifestyle factors

• Resilience to injury

• Physical capacity

• Task technique

• Load pressures

Your injury prevention initiative should be tailored to your workplace logistics and your workplace environment. There can’t just be a one-size-fits-all approach. For starters, an office environment is going to require a different approach than a warehouse or shipping work environment.

It’s time to take charge! But why?

The physical condition in which employees come to work is a major factor in their risk of injury. How does your workforce present to work? Being overweight, tired, dehydrated, stressed, lacking good nutrition or poor flexibility has a huge impact on risk of injury!

Did you know that? Do you think your workers know that? Maybe they do but they don’t seem to care. That’s where our behaviour change focused programs and services come into play and have a big impact. After over 20 years’ experience working with a variety of clients, there’s a lot that we’ve learnt – about the links between lifestyle & injury, as well as the importance of programs grounded in behaviour change theory so that they can get you the best results.

Our typical go-to injury prevention solutions include:

• Ergonomic risk assessments, including lifestyle factors

• Task and load pressure analysis

• Warm up for Work sessions

• Train the Trainer – workplace injury prevention champions

• Injury prevention workshops + displays

• Surviving a sedentary job workshops + on-task coaching

Whatever you choose, you can be guaranteed it’ll be customised to your logistics/environment. Contact us today to discuss options.

Join the dots: sleep & your health

Missing as little as 1.5 hours of sleep reduces daytime alertness by 32%. But that’s not all there is to it. Poor sleep can have a widespread impact on your health, including but not limited to the following:

• People who average less than 6 hours of sleep are 4 times more likely to develop a cold.

• An extra hour or sleep each night is associated with a 33% lower chance of the build up of calcium in your arteries. This is equivalent to a 16 point drop in systolic blood pressure.

• While you sleep, your immune system produces protective, infection-fighting substances like cytokines. It uses these substances to combat foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses. Long-term sleep deprivation also increases your risk of chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease.

• Sleep deprivation prompts your body to release higher levels of insulin after you eat. Higher insulin levels promote fat storage and increase your risk of type 2 diabetes.

• During sleep, we are relaxed and our pulse and breathing slows down. Not sleeping means that no slowing down or relaxation occurs, and we are left in an anxious state.

Is it time to take action and fight fatigue at your workplace? If you can’t afford for your employees to be taking sick days for a cold, you certainly can’t afford for them to develop type 2 diabetes, anxiety or heart disease. Get in touch today so we can tailor a program or service to meet the needs of your workplace!