The field of practice of professional ergonomists is very wide and covers all aspects of the health, well-being, and productivity of people at work. Some ergonomic interventions concentrate on designing workplaces so that the work can be done comfortably and safely over a long period. Others look at the safety and ease of use of tools and computer interfaces. Others look at the organization of work systems to optimize workflow and avoid errors.

The Federation of European Ergonomics Societies collected good practices of Registered European Ergonomists. These papers do not cover all the areas of ergonomics practice, but they may be helpful for people looking for examples of how a professional ergonomist provides solutions for companies wanting to improve the efficiency of their workers without decreasing their safety, health, or well-being.

The story behind

In Goteborgh 2016, it was decided to publish case studies as part of the FEES-CREE collaboration to promote ergonomics and the Eur Erg title.

Considering Europe’s language diversity, the content should be published in any national language of Europe accompanied by an English translation, which the local NAB should assist with.

Each language version of the document must be less than 5000 letters long. All cases should be submitted using the attached form. They will be published as PDF documents.

Accepted authors will be required to sign a copyright transfer form, and the CREE and FEES should have the right to use the content in its original or modified form for presentational purposes.

Where a company is named, please insert a box requiring a signature from a company director to permit the publication of the case study.

The presidents of CREE and FEES are the editors-in-chief.

Suggested contents:

• Submitted by (only European Ergonomist/s): (Name/s, Email, Telephone, Company website if appropriate)
• Other people involved in the project: (Name/s)
• Role of the ergonomist in the project: (Project leader, ergonomist in a multidisciplinary team, …please describe)
• Main area of intervention: (physical, cognitive, organisational ergonomics or mix)
• Keywords (max 5):
• What was the aim of this project?
• Contracting company (not essential):
• Industry or sector:
• Description of how the work was done and the outcome (may contain photos, diagrams or tables). Please state the methods used and what was achieved (the result):
• Was the outcome evaluated following implementation? If so, how and with what result:
• Was a cost-benefit analysis done? If so, please briefly describe the results:
• Special comments:
• Date of submission:

Assessment criteria

We suggest using a combination of the CREE Minimum Requirements document criteria, based on the IEA recommendations, to assess the submissions and recommendations of the IEA Strategy paper by Dul et al. For example, does the work demonstrate these factors:

Does the work show a systems approach to achieving the goal?
Competently investigates and analyses the problem to ensure an appropriate interaction between work, product and environment, and human needs, capabilities and limitations.

Does the work involve designing or redesigning a tool, workplace or work system?

Develop an appropriate project plan for the ergonomic design of a product or workplace intervention.

What was the outcome in terms of worker well-being?
Appropriately determines the compatibility of human capabilities with planned or existing demands and makes recommendations to improve health or well-being.

What was the outcome in terms of improved performance?

Makes appropriate recommendations for ergonomic changes that improve human performance and evaluates the outcome of implementing the ergonomic recommendations. (This could include a cost-benefit analysis.)

Demonstrates professional behaviour and does not work outside his/her area of competence.)

Two reviewers should be asked to answer the following questions:

• Review by:
• Date:
• Is this an outstanding example of professional practice? Yes / No (describe why not)
• Recommendation: publish / revise / reject
• Comments:

Effort and benefit

FEES is working with the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomists CREE to assemble examples of ergonomics in practice from different industries and use different intervention methods that can be used to show the diversity of ergonomics applications and the added value of professional ergonomists. These examples are published on the FEES website in a form that can be easily printed or sent as a PDF document to interested persons. For example, it is possible to look for examples of successful work in a particular industry or on a specific problem to suggest to companies what could solve a specific problem or a method that could be used to improve their work efficiency.

In the starting phase, contributors are suggested by the representatives of national societies on CREE and the FEES board. The CREE receives practice examples from the Eur. Ergs as part of the certification and renewal process, so they are ideally placed to identify suitable contributions. The publication of these examples allows ergonomists to show their work to a broader public, providing an incentive to prepare the submissions. Representatives from CREE and FEES review each submission according to criteria agreed by both organizations. The first practice examples were published on the FEES website at the end of 2016, and new ones will be added regularly.

CONTRIBUTORS

The examples published here were contributed by European Ergonomists and reviewed by representatives from the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomics (CREE) and by the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES).

If you are a certified ergonomist and wish to contribute, please get in touch with a member of the executive board of either CREE for FEES. Contributions are welcome, and no fee is charged.