To find out more about Syntrio and the benefits of our total e-learning solutions, please contact one of our account representatives at:
San Francisco, CA
415-951-7913
Network Applicance
Network Appliance is a highly competitive technology company whose employees work primarily in an office workstation environment for extended hours. Network Appliance was utilizing a consulting firm that focused on addressing ergonomic problems once a complaint was made. There was not a proactive approach or a company ergonomics program with stated goals to address this key issue.Business Case
As the company grew rapidly in size, more and more ergonomic issues arose, and the company found itself spending large sums of money to mitigate problems that could have been avoided with a proactive ergonomics program. The situation was quickly spiraling out of control. There was an increase in demand for ergonomics support as word spread that one could get an ergonomic evaluation and obtain "a cool new chair that their coworker received." Fancy ergonomics equipment became a status symbol for employees.
Network Appliance needed a way to quickly control the increasing demand for ergonomic products and services by ensuring that only employees who needed extensive ergonomics evaluations received them. In addition, the company needed to develop and implement a proactive approach to reducing overall ergonomic risks to all of its employees (i.e. address issues before they got out of control), and do so in a cost effective manner.
Action Plan
Using the cutting edge technology of web based ergonomics training and an online personal ergonomics assessment tool, Syntrio was able to reach out to all of NetApp's employees at the employee's convenience. In addition, Syntrio utilized the resources of its partner company EORM to provide development and onsite support for the entire ergonomics program. The model has the following components:- Network Appliance employees are required to take the web-based ergonomics training and online personal assessment. The training record and results of the personal assessment are tracked in an online learning management system. The EORM Ergonomist tracks all employees with this system, and using the data and results from a follow-up phone call, determines if there is sufficient risk to warrant an in-person ergonomics evaluation.
- If an in-person evaluation is required, EORM's consultant visits the Network Appliance employee, and an evaluation is performed. The consultant also coordinates all recommendations from the evaluation (including equipment ordering, workstation adjustments, etc.), and then confirms that the ergonomics risk has been mitigated, and the employee is happy.
- The employee has the opportunity to take the web-based training and utilize the online personal assessment tool as often as they wish. It is available to the employee any time.
- With the additional free time, the Ergonomist also provides additional targeted outreach and training to reduce overall ergonomics risk to Network Appliance's employees. The consultant utilizes the report capabilities of the learning management system to measure and report the quantity and quality of training, and the reduction of individual risk for each Network Appliance employee.
Results
This comprehensive program was developed, implemented, and is currently operating with unprecedented efficiency through the use of Syntrio's online training and assessment tool. Incorporating this into their overall Ergonomics program allows Network Appliance to greatly reduce ergonomics risk company-wide with minimum impact on daily operations. Cost savings were realized immediately from
- a reduction in onsite support necessary to manage the program,
- a decrease in time away from work for training and evaluations, resulting in an increase in productivity.