Do you;
Have an aging workforce?
Find it challenging to recruit or retain your workers?
Need to evaluate a prospective employee's physical capacity for your job?
Lack the skills or time to assess, prevent and train your employees in hazardous manual handling?
Who is Responsible?
As an employer, who do you think takes ultimate responsibility for back care, manual handling, and risk identification? If you believe it should be the individual, we definitely agree. However, they need to know what a sensible lifting technique is, be trained to use the equipment correctly and have the appropriate physical capacity to perform their required vocation.
Did you know that 80% of the workforce will suffer from back pain, severe enough that it prevents them from working for 2 weeks at some stage in their working life? That is a lot of lost business time and productivity, and increased paperwork. Sound worth avoiding?
Solution 1. Pre-employment assessments
Integrating a comprehensive pre-employment assessment into your onboarding process is a highly effective, proactive strategy for building a resilient workforce. By evaluating a prospective employee's physical capacity before they step into a demanding role, you can accurately match their physiological capabilities to the job's specific physical demands. This critical screening step significantly limits the likelihood of hiring individuals with pre-existing physical limitations or vulnerabilities that could put them—and your business—at risk. Ultimately, identifying these factors early protects your incoming staff from preventable on-the-job injuries, reduces costly workers' compensation claims, and safeguards your organisation's long-term operational productivity.
Esperance Physiotherapy can use your assessment paperwork, or, if you don't have it, you can utilise our comprehensive in-house assessment.
Solution 2. Injury Prevention - Educate, Enhance, Empower
Understanding comes from knowledge & education. ABS data show that 43% of injured workers received no on-the-job OH&S training. How can individuals act if they don't have the training, awareness, or education? We can help your business provide these essential skills.
If employees understand their bodies, are motivated to improve their strength & flexibility, and learn about the causes of physical harm, they are better placed to make sound decisions and prevent accidents. We enhance personal responsibility.
We aim to equip your employees with the skills to manage themselves responsibly. They win because they spend more time doing what they enjoy, and your company benefits from reduced lost productivity due to an injured workforce.
"We have previously engaged Esperance Physiotherapy to provide ergonomic assessments of our Operational and Administration work areas. Most recently, we engaged Esperance Physiotherapy to conduct an ergonomic assessment of the Rotary Car Dumper (RCD) control room. This included three site visits during which they assessed the RCD control room setup and interviewed and observed a number of operators from different teams. The employee of Esperance Physiotherapy attended on time, and no safety incidents occurred during the site visits.
A comprehensive report on time following the final site visit. The report provided details on primary issues and provided suggestions for improvements in the following areas:
- Workstation inefficiencies
- Neck pain
- Desk height
- Glare/intensity of light
- Work area atmosphere
- Appropriate seating
We were satisfied with the service provided by Esperance Physiotherapy on this visit and on previous visits."
Marama Stevens, Esperance OHS Administrator - Southern Ports
Current forward-thinking employers that have used Esperance Physiotherapy include;
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Solution 3. Early Intervention Program
Injuries do happen, even with the best prevention strategies in place. The best approach is then to undertake a comprehensive assessment and commence treatment. Waiting for a GP appointment and commencing a workers' compensation claim can take several weeks and may not be necessary in many cases. Providing prompt, early treatment and reassurance has been shown to reduce overall injury duration and time away from work. Esperance Physiotherapy does provide early intervention programs for several key businesses in the Esperance Region. Contact our Clinic Director, Dr Doug Cary, if you would like further information.
Our Strategy
We meet with you to identify your current problems, concerns, and injuries.
Once we understand these key factors, we can suggest an appropriate package of solutions for your organisation. The aim is to address a problem that is causing or will cause you a loss of productivity, time, or revenue in the foreseeable future.
Examples include an identified 'hot spot' work area, an aging workforce, or the need to perform repetitive manual tasks or sit in an awkward position.
After agreeing on the necessary components, implementation will take place over a fixed period.
Some intervention strategies available include;
- Provision of pre-employment screening
- On-site visit (interview and data collection) and videotaping of worker and work environment (Job & Task Analysis)
- Ergonomic assessments, recommendations and equipment
- Provide Education sessions (Hazardous Manual Handling, Health & Wellbeing, Ergonomics, Stress and Fatigue Management)
- Provide on-site preventative treatment
- Access to Early Intervention Physiotherapy Programs
See How We Help for detailed examples of our solutions