Other Voices: Safety managers must act now to prevent return-to-work injuries after Covid-19

Editor’s note: The following column by Toni-Louise Gianatti, content manager for Soter Analytics, is part of Modern’s Other Voices column, a series featuring ideas, opinions and insights from end-users, analysts, systems integrators and OEMs. Click here to learn about submitting a column for consideration.

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There is currently a mass number of people returning to work after being temporarily laid off due to the novel coronavirus. If not managed, the manual worker’s body is at high risk of injury.

Before the coronavirus hit, Dennis worked at a manufacturing company conducting long hours of strenuous labor and manual handling five days a week. Now, nearly 2 months after he was furloughed, he has been asked to return to his normal duties. The thing is, Dennis has been off work, isolated in his home, eating, drinking and doing a lot of sedentary activities. He has not performed any of his usual job tasks and could now be considered a high risk and “unfit” for duty.

Dennis is not alone in one of the biggest return to work programs ever faced by health and safety managers. Early intervention programs and processes need to be put in place immediately to stop problems from escalating. All exposures surrounding this imminent problem need mitigating, including the consideration not just of the physiological impacts but of the psychosocial concerns arising from the pandemic that will play a part in capacity, presentation and conduct of these employees.

Physiological Impact
An increase in sedentary behavior has always been associated with poorer health outcomes. Weight gain, a decline in aerobic capacity, muscle wastage, decrease in proprioception. Amy Hope, Chief Ergonomist and Osteopath from Soter Analytics explains how this is relevant to the returning manual handling worker.

“Muscle strength can fall after just two weeks of inactivity, and those with more muscle strength to begin with will lose more. Other activities such as cycling can help to regain muscle mass, but muscle strength requires using weights like those lifted or handled before. It can also take more than three times the amount of time to regain the strength lost through immobility. The other very significant aspect to be aware of is proprioception, which deteriorates with a sedentary lifestyle. This is the body’s way of understanding the position of itself in space, or body position awareness. This is important in manual handling tasks, as understanding whether your own body is following the positions outlined in training or taking positions that may cause harm is key in understanding workers’ own risk.”

Adopting time to carve out a warming-up procedure is now more important than ever.

Psychosocial Impact
The effects of physical exposures are increased when any psychosocial factors are also involved. Consideration of the psychosocial risk factors that will now be present as a by-product from the coronavirus need to be part of an overall approach to maintaining safety.

Anxiety is one of the largest, and research shows that when above its normal level, the immune system is weakened. Supporting employees, acknowledging the current situation and putting measures in place to help with stress levels are imperative. Different workplace psychosocial factors resulting from being furloughed, changes due to the impact of the pandemic, along with fear of being infected can originate from many areas:

● Lower predictability in work caused by disturbances or unexpected changes - this represents a salient health hazard
● Stress - especially those employees exposed to public areas and anxiety relating to social distancing
● Job insecurity
● Role or work conflicts due to changes of staffing, downsizing, restructuring
● Time pressures - frustration in not being able to do the work at the same pace, especially if they are paid based on efficiency/picks
● Concentration might need to be trained
● Fatigue likely to be a greater and cause drop in safety-critical attention span or alertness
● Increase in likelihood of errors due to any of the factors above

Early intervention programs for return to work
Supervisors do not have the tools to support workers who start to feel pain and often nothing is done as most injuries develop slowly. Workers should be trained to understand how to recognize the early signs and symptoms and how to prevent them. Early intervention programs can assist workers to take note and simply be aware of their moving bodies especially as they are returning from time off. It is imperative to make sure they focus on best movement practice, stretching and strengthening exercises.

Employers should think about work hardening and building employees back up to the stamina that they need to work safely. Be aware of expectations of efficiency; it’s important for companies not to have workers hit the ground running as soon as things restart. Consider the conditioning of the workforce first, especially if workers are struggling financially and want to make money if they’re paid by shift length or even worse, their pick/efficiency. There will be a tendency to want to work faster but considering all the physiological or psychosocial impacts after time off from a pandemic, this is not the time to do this. Companies might also want to reach out to support the fitness and wellbeing of their workers now, to build a foundation of strength rather than waiting until the first day of work.

A standard early intervention program specializing in building awareness, coaching around safe movement and easy correction that clearly outlines the implications of ignoring signs not only helps protect from injury but facilitates and encourages an early reporting culture. Early interventions stop the hesitation and stigma around early reporting and empowers employees to take control of their own bodies. Design and implement an immediate strategy to assist workers who are feeling discomfort due to returning to work. Employees need to be coached and assisted with developing their physical awareness to determine if their discomfort is arising from muscles simply waking back up or if there is potential for injury.

This current situation is an opportunity for employers to check in with their workforce, recalibrate and monitor strength levels, fatigue, emotions, pain or any of the factors that influence movement behavior. Work together to provide the best possible chance of minimizing strain on these workers’ bodies and reduce the occurrence of recordable injures and related costs.