We undertake many DSE risk assessment on behalf of clients and find that the key failing in businesses is:

1. Not training staff to understand the risks.
2. Not undertaking suitable DSE assessments.
3. Not providing good quality work equipment.

Often we will be called upon to complete assessments for staff where a serious problem has already manifested itself and the employee is already suffering with discomfort or pain.

Every month we are called by clients to look at staff who have developed health problems and find work uncomfortable. The problem often is that the persons we see have developed poor practices over a number of years; including:

• Sitting badly;
• Twisting the upper body to work from multiple computer screens;
• Not taking sufficient posture breaks;
• Not making the necessary adjustments to personalise the workstation set up.

All of the above will impact on staff suffering with issues such as severe back, neck, shoulders, arm or hand pains. Often beside the changes we recommend the individual will need to seek medical help such as physiotherapy etc.  Our task is to help identify what workstation changes could be recommended to help to manage their longer term health.

The problem is like that of so many other computer users we see – most have not been trained properly in the first place and had therefore they will not recognised the risks.  What also doesn’t help is that with this type of injury, problems tend to slowly creep up on people without them realising (often seen as a slow burn injury) and once pain is evident much needs to be done to rectify the problems.

It would be so much better and cost-effective to address the training and assessment issues at the outset; but many businesses fail to recognise this.  Please don`t let this happen in your business; think about your training and how to make your DSE assessments more effective. Need help then just ask.