Something that I don't really talk about much is that I'm a Participatory Ergonomic Expert. Yes, you read right... EXPERT. Not only did I work for years using a Participatory Ergonomic framework to guide my interventions with companies, I also did graduate level research for my Masters degree. Long story short: there is SO much potential that's being overlooked by ignoring this service offering. 

Ergonomics Team Training As A Service Offering

You might be asking yourself what the HECK is Participatory Ergonomics. 

Good Question. Don't worry, I'm not offended. Participatory Ergonomics isn't something talked about often. But, the think to know is that it's a very efficient way to build internal capacity for ergonomics. Or... how I like to refer to as 'put your own fire out' services that companies can do themselves for many, if not the majority of cases. The Ergonomist transitions into more of a coaching role where they'd be responsible to train, support, and follow-up with these teams, which is very beneficial for a long-term relationship and referrals (I'll get more into this later)!

Participatory Ergonomics can be defined as the involvement of employees in planning and controlling their own work activities to a significant extent with sufficient knowledge and power in order to achieve the desirable goal.

About a decade ago, I was responsible to find, develop, train, and support companies who were interested in building their own ergonomics teams. Although this was mostly in the industrial/warehousing markets, the key learning in Participatory Ergonomics still would fit with the office. Heck, I even have research that back this up! 

Value, not Features (or price!)

The reason why I'm such a big fan of Participatory Ergonomics is that there is such amazing value that the workplace gets from this service. I would wager that the value would easily 10x the original investment in the training that you would offer to train the team (which I'll make crystal clear what to offer later in this post).

Musculoskeletal injuries are extremely common in the office environment, especially in the upper extremities. Various studies have estimated that neck and shoulder pain to be upwards of 50% for females and 15% in males in the office. With the growing shift towards more sedentary computer work, this trend will likely increase! Not only do musculoskeletal injuries result in pain, but there is a direct relationship between these and time loss from work.

We need far reaching and cost-effective solutions so that there is the opportunity for all to work safely and without pain.

Majority of Ergonomic Concerns

With this Participatory Ergonomics strategy, it involves teaching your clients how to metaphorically fish for themselves instead of YOU doing everything for them.

There are symbiotic benefits for both the consultant (YOU!) and the workplace with this arrangement. 

A workplace gets to handle the majority of their ergonomic issues, likely being a majority of one-on-one office assessments themselves. Yes, I realize that one-on-one office ergonomic assessments can be an incredibly profitable way to serve your clients, however if we use the value ladder strategy in ergonomics, then we know that there's different 'ergonomic maturity' levels of our prospects. And,  only having one service offering (ie: one-on-one assessments) to offer prospects may mean you miss out on a client... and potential revenue!

There are many cost-savings reasons why an organization would want an in-house ergonomics team in the first place. I believe the major benefit is that there is internal capacity to triage any internal ergonomic concerns and challenges. Meaning this gives the workplace a significant advantage when working with Workers' Compensation, simple ergonomic assessments, or other simple ergonomic concerns that usually works out to be the majority of cases. It's an incredibly useful strategy especially when there are issues that require timely action.  

Long-term Relationship

As an Ergonomics consultant there are oodles of value YOU receive from this framework too. The nice thing is that with this offer you are essentially leveraging your ergonomics expertise and you aren't necessary developing anything new.

Here's what you're going to get from this framework:

• 2-day intensive training of 2-3 (or more) company reps at (at least) $100-150/hour
• Integrate quarterly follow-ups for coaching opportunities and ensure that workplace is meeting targets/is sustainable. If another employee would like to be on this internal ergonomics team, then they would require training (from you). It could be that you do a yearly refresher. You'd charge your hourly rate for any consulting time.
• Other service opportunities that you can leverage for complex situations (whether its discomfort/injury related or return-to-work concerns) or company-wide training. 

The cherry on the cake of this whole strategy is that since this is a long-term strategy to develop a relationship with a client, and since you surpass all of the workplace's service and delivery expectations, you can gain some really solid references.

You can leverage this to win new business and build new relationships that you can use for years and years! 

Long Story Short. I'm a BIG Fan of Diversifying Services 

Diversifying your services allows you to upsell/downsell to what your client actually needs, wants, and desires! This means is that you have more revenue potential! 

Next Steps...

If you've read up to this point then I know that you have a burning desire to get started and learn about office ergonomic assessments, consultations, and trainings. And good news for you is that I have an ultra-exclusive offer just for you. My transformative course on how to do one-on-one office ergonomic assessments is called the Ergonomics Blueprint. You can sign up to the waitlist here, where I'll share with you exclusive updates and I'll also let you know when I open enrolment because ... I only open it a few times per year! 

Why would I do such a thing (open enrolment so few times)... well the easy answer is that I have a vested interest in my student's success. Not only with learning the course material, but applying what they learn to get their first paying client! My students have been getting awesome results and I want to keep it that way! 

Interested in hearing more? Well you can sign up to the WAITLIST RIGHT HERE! Can't wait to tell you about this amazing course that's been getting my students awesome results! 🤗 🤩