Manual handling for SMEs – safety tips and best practice | The Indicator Podcast

Description

In this video, we break down the key principles of safe manual handling tailored for small and medium-sized businesses. Whether you're lifting, carrying, or moving items at work, understanding proper techniques can help prevent injuries and improve workplace safety.

✅ Practical tips for everyday tasks

✅ Common risks and how to avoid them

✅ Simple steps to protect your team

Perfect for business owners, team leaders, and employees looking to build a safer working environment.

Visit www.lefebvre-uk.co.uk to explore our product range, or connect with us on social media:

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Duncan
Welcome, everyone, to our podcast focusing on workplace safety and well-being. Today we're delving into the critical topic of reducing the impact of manual handling and ergonomics. I'm your host Duncan Callow, I'm the Managing Director of Lefebvre, and I'm delighted to be joined by our expert in occupational health and safety, that's Rachel Wildman. Welcome, Rachel.
Rachel
Thank you, Duncan. Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity to discuss a very pertinent topic. It's a topic that touches most industries and there's lots that can be done that a lot of small and medium enterprises don't always understand. So it's a delight to be here. Thank you.
Duncan
Okay, well let's start with the basics. Could you enlighten our listeners and viewers on what manual handling actually entails and why it plays a pivotal role in workplace safety?
Rachel
Certainly. So manual handling really, we're talking about physical movement. It's carrying things but it goes so much more than just carrying. It's about pushing, pulling, twisting, lifting and lowering - a lot of people when they're talking about lifting and carrying forget that actually the other end of the task - they've got to lower that load as well. So it's really about the effect that it can have on individuals' bodies and why it can cause a lot of problems. Manual handling is, as I said, integral to most industries really. You know, a lot of people think it might just be in construction. But if you work in a factory, you know, there's an awful lot of carrying and movement of goods that you have to do there. If you work in retail, it can be things such as shelf stacking, delivery and haulage, you know. You think some of these poor delivery drivers and couriers - they're sort of handling lots of packages of all different weights and sizes. So, as I say, really, manual handling touches pretty much every industry.
Duncan
It does. So even when I get the big box of Christmas decorations down in the office, I'm at risk of a manual handling injury, aren't I?
Rachel
You are. Yeah.
Duncan
OK. OK. Well, joking aside, how do these injuries actually occur?
Rachel
OK, so most of them are a lovely term called the musculoskeletal disorders. And really what we're talking about there, it's the majority of injuries really are back injuries. So that can be sprains, strains, prolapsed discs - where we're putting too much pressure on our spine and it's causing the muscles to contract or spasm or the discs to sort of pop and bulge, and that's really what a slipped disc is - where it starts to sort of press on the spinal nerve and that's very, very painful. It can be shoulder industries - sorry, shoulder injuries such as tendonitis, bursitis - the rotator cuff where if you're sort of straining too much it can really hurt your shoulder. There's another lovely health and safety term called work-related upper limb disorders. We used to know them in the good old days as RSIs: repetitive strain injuries. And again, these can cause problems to the hands and wrists and elbows, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, or tenosynovitis as well. So there's a lot of direct injuries that can be sustained from manual handling. There are also a lot of secondary industries - I can't speak, sorry! There's a lot of secondary injuries as well that can be involved, such as if you're carrying an item, you might not be able to see the floor very well and you could have a slip, trip or fall. You might not see something coming and have crush injury or an impact injury as well. So there can be bruises and broken bones from manual handling. And, of course, the other one is overexertion, which can it can be very fatiguing if you're manual handling a lot. It can cause fatigue and exhaustion and can lead to sort other injuries as well.
Duncan
Well, you painted quite a negative picture there and clearly it's something that employers should be worried about. But is it really as dangerous as it sounds? And what is the impact on UK business?
Rachel
Well, yeah, as nearly everybody does have to manual handle in some way, shape or form, it is actually a very serious issue. The latest HSE figures show that there were 543,000 people suffering with a musculoskeletal disorder in 2024. That's over half a million of our workforce that are actually off sick. This has an impact of about 7.8 million working days lost to UK businesses. It's about 24% of all health problems that we have and it's second only to mental health which is possibly not unsurprising. Now, that sort of sounds a lot of figures and a lot of statistics, but the reality is if your business is suffering with people having manual handling injuries, it's going to impact costs, bottom line. You're going to have people off sick. Whatever your sickness policy is, you might not pay sickness or you might pay after the first three days, but you're going to have to pay. You will also have to cover SSP. You might have to employ others to come in and, you know, especially if you've got somebody with a back injury that's off long term. And you might have to have some cover. You're also going to have a loss of expertise of some key personnel. And it will also put stress on other co-workers with people being off sick. So it can have some very, very direct impacts on your business as well. And, of course, the other thing is it has a very personal impact on the person who's suffering. I don't know if you've ever had a bad back. I have - it's agonising. You can't think of anything else but that bad back. It really does take over. And that can impact your health, it can impact your lifestyle. Something that you might have done at work that can cause a bad back can actually mean that you might not have enjoyment in your personal life. So, for example, if you like golfing or fishing or ten-pin bowling or gardening even, you know, it can severely hinder your ability to be able to do that. So, there's business costs as well as personal costs involved with manual handling injuries.
Duncan
Okay, well, hands up: it's clearly a big impact on business and personal life. If we could move briefly on to ergonomics, how does that differ from manual handling? And why do you think it's important that employers address the issue of ergonomics for their overall workplace well-being?
Rachel
Yes, it's an excellent question. Ergonomics is a relatively new term, but comes from the ancient Greek, actually, for ergo, which is work, and nomi, pardon my Greek pronunciation, which means natural law. And basically, it's the science of the design of workstations to fit the abilities and the limitations of an individual. So rather than make a person fit a workstation, it's making the workstation fit a person. Now, you might think that sounds a bit simple, but actually it can have a big impact on an individual. Manual handling sort of links into that. It's one aspect. But ergonomics is a broader approach. And if you get ergonomics right, manual handling sort of falls by default, so a lot of the controls that you have in place for ergonomics can be applied to manual handling as well. So if I give you a couple of examples. In the good old days of the automotive industry - you know, I can, being ancient, I can remember the front seats of cars used to be bench seats and they didn't move forward or backwards so basically, you know, you had to have long legs to reach the accelerator. You look - um - I can't say the brand name but you know a certain work style and the seats are all movable, they will have lumber adjustment headrests, they can be heated, they can be vibrating, even. Everything in the uh the dashboard of your car is all very easy to reach so people aren't having to overstretch, overthink, and they can actually travel for long distances without being very uncomfortable. So it's just a simple example of how ergonomics has influenced the automotive industry. Another one actually can be shop check-out workers. Some of the big supermarkets were finding they were having quite high levels of sickness absence with MSDs and particularly lower back pain, because the checkout workers were sitting at an angle and sort of leaning forward and pulling everything. And just that little movement all the time - they weren't necessarily moving heavy goods, but just that little continuous movement throughout their eight-hour shift, whatever it may be, were causing big problems. So a simple solution was all they did was turn the work at 90 degrees so instead of having to keep twisting they were just literally moving straight so they were eliminating that little twist that was causing a lot of problems.
Duncan
Okay so in practical terms are the injuries suffered from poor ergonomics different from those caused by manual handling?
Rachel
Yes slightly. Really, ergonomics is more repetitive use and, like I say, the example with the shop workers - it can be not heavy weights, but just very, very repetitive, continual movements. It can be caused by poor posture, which again, manual handling can as well. And also it can be overexertion, where if you're sort of doing one particular task, the same motion all the time can actually put too much strain on your individual groups and muscles and can cause pain. Manual handling injuries tend to be quite acute. They can come on quite fast, that somebody just bends incorrectly and you feel your back twang, you know. You can lift up something that's too heavy and you feel a shoulder injury. Ergonomic issues tend to differ because they're chronic. They tend to come on quite slowly. They build up over a period of time. And then before you know it, you've got a problem with your carpal tunnel syndrome or whatever it may be.
Duncan
OK, well, let's get down to the nitty gritty of this now. In terms of legal responsibilities, Rachel, what are there? Are there any for employers that need to be concerned about in terms of manual handling and ergonomics? I mean, surely the law doesn't say how an employer should carry a cardboard box from point A to point B, does it?
Rachel
Specifically, but yes, in a way! So there's always the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974, which has a duty of care on employers to look after their staff. But again, that's a very - it has to cover all aspects of health and safety, so it's not specific. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations came in in 1992, and they were very much focused on manual handling as a problem, as the hazard, and what companies should do to try and reduce that risk as much as possible. Excuse me. So the first thing that those regulations say really is if you can avoid manual handling, avoid it. Sounds simple, right? Not always easy to do in the workplace. You know, if you're a bricklayer, you're going to have to handle those bricks. You know, technology so far hasn't worked out how to do that. So, you know, we're always going to have to be using our physique to manual handle. The next thing those regulations say is that actually you must then conduct a risk assessment. And here is where it is fairly specific. You should really be risk assessing every manual handling task that you do, whether it's a cardboard box, a brick or a bale of hay if you're a farmer. So every task should have a risk assessment undertaken. And that's what the Manual Handling Operations Regulations of 1992 state. Once you've done your risk assessment, you then by law have to put in control measures. So you can't just go, "Well, I've risk assessed. Everything's OK. I've met my legal compliance." If you found that there could be an issue, you must address it. And one of the ways of doing that, and again, which is stated in the legislation, is that you should train your staff. OK, so compliance with those regulations will ensure a safer working environment and it doesn't have to cost the earth either.
Duncan
OK, well, let's let's talk a bit more about cost. You've given us some excellent insight there, Rachel. But I think we need to talk a little bit more about control measures and the practical strategies that employers can adopt to mitigate the negative impacts of manual handling and ergonomics. Can you give us a bit of an insight into how they can implement cost-effective control measures?
Rachel
Absolutely. So it sounds very simple but as with most things with health and safety, prevention is definitely better than cure. So if you can stop the issue from arising in the first place, that's always the best port of call. Again, start with your risk assessments, they're absolutely key. That means that you're meeting your legal duty of care and it means that you are identifying controls that you can put in place. One of the most important controls is really training of your staff. And that might sound very scary and you might think, "Well, I'm not a trained trainer. I don't know how to take this. Do I have to employ people to come in?" If you feel competent and confident to do some training, you know, there are some some things that you can do just using your practical experience. So, for example, on YouTube there are some very handy free videos that you can watch. One is called Child's Play and it's quite interesting. If you've ever watched a toddler pick something up off the floor, it's a very natural process and they tend to shuffle their feet, position themselves and then they squat using their hips and their thigh muscles rather than bend at the back. So, toddlers naturally know how to lift correctly and that's what basically a lot of manual handling is - it's about the technique of lifting. And so if you watch a toddler, they've cracked it! So why have we, when we're adults, started to have a problem? Well, basically we get into shortcuts and we think "Oh, it's quicker just to bend at the waist than it is to do the proper squatting etc." So, you know, there's a lot that we can learn from from this child's play video and as I say it is free of charge. There's also a very interesting set of videos on YouTube called Napo, N-A-P-O, and they are basically cartoons. It sounds quite childish, but they're very powerful in a way that they can get over what can go wrong with manual handling and what you can do. There's no voices in them, it's just set to music. So whatever your staff workforce is and the demographics of your workforce, it's a message you can easily get across to them. Most of those videos are about three or four minutes long. So again, you needn't take masses of time and resource to get your very strong message across to your workforce that they need to look after their backs.
Duncan
OK.
Rachel
So training is key. Another thing that you can do as an organisation is to provide the correct equipment and make sure that it's fully functioning. Sounds simple, but quite often pallet trucks might break down or they need a bit of lubrication. They're not working effectively, so more effort's being put into it by the workers. So, again, it's making sure that you're providing the right equipment and that it is actually being used. And linking in with ergonomics, it's about good design of workstations. So to go into a little bit more detail with that, it's really if you are sitting at a desk, it's making sure that your screen's at the right height so that people aren't putting strain on their neck, which can then be classed as an MSD. It's about making sure that, you know, you can swap everything from a left-handed workstation to a right-handed workstation, for example, because, you know, that obviously can bring some complications for left-handed people if it's set up incorrectly. Set your workstation up to avoid overreaching. So, here, I'm not just necessarily talking about sitting at a desk. An example I can give you is in a factory. I was witnessing a young lad who said, "I've got terrible backache because every time I've weighed what I need to weigh, and I'm bent over double holding the top of the bag and I need to cable tie it, I then have to reach right behind me and twist to get the cable ties to fasten the bag." So I was like, "Well, why don't you just put them in front of you?" And he went, "I hadn't even thought of that." So very simple. Just think about what the task is that you're going to do and lay it out and prepare before you start the task can be a very simple control to reduce the strain on your posture.
Duncan
OK, look, it's some fantastic control measures that I should point out that there are other video sharing platforms available other than YouTube, but I'll be looking at those free videos, for sure. But if we could just wrap things up now, Rachel, in your opinion, what is the single most important thing that a business can do to prevent workplace injuries related to manual handling and poor ergonomics even?
Rachel
So in a word, it's training. Most injuries are largely preventable by the person themselves. If they're well trained, they know how to lift, they're keeping the correct posture, they're using the equipment that's provided, they're highly unlikely to have a problem. Only they know how they're feeling on the day. You know, we all know some days we might be feeling a bit tired and down and, you know, maybe even suffering from man flu and not really quite on our full game. And if we're like that, that can then make us more susceptible to an injury. So, again, it's really letting your individual workers know that they've got the power to say, "Actually, this is causing me a problem today." And they will only know that if they've got the training to understand the impact that this manual handling and ergonomics can have.
Duncan
Okay, I think that's a perfect note to end on. Thank you, Rachel, for sharing your wisdom with us. I think it's very clear the extent of the problem. It's also very clear the measures that employers can put in place that effectively don't have to cost anything to address the problems caused by manual handling and poor ergonomics in the workplace. So, Rachel, thank you very much for your time today.
Rachel
My pleasure. Thank you.
Duncan
Okay. And finally, if you'd like any more information about our range of health and safety products, some of which are now powered by AI, please do give us a call on 01233 653 500 or visit our website at www.lefebvre-uk.co.uk. But for now, thanks for sharing your time with us.

Description

✅ Practical tips for everyday tasks

✅ Common risks and how to avoid them

✅ Simple steps to protect your team

Perfect for business owners, team leaders, and employees looking to build a safer working environment.

Visit www.lefebvre-uk.co.uk to explore our product range, or connect with us on social media:

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Duncan
Welcome, everyone, to our podcast focusing on workplace safety and well-being. Today we're delving into the critical topic of reducing the impact of manual handling and ergonomics. I'm your host Duncan Callow, I'm the Managing Director of Lefebvre, and I'm delighted to be joined by our expert in occupational health and safety, that's Rachel Wildman. Welcome, Rachel.
Rachel
Thank you, Duncan. Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity to discuss a very pertinent topic. It's a topic that touches most industries and there's lots that can be done that a lot of small and medium enterprises don't always understand. So it's a delight to be here. Thank you.
Duncan
Okay, well let's start with the basics. Could you enlighten our listeners and viewers on what manual handling actually entails and why it plays a pivotal role in workplace safety?
Rachel
Certainly. So manual handling really, we're talking about physical movement. It's carrying things but it goes so much more than just carrying. It's about pushing, pulling, twisting, lifting and lowering - a lot of people when they're talking about lifting and carrying forget that actually the other end of the task - they've got to lower that load as well. So it's really about the effect that it can have on individuals' bodies and why it can cause a lot of problems. Manual handling is, as I said, integral to most industries really. You know, a lot of people think it might just be in construction. But if you work in a factory, you know, there's an awful lot of carrying and movement of goods that you have to do there. If you work in retail, it can be things such as shelf stacking, delivery and haulage, you know. You think some of these poor delivery drivers and couriers - they're sort of handling lots of packages of all different weights and sizes. So, as I say, really, manual handling touches pretty much every industry.
Duncan
It does. So even when I get the big box of Christmas decorations down in the office, I'm at risk of a manual handling injury, aren't I?
Rachel
You are. Yeah.
Duncan
OK. OK. Well, joking aside, how do these injuries actually occur?
Rachel
OK, so most of them are a lovely term called the musculoskeletal disorders. And really what we're talking about there, it's the majority of injuries really are back injuries. So that can be sprains, strains, prolapsed discs - where we're putting too much pressure on our spine and it's causing the muscles to contract or spasm or the discs to sort of pop and bulge, and that's really what a slipped disc is - where it starts to sort of press on the spinal nerve and that's very, very painful. It can be shoulder industries - sorry, shoulder injuries such as tendonitis, bursitis - the rotator cuff where if you're sort of straining too much it can really hurt your shoulder. There's another lovely health and safety term called work-related upper limb disorders. We used to know them in the good old days as RSIs: repetitive strain injuries. And again, these can cause problems to the hands and wrists and elbows, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, or tenosynovitis as well. So there's a lot of direct injuries that can be sustained from manual handling. There are also a lot of secondary industries - I can't speak, sorry! There's a lot of secondary injuries as well that can be involved, such as if you're carrying an item, you might not be able to see the floor very well and you could have a slip, trip or fall. You might not see something coming and have crush injury or an impact injury as well. So there can be bruises and broken bones from manual handling. And, of course, the other one is overexertion, which can it can be very fatiguing if you're manual handling a lot. It can cause fatigue and exhaustion and can lead to sort other injuries as well.
Duncan
Well, you painted quite a negative picture there and clearly it's something that employers should be worried about. But is it really as dangerous as it sounds? And what is the impact on UK business?
Rachel
Well, yeah, as nearly everybody does have to manual handle in some way, shape or form, it is actually a very serious issue. The latest HSE figures show that there were 543,000 people suffering with a musculoskeletal disorder in 2024. That's over half a million of our workforce that are actually off sick. This has an impact of about 7.8 million working days lost to UK businesses. It's about 24% of all health problems that we have and it's second only to mental health which is possibly not unsurprising. Now, that sort of sounds a lot of figures and a lot of statistics, but the reality is if your business is suffering with people having manual handling injuries, it's going to impact costs, bottom line. You're going to have people off sick. Whatever your sickness policy is, you might not pay sickness or you might pay after the first three days, but you're going to have to pay. You will also have to cover SSP. You might have to employ others to come in and, you know, especially if you've got somebody with a back injury that's off long term. And you might have to have some cover. You're also going to have a loss of expertise of some key personnel. And it will also put stress on other co-workers with people being off sick. So it can have some very, very direct impacts on your business as well. And, of course, the other thing is it has a very personal impact on the person who's suffering. I don't know if you've ever had a bad back. I have - it's agonising. You can't think of anything else but that bad back. It really does take over. And that can impact your health, it can impact your lifestyle. Something that you might have done at work that can cause a bad back can actually mean that you might not have enjoyment in your personal life. So, for example, if you like golfing or fishing or ten-pin bowling or gardening even, you know, it can severely hinder your ability to be able to do that. So, there's business costs as well as personal costs involved with manual handling injuries.
Duncan
Okay, well, hands up: it's clearly a big impact on business and personal life. If we could move briefly on to ergonomics, how does that differ from manual handling? And why do you think it's important that employers address the issue of ergonomics for their overall workplace well-being?
Rachel
Yes, it's an excellent question. Ergonomics is a relatively new term, but comes from the ancient Greek, actually, for ergo, which is work, and nomi, pardon my Greek pronunciation, which means natural law. And basically, it's the science of the design of workstations to fit the abilities and the limitations of an individual. So rather than make a person fit a workstation, it's making the workstation fit a person. Now, you might think that sounds a bit simple, but actually it can have a big impact on an individual. Manual handling sort of links into that. It's one aspect. But ergonomics is a broader approach. And if you get ergonomics right, manual handling sort of falls by default, so a lot of the controls that you have in place for ergonomics can be applied to manual handling as well. So if I give you a couple of examples. In the good old days of the automotive industry - you know, I can, being ancient, I can remember the front seats of cars used to be bench seats and they didn't move forward or backwards so basically, you know, you had to have long legs to reach the accelerator. You look - um - I can't say the brand name but you know a certain work style and the seats are all movable, they will have lumber adjustment headrests, they can be heated, they can be vibrating, even. Everything in the uh the dashboard of your car is all very easy to reach so people aren't having to overstretch, overthink, and they can actually travel for long distances without being very uncomfortable. So it's just a simple example of how ergonomics has influenced the automotive industry. Another one actually can be shop check-out workers. Some of the big supermarkets were finding they were having quite high levels of sickness absence with MSDs and particularly lower back pain, because the checkout workers were sitting at an angle and sort of leaning forward and pulling everything. And just that little movement all the time - they weren't necessarily moving heavy goods, but just that little continuous movement throughout their eight-hour shift, whatever it may be, were causing big problems. So a simple solution was all they did was turn the work at 90 degrees so instead of having to keep twisting they were just literally moving straight so they were eliminating that little twist that was causing a lot of problems.
Duncan
Okay so in practical terms are the injuries suffered from poor ergonomics different from those caused by manual handling?
Rachel
Yes slightly. Really, ergonomics is more repetitive use and, like I say, the example with the shop workers - it can be not heavy weights, but just very, very repetitive, continual movements. It can be caused by poor posture, which again, manual handling can as well. And also it can be overexertion, where if you're sort of doing one particular task, the same motion all the time can actually put too much strain on your individual groups and muscles and can cause pain. Manual handling injuries tend to be quite acute. They can come on quite fast, that somebody just bends incorrectly and you feel your back twang, you know. You can lift up something that's too heavy and you feel a shoulder injury. Ergonomic issues tend to differ because they're chronic. They tend to come on quite slowly. They build up over a period of time. And then before you know it, you've got a problem with your carpal tunnel syndrome or whatever it may be.
Duncan
OK, well, let's get down to the nitty gritty of this now. In terms of legal responsibilities, Rachel, what are there? Are there any for employers that need to be concerned about in terms of manual handling and ergonomics? I mean, surely the law doesn't say how an employer should carry a cardboard box from point A to point B, does it?
Rachel
Specifically, but yes, in a way! So there's always the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974, which has a duty of care on employers to look after their staff. But again, that's a very - it has to cover all aspects of health and safety, so it's not specific. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations came in in 1992, and they were very much focused on manual handling as a problem, as the hazard, and what companies should do to try and reduce that risk as much as possible. Excuse me. So the first thing that those regulations say really is if you can avoid manual handling, avoid it. Sounds simple, right? Not always easy to do in the workplace. You know, if you're a bricklayer, you're going to have to handle those bricks. You know, technology so far hasn't worked out how to do that. So, you know, we're always going to have to be using our physique to manual handle. The next thing those regulations say is that actually you must then conduct a risk assessment. And here is where it is fairly specific. You should really be risk assessing every manual handling task that you do, whether it's a cardboard box, a brick or a bale of hay if you're a farmer. So every task should have a risk assessment undertaken. And that's what the Manual Handling Operations Regulations of 1992 state. Once you've done your risk assessment, you then by law have to put in control measures. So you can't just go, "Well, I've risk assessed. Everything's OK. I've met my legal compliance." If you found that there could be an issue, you must address it. And one of the ways of doing that, and again, which is stated in the legislation, is that you should train your staff. OK, so compliance with those regulations will ensure a safer working environment and it doesn't have to cost the earth either.
Duncan
OK, well, let's let's talk a bit more about cost. You've given us some excellent insight there, Rachel. But I think we need to talk a little bit more about control measures and the practical strategies that employers can adopt to mitigate the negative impacts of manual handling and ergonomics. Can you give us a bit of an insight into how they can implement cost-effective control measures?
Rachel
Absolutely. So it sounds very simple but as with most things with health and safety, prevention is definitely better than cure. So if you can stop the issue from arising in the first place, that's always the best port of call. Again, start with your risk assessments, they're absolutely key. That means that you're meeting your legal duty of care and it means that you are identifying controls that you can put in place. One of the most important controls is really training of your staff. And that might sound very scary and you might think, "Well, I'm not a trained trainer. I don't know how to take this. Do I have to employ people to come in?" If you feel competent and confident to do some training, you know, there are some some things that you can do just using your practical experience. So, for example, on YouTube there are some very handy free videos that you can watch. One is called Child's Play and it's quite interesting. If you've ever watched a toddler pick something up off the floor, it's a very natural process and they tend to shuffle their feet, position themselves and then they squat using their hips and their thigh muscles rather than bend at the back. So, toddlers naturally know how to lift correctly and that's what basically a lot of manual handling is - it's about the technique of lifting. And so if you watch a toddler, they've cracked it! So why have we, when we're adults, started to have a problem? Well, basically we get into shortcuts and we think "Oh, it's quicker just to bend at the waist than it is to do the proper squatting etc." So, you know, there's a lot that we can learn from from this child's play video and as I say it is free of charge. There's also a very interesting set of videos on YouTube called Napo, N-A-P-O, and they are basically cartoons. It sounds quite childish, but they're very powerful in a way that they can get over what can go wrong with manual handling and what you can do. There's no voices in them, it's just set to music. So whatever your staff workforce is and the demographics of your workforce, it's a message you can easily get across to them. Most of those videos are about three or four minutes long. So again, you needn't take masses of time and resource to get your very strong message across to your workforce that they need to look after their backs.
Duncan
OK.
Rachel
So training is key. Another thing that you can do as an organisation is to provide the correct equipment and make sure that it's fully functioning. Sounds simple, but quite often pallet trucks might break down or they need a bit of lubrication. They're not working effectively, so more effort's being put into it by the workers. So, again, it's making sure that you're providing the right equipment and that it is actually being used. And linking in with ergonomics, it's about good design of workstations. So to go into a little bit more detail with that, it's really if you are sitting at a desk, it's making sure that your screen's at the right height so that people aren't putting strain on their neck, which can then be classed as an MSD. It's about making sure that, you know, you can swap everything from a left-handed workstation to a right-handed workstation, for example, because, you know, that obviously can bring some complications for left-handed people if it's set up incorrectly. Set your workstation up to avoid overreaching. So, here, I'm not just necessarily talking about sitting at a desk. An example I can give you is in a factory. I was witnessing a young lad who said, "I've got terrible backache because every time I've weighed what I need to weigh, and I'm bent over double holding the top of the bag and I need to cable tie it, I then have to reach right behind me and twist to get the cable ties to fasten the bag." So I was like, "Well, why don't you just put them in front of you?" And he went, "I hadn't even thought of that." So very simple. Just think about what the task is that you're going to do and lay it out and prepare before you start the task can be a very simple control to reduce the strain on your posture.
Duncan
OK, look, it's some fantastic control measures that I should point out that there are other video sharing platforms available other than YouTube, but I'll be looking at those free videos, for sure. But if we could just wrap things up now, Rachel, in your opinion, what is the single most important thing that a business can do to prevent workplace injuries related to manual handling and poor ergonomics even?
Rachel
So in a word, it's training. Most injuries are largely preventable by the person themselves. If they're well trained, they know how to lift, they're keeping the correct posture, they're using the equipment that's provided, they're highly unlikely to have a problem. Only they know how they're feeling on the day. You know, we all know some days we might be feeling a bit tired and down and, you know, maybe even suffering from man flu and not really quite on our full game. And if we're like that, that can then make us more susceptible to an injury. So, again, it's really letting your individual workers know that they've got the power to say, "Actually, this is causing me a problem today." And they will only know that if they've got the training to understand the impact that this manual handling and ergonomics can have.
Duncan
Okay, I think that's a perfect note to end on. Thank you, Rachel, for sharing your wisdom with us. I think it's very clear the extent of the problem. It's also very clear the measures that employers can put in place that effectively don't have to cost anything to address the problems caused by manual handling and poor ergonomics in the workplace. So, Rachel, thank you very much for your time today.
Rachel
My pleasure. Thank you.
Duncan
Okay. And finally, if you'd like any more information about our range of health and safety products, some of which are now powered by AI, please do give us a call on 01233 653 500 or visit our website at www.lefebvre-uk.co.uk. But for now, thanks for sharing your time with us.

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