April 3, 2025 • 19 mins
Ergonomics is making headlines like never before, and that’s a big deal for our profession. In this episode, we’re diving into why ergonomics is getting more media attention, what it means for businesses, and—most importantly—how you can leverage this to get more paying clients.
We’ll cover:
- How recent news stories highlight the growing demand for ergonomics.
- The headline effect—why businesses are finally paying attention.
- How to use these headlines (without feeling salesy) to engage potential clients.
- Practical strategies to position yourself as the go-to ergonomics expert.
Plus, I’ll share how you can join my free webinar on April 9, 2025, to dive even deeper into building a thriving ergonomics business.
👉 Register here: https://www.ergonomicshelp.com/free-ergo-workshop
Let’s make ergonomics mainstream—one assessment at a time!
Are you a healthcare professional curious about how office ergonomics assessments could fit into your services? I’ve got you covered with some valuable (and free!) resources at www.ergonomicshelp.com/free-training.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well, hey there.
Welcome to the Business ofErgonomics podcast.
Today on the show, we'retackling a question that pops up
a lot.
What do these headlines that wesee across the internet, say
about ergonomics, theimplications of this and how to
leverage this to bring in morecustomers and do more ergonomics
assessments?
(00:20):
Let's do this.
Welcome to the Business ofErgonomics podcast.
I'm your host, Darcy Jeremy.
I'm a board certifiedprofessional agonist with over
15 years of experiencedelivering ergonomics programs
to employers of all differenttypes.
In this podcast, I share whatother healthcare professionals
(00:42):
are already doing and being withergonomics assessments.
And how to land those clientsthat you dream of.
Without further ado, let's jumpinto this episode right now.
Okay, let's frame this.
A decade ago, seeing anergonomic related headline, this
was very rare.
(01:03):
In fact, I don't remember everhearing anything related to
ergonomics in a headline adecade ago.
Even less further back.
Like when I first started doingergonomics assessments in like
2008, like I had never seen aheadline about ergonomics.
When I told family members thatI wanted to do ergonomics for a
(01:24):
career, many of them said, whatis that?
Can you explain what you do?
It was really an interestingtime.
Compare that to today we'redoing a podcast episode.
About headlines and how toleverage them as an ergonomics
professional.
I think back to that time, andif I had seen just one headline
(01:45):
about musculoskeletal disordersor ergonomics, I would've been
so enthused.
I was so passionate aboutergonomics when I was first
getting started, A previousemployer said that I had to talk
about ergonomics less.
Excuse me.
What?
LLL, right?
I actually think about thatoften, and that's probably why
(02:07):
I'm doing what I'm doing today.
Before we get into the show, Iwanna tell you about a webinar
that's going down Wednesday,April 9th, 2025.
The details are going to be inthe show notes, but you can go
to ergonomics help.com/free-ergoworkshop.
This is all about how you can domore.
(02:28):
Ergonomics assessments, whetheryou're self-employed or an
employee, ergonomistseverywhere.
Wanna do more assessments.
In this training, you're gonnalearn a bunch of stuff that's
gonna help you.
Okay.
Back to the episode.
Today we are talking aboutheadlines and what that means
for our profession.
You don't have to look far tosee headlines like office
(02:48):
workers at risk rise in carpaltunnel cases linked to remote
work or factory injury ratesskyrocket as production demands
increase.
These aren't isolated incidentsanymore.
we as ergonomics nerds, or Ishould say passionate ergonomics
enthusiasts see these issues allthe time, and that's how we get
(03:10):
paid.
So we're not surprised thatthey're happening.
But the fact that they are beingbroadcasted to the general
public, whereas 10 years agothis would've never happened.
Today is something that deservesto be talked about more.
Especially when you look in thelast quarter of 2024.
For some reason there were somany headlines about ergonomics
(03:34):
related issues, concerns, andmusculoskeletal disorders.
Do you remember that period oftime?
All I saw was OSHA findings orsomething about warehouses and
how they have higher thanaverage injury rates and they
need to be identified andrectified.
I've never seen anything like itbefore and I think that this is
(03:56):
really highlighting somethinginteresting.
Ergonomics obviously isn't atrend anymore.
We've built our careers aroundthis.
The newspaper articles are areflection of our growing
relevance.
heck ergonomics was even listedin the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journalreporting that nearly 50% of
office workers experiencemusculoskeletal discomfort
(04:19):
annually.
I truly believe that this isn'tjust a random article or a hit
piece about a certain company.
I think this is representativeof a trend towards more
awareness.
There needs to be a basis ofawareness about ergonomics and
musculo skill disorders for ahuge newspaper to.
(04:43):
Run articles around this becausethey need to make revenue and
they're putting something outthere that people care about and
they wanna know about more.
This is a call to action, andI'm gonna thread this into what
you can do to move this forwardbecause it's a very interesting
topic with remote work, the risein poor ergonomic setups.
(05:04):
It's creating a perfect stormfor msds, and we all know that
it's not a problem.
This is something for us tosolve.
We're talking about this generalawareness that we can leverage
as ergonomics professionals todo more help.
More things that get us to domore ergonomic assessments,
because that's what we love todo.
I'm gonna call this a headlineeffect on businesses.
(05:25):
So what I wanna talk about todayis the headline effect on
businesses and how you cancombine this to what you are
offering employers, whetheryou're doing it.
As a self-employed person withyour own ergonomics practice, or
maybe you are within anorganization and you wanna do
more ergonomics assessments andput ergonomics up on almost like
(05:48):
a pedestal where people can lookto it for solutions, because
sometimes ergonomics can getkinda lost in the weeds of
normal business developmentsThis can help you, first of all.
I like to remember in situationslike this that businesses are
run by people and people consumenews, things like the Wall
(06:08):
Street Journal, and when theyconsume this, they're gonna be
in this new state of awareness,not denial, awareness.
This is going to form a wake upcall, forcing them to
acknowledge the prevalence ofwhat's going on in their own
organization of any sort ofergonomic issues or things
(06:28):
related to that.
Maybe there's some fear thatthey're being made aware of
financial losses or legalissues.
even employee suffering can makea perfect storm for a wake up
call.
Now I know that the media andthe news.
There's a commonality here thatthey're gonna be sharing more
alarmist types of new storiesbecause that gets clicks.
(06:51):
That gets advertisers revenue,but this is where you can fit in
and solve the puzzle.
Here.
Are you sharing wins about.
The ergonomics initiatives thatyou have done as an outside
ergonomics consultant workingwith other companies.
Have you done this?
If you're working internally inan organization talking about
(07:11):
your ergonomics wins and theinterventions that you're doing,
are you measuring this stuff?
If you are not measuring thisstuff yet, no worries.
I got your back.
Check out last week's.
Podcast episode, and you'regonna get all the details that
you need to measure this stuffso you can plan for the future.
Communication things like thisare so useful as ergonomics
consultants, Money or how you'reable to measure increased
(07:34):
productivity can tip the scalesin your favor.
Not only this, but gettingtestimonials from people if
you're not able to access thatinformation to win at this
communication game, forinstance.
I wanna bring up one member ofAccelerate the Business of
Ergonomics, and I'm not gonnamention her name'cause I didn't
get her permission, but becauseof one Fix that did not cost any
(07:59):
money in an organization, shedid an ergonomic assessment for
this increased productivity by10% So sharing stuff like that
on your LinkedIn page, on yourwebsite when you're talking
about ergonomics.
'cause remember, it can takeanywhere between seven to 11
touches or opportunities ofcommunication for that to sink
(08:24):
in to someone's person.
High profile cases of companiesfacing legal action or
reputational damage can also bepowerful motivators.
And this really resonates withme because in the last quarter
of 2024, there was a certaincompany that was getting all of
the news related tomusculoskeletal disorders in
warehouses.
And they actually had to pay areally big OSHA fine, maybe not
(08:48):
that big of a OSHA fine, butthey had to pay a fine relative
to not paying a fine.
So this can really spurorganizations forward because.
They might be thinking tothemselves, oh golly, gosh, the
government is coming after thesepeople.
We gotta get our ducks linehere.
Where can we search for help?
I think the value of casestudies and spending a little
(09:11):
bit of time to develop that onyour own website, talking about
it on LinkedIn, and developingthis story so that when you're
in client meetings talking withdecision makers, It's really
accessible to you as a person inthis environment so that you can
talk about best practices withergonomics.
(09:35):
You can talk about case studiesof successful implementations
that you've been a part of.
What are the key indicators ofsuccess?
what does an organization haveto have in line for an
ergonomics initiative to besuccessful?
And even practical guides thatgives them all the necessary
information and resources.
having this on your fingertipsas an ergonomics professional is
(09:56):
so huge.
I've also seen headlines withcompanies who are successfully
implementing ergonomicsprograms.
That's huge.
And stories about companies thathave sustained long-term
ergonomic improvements.
This obviously can show themThat ergonomics isn't just like
the flavor of the month.
There's like a huge long-termgame involved with this and they
(10:18):
can buy in and you can helpthose companies for like
literally years if not more.
I am really loving the idea ofinstead of the term marketing
communicating.
That's really what we're doing.
Marketing is this like big termthat I think does more damage or
harm for us.
Ergonomics professionals whowanna bring our skills forward,
(10:42):
our businesses forward, and domore ergonomics assessments.
And that's what my program isall about, accelerate the
business of ergonomics.
I'm giving consultants andprofessionals in general time
saving resources.
And support so that you cancommunicate the benefits and ROI
of ergonomics and then theresources so that when you do
(11:02):
ergonomics assessments, it takesyou less time so you can do more
of them and make more money.
And this idea of communicationrather than marketing really
breaks apart the idea of.
Sketchy sales tactics, used carsalespeople, that type of stuff
that I think keeps manyergonomics professionals back
(11:23):
instead of stepping into wherethe opportunity is.
Have you ever heard about thesix stages of behavior change?
This was a major point in anysort of organizational change,
or maybe you learned about thisin psychology.
There's these six stages ofbehavior change, and this is
(11:45):
what I really think is happeningwith these headlines.
It's helping us do thecommunication that we don't have
to.
Spend effort doing because it'sbeing done on this broader scale
and it's moving our clientstowards the part where they're
actually ready to move forwardwith ergonomics.
(12:07):
because for most of our clients,purchases aren't black or white.
One day they're not evenconsidering ergonomics
assessments.
And then the next day they'relike, oh my word, let's do
ergonomics and bring thisergonomics consultant in, and
we're hire an internalergonomics assessment person to
do all of the work for us.
It doesn't work like that.
(12:28):
This is where the behaviorchange comes in, there's a real
need out there to be sharing theright type of communication that
gets to where our clients are,whether it's internal or
external.
There's the contemplation,preparation, action,
maintenance, and thentermination or relapse.
I really think that theseheadlines.
(12:48):
Are in the pre-contemplationstage of behavioral change.
They're doing a lot of the workthat it would take us time to
educate.
Pre-contemplation is that whenindividuals are not yet aware
that there's a problem withergonomics in their organization
or the need to change and theymay resist it.
(13:08):
What I've seen over my years ofdoing ergonomics assessments is
that if you're not working withan organization.
Then they're probably in thispre-contemplation stage, so this
can last forever.
Unless there's something thatshifts them outta that stage
into the.
Contemplation stage, and thisstage is where individuals are
(13:31):
aware of the problem and startconsidering the possibility of
change, and they're weighing thepros versus the cons.
So this is where maybe they'restarting to reach out to you and
maybe you're doing a discoverycall with that client and
they're not quite ready to takeaction with you.
And then there's a preparation.
(13:51):
Stage, and these are individualswho are actively preparing to
take action and may start makingsmall changes.
Individuals are actively takingsteps to change their behavior.
They call you in and you startdoing ergonomics assessments in
an organization, or they hireyou in to be the in-house
ergonomics consultant for theorganization then there's the
(14:13):
maintenance.
Maintenance is where individualsare working to sustain the
change and prevent relapse.
Maybe that's a retainer clientfor you, and I'm not gonna talk
about the termination orrelapse.
So obviously there's a lot ofstuff that's going on below the
service of your client and youmight not be aware of what.
Stage that they're in, whethertheir contemplation or
(14:37):
preparation, you might not know.
with communication that supportsthe next steps to make a call to
action, whatever you choose todo here, remember, you have to
have patience because this takestime.
It takes time for thoseindividuals who are the decision
makers to go through each ofthese stages and who knows
whatever else they have going onin their lives and in their
(15:00):
businesses.
It can take anywhere betweenseven to 11.
Communication points for aclient to even be aware of you
and your offering ergonomics,let alone consume your content
related to all the wins and howamazing you are.
This is true even fororganizations.
If you're like the in-houseergonomists, I've done both.
(15:21):
As an in-house ergonomists,you're also dealing and working
with other departments who havetheir own goals at the exact
same time as you have theseergonomics goals.
So there's not endless resourcescommunicating these wins can
get.
A win-win situation going whereyou're supporting other
departments in what they'redoing in a way that's not gonna
(15:45):
take up all their resources ortime or money, whatever you do
to define the term resources, wewanna be aligned and be mutually
supportive.
It's not this or that.
The most successful ergonomicsprograms, support departments,
and they're tied together andare really.
Useful way.
But even that takes time tomanage and constant
(16:07):
communication to decision makersin an organization.
So there's four things that Ithink that you can do to fully
leverage these headlines so thatyou can take less effort.
For your communication and startbringing in clients into your
world effortlessly.
So the first thing you wanna dois tailor your message to hit
your client at their stage ofawareness.
(16:30):
And then number two, you wannaprovide relevant information.
You can do this with offeringthe news articles that are
already out there, the casestudies, and the data that
supports each of these stages.
Then what you wanna do is buildrelationships, not make sales,
but build relationships.
You wanna be a trusted advisorand partner in their journey
(16:51):
toward ergonomic excellence.
just because they're not readyto buy from you, from today's
episode and your history ofdoing.
Psychology and other coursesthat you may have taken in your
undergrad or your graduatedegrees, that it takes time to
go through this awareness toaction.
(17:12):
It takes time, but they're gonnaneed ergonomics help at some
point in their lives becausepeople get injured and the
statistics proves it without ashadow of a doubt.
Lastly, number four here I wantyou to showcase success stories.
Start there and if you can comeup with at least five success
stories and talk about theemotions and the wins and who
(17:35):
was involved and get reallytight on that story.
And if you don't have that, Iwant you to look at news
examples, and I want you to dothis to highlight the positive
outcomes of ergonomicinterventions.
And if you can't do that, go tothe literature, check up palmed
Google Scholar, and search thesuccess stories related to
(17:57):
ergonomics.
And you can find it there.
It's not gonna take a lot oftime because there's tons of
success stories, but just talkabout this.
Bring this in, and when you'retalking about ergonomics, when
you're meeting with people,bring it up because although the
headlines are out there andwe're finally hearing ergonomics
success stories and the negativeconsequences of not doing
(18:18):
anything, there's still so muchcommunication that needs to be
happening about what to expectwith the ergonomics.
I think that there is Anopportunity to educate regarding
that.
And a lot of the hard stuff likegetting your foot in the door.
I think that has been done withthe newspaper headlines, which
is really cool.
(18:38):
I wanna remind you that you havethe expertise and the world is
finally recognizing what we'redoing.
How cool is that?
I wanna encourage you to seizethis opportunity to do more
ergonomics assessments, helpmore people, help more
businesses.
So cool.
And if you're doing thisprofessionally already, you love
(18:58):
ergonomics.
You're passionate aboutergonomics.
I want.
You two go to my webinar thatI'm hosting on April the ninth,
and I want you to sign it upbecause I'm gonna show you how
to do more ergonomicsassessments.
All you have to do is go toergonomics
help.com/free-ergo-workshop.
I'm gonna give you the detailsin the show notes.
(19:20):
Till next time, can't wait totalk to you again.
Hope you have a great day, and Ihope you have an even better
week.
Well, hey there.
Welcome to the Business ofErgonomics podcast.
Today on the show, we'retackling a question that pops up
a lot.
What do these headlines that wesee across the internet, say
about ergonomics, theimplications of this and how to
leverage this to bring in morecustomers and do more ergonomics
assessments?
(00:20):
Let's do this.
Welcome to the Business ofErgonomics podcast.
I'm your host, Darcy Jeremy.
I'm a board certifiedprofessional agonist with over
15 years of experiencedelivering ergonomics programs
to employers of all differenttypes.
In this podcast, I share whatother healthcare professionals
(00:42):
are already doing and being withergonomics assessments.
And how to land those clientsthat you dream of.
Without further ado, let's jumpinto this episode right now.
Okay, let's frame this.
A decade ago, seeing anergonomic related headline, this
was very rare.
(01:03):
In fact, I don't remember everhearing anything related to
ergonomics in a headline adecade ago.
Even less further back.
Like when I first started doingergonomics assessments in like
2008, like I had never seen aheadline about ergonomics.
When I told family members thatI wanted to do ergonomics for a
(01:24):
career, many of them said, whatis that?
Can you explain what you do?
It was really an interestingtime.
Compare that to today we'redoing a podcast episode.
About headlines and how toleverage them as an ergonomics
professional.
I think back to that time, andif I had seen just one headline
(01:45):
about musculoskeletal disordersor ergonomics, I would've been
so enthused.
I was so passionate aboutergonomics when I was first
getting started, A previousemployer said that I had to talk
about ergonomics less.
Excuse me.
What?
LLL, right?
I actually think about thatoften, and that's probably why
(02:07):
I'm doing what I'm doing today.
Before we get into the show, Iwanna tell you about a webinar
that's going down Wednesday,April 9th, 2025.
The details are going to be inthe show notes, but you can go
to ergonomics help.com/free-ergoworkshop.
This is all about how you can domore.
(02:28):
Ergonomics assessments, whetheryou're self-employed or an
employee, ergonomistseverywhere.
Wanna do more assessments.
In this training, you're gonnalearn a bunch of stuff that's
gonna help you.
Okay.
Back to the episode.
Today we are talking aboutheadlines and what that means
for our profession.
You don't have to look far tosee headlines like office
(02:48):
workers at risk rise in carpaltunnel cases linked to remote
work or factory injury ratesskyrocket as production demands
increase.
These aren't isolated incidentsanymore.
we as ergonomics nerds, or Ishould say passionate ergonomics
enthusiasts see these issues allthe time, and that's how we get
(03:10):
paid.
So we're not surprised thatthey're happening.
But the fact that they are beingbroadcasted to the general
public, whereas 10 years agothis would've never happened.
Today is something that deservesto be talked about more.
Especially when you look in thelast quarter of 2024.
For some reason there were somany headlines about ergonomics
(03:34):
related issues, concerns, andmusculoskeletal disorders.
Do you remember that period oftime?
All I saw was OSHA findings orsomething about warehouses and
how they have higher thanaverage injury rates and they
need to be identified andrectified.
I've never seen anything like itbefore and I think that this is
(03:56):
really highlighting somethinginteresting.
Ergonomics obviously isn't atrend anymore.
We've built our careers aroundthis.
The newspaper articles are areflection of our growing
relevance.
heck ergonomics was even listedin the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journalreporting that nearly 50% of
office workers experiencemusculoskeletal discomfort
(04:19):
annually.
I truly believe that this isn'tjust a random article or a hit
piece about a certain company.
I think this is representativeof a trend towards more
awareness.
There needs to be a basis ofawareness about ergonomics and
musculo skill disorders for ahuge newspaper to.
(04:43):
Run articles around this becausethey need to make revenue and
they're putting something outthere that people care about and
they wanna know about more.
This is a call to action, andI'm gonna thread this into what
you can do to move this forwardbecause it's a very interesting
topic with remote work, the risein poor ergonomic setups.
(05:04):
It's creating a perfect stormfor msds, and we all know that
it's not a problem.
This is something for us tosolve.
We're talking about this generalawareness that we can leverage
as ergonomics professionals todo more help.
More things that get us to domore ergonomic assessments,
because that's what we love todo.
I'm gonna call this a headlineeffect on businesses.
(05:25):
So what I wanna talk about todayis the headline effect on
businesses and how you cancombine this to what you are
offering employers, whetheryou're doing it.
As a self-employed person withyour own ergonomics practice, or
maybe you are within anorganization and you wanna do
more ergonomics assessments andput ergonomics up on almost like
(05:48):
a pedestal where people can lookto it for solutions, because
sometimes ergonomics can getkinda lost in the weeds of
normal business developmentsThis can help you, first of all.
I like to remember in situationslike this that businesses are
run by people and people consumenews, things like the Wall
(06:08):
Street Journal, and when theyconsume this, they're gonna be
in this new state of awareness,not denial, awareness.
This is going to form a wake upcall, forcing them to
acknowledge the prevalence ofwhat's going on in their own
organization of any sort ofergonomic issues or things
(06:28):
related to that.
Maybe there's some fear thatthey're being made aware of
financial losses or legalissues.
even employee suffering can makea perfect storm for a wake up
call.
Now I know that the media andthe news.
There's a commonality here thatthey're gonna be sharing more
alarmist types of new storiesbecause that gets clicks.
(06:51):
That gets advertisers revenue,but this is where you can fit in
and solve the puzzle.
Here.
Are you sharing wins about.
The ergonomics initiatives thatyou have done as an outside
ergonomics consultant workingwith other companies.
Have you done this?
If you're working internally inan organization talking about
(07:11):
your ergonomics wins and theinterventions that you're doing,
are you measuring this stuff?
If you are not measuring thisstuff yet, no worries.
I got your back.
Check out last week's.
Podcast episode, and you'regonna get all the details that
you need to measure this stuffso you can plan for the future.
Communication things like thisare so useful as ergonomics
consultants, Money or how you'reable to measure increased
(07:34):
productivity can tip the scalesin your favor.
Not only this, but gettingtestimonials from people if
you're not able to access thatinformation to win at this
communication game, forinstance.
I wanna bring up one member ofAccelerate the Business of
Ergonomics, and I'm not gonnamention her name'cause I didn't
get her permission, but becauseof one Fix that did not cost any
(07:59):
money in an organization, shedid an ergonomic assessment for
this increased productivity by10% So sharing stuff like that
on your LinkedIn page, on yourwebsite when you're talking
about ergonomics.
'cause remember, it can takeanywhere between seven to 11
touches or opportunities ofcommunication for that to sink
(08:24):
in to someone's person.
High profile cases of companiesfacing legal action or
reputational damage can also bepowerful motivators.
And this really resonates withme because in the last quarter
of 2024, there was a certaincompany that was getting all of
the news related tomusculoskeletal disorders in
warehouses.
And they actually had to pay areally big OSHA fine, maybe not
(08:48):
that big of a OSHA fine, butthey had to pay a fine relative
to not paying a fine.
So this can really spurorganizations forward because.
They might be thinking tothemselves, oh golly, gosh, the
government is coming after thesepeople.
We gotta get our ducks linehere.
Where can we search for help?
I think the value of casestudies and spending a little
(09:11):
bit of time to develop that onyour own website, talking about
it on LinkedIn, and developingthis story so that when you're
in client meetings talking withdecision makers, It's really
accessible to you as a person inthis environment so that you can
talk about best practices withergonomics.
(09:35):
You can talk about case studiesof successful implementations
that you've been a part of.
What are the key indicators ofsuccess?
what does an organization haveto have in line for an
ergonomics initiative to besuccessful?
And even practical guides thatgives them all the necessary
information and resources.
having this on your fingertipsas an ergonomics professional is
(09:56):
so huge.
I've also seen headlines withcompanies who are successfully
implementing ergonomicsprograms.
That's huge.
And stories about companies thathave sustained long-term
ergonomic improvements.
This obviously can show themThat ergonomics isn't just like
the flavor of the month.
There's like a huge long-termgame involved with this and they
(10:18):
can buy in and you can helpthose companies for like
literally years if not more.
I am really loving the idea ofinstead of the term marketing
communicating.
That's really what we're doing.
Marketing is this like big termthat I think does more damage or
harm for us.
Ergonomics professionals whowanna bring our skills forward,
(10:42):
our businesses forward, and domore ergonomics assessments.
And that's what my program isall about, accelerate the
business of ergonomics.
I'm giving consultants andprofessionals in general time
saving resources.
And support so that you cancommunicate the benefits and ROI
of ergonomics and then theresources so that when you do
(11:02):
ergonomics assessments, it takesyou less time so you can do more
of them and make more money.
And this idea of communicationrather than marketing really
breaks apart the idea of.
Sketchy sales tactics, used carsalespeople, that type of stuff
that I think keeps manyergonomics professionals back
(11:23):
instead of stepping into wherethe opportunity is.
Have you ever heard about thesix stages of behavior change?
This was a major point in anysort of organizational change,
or maybe you learned about thisin psychology.
There's these six stages ofbehavior change, and this is
(11:45):
what I really think is happeningwith these headlines.
It's helping us do thecommunication that we don't have
to.
Spend effort doing because it'sbeing done on this broader scale
and it's moving our clientstowards the part where they're
actually ready to move forwardwith ergonomics.
(12:07):
because for most of our clients,purchases aren't black or white.
One day they're not evenconsidering ergonomics
assessments.
And then the next day they'relike, oh my word, let's do
ergonomics and bring thisergonomics consultant in, and
we're hire an internalergonomics assessment person to
do all of the work for us.
It doesn't work like that.
(12:28):
This is where the behaviorchange comes in, there's a real
need out there to be sharing theright type of communication that
gets to where our clients are,whether it's internal or
external.
There's the contemplation,preparation, action,
maintenance, and thentermination or relapse.
I really think that theseheadlines.
(12:48):
Are in the pre-contemplationstage of behavioral change.
They're doing a lot of the workthat it would take us time to
educate.
Pre-contemplation is that whenindividuals are not yet aware
that there's a problem withergonomics in their organization
or the need to change and theymay resist it.
(13:08):
What I've seen over my years ofdoing ergonomics assessments is
that if you're not working withan organization.
Then they're probably in thispre-contemplation stage, so this
can last forever.
Unless there's something thatshifts them outta that stage
into the.
Contemplation stage, and thisstage is where individuals are
(13:31):
aware of the problem and startconsidering the possibility of
change, and they're weighing thepros versus the cons.
So this is where maybe they'restarting to reach out to you and
maybe you're doing a discoverycall with that client and
they're not quite ready to takeaction with you.
And then there's a preparation.
(13:51):
Stage, and these are individualswho are actively preparing to
take action and may start makingsmall changes.
Individuals are actively takingsteps to change their behavior.
They call you in and you startdoing ergonomics assessments in
an organization, or they hireyou in to be the in-house
ergonomics consultant for theorganization then there's the
(14:13):
maintenance.
Maintenance is where individualsare working to sustain the
change and prevent relapse.
Maybe that's a retainer clientfor you, and I'm not gonna talk
about the termination orrelapse.
So obviously there's a lot ofstuff that's going on below the
service of your client and youmight not be aware of what.
Stage that they're in, whethertheir contemplation or
(14:37):
preparation, you might not know.
with communication that supportsthe next steps to make a call to
action, whatever you choose todo here, remember, you have to
have patience because this takestime.
It takes time for thoseindividuals who are the decision
makers to go through each ofthese stages and who knows
whatever else they have going onin their lives and in their
(15:00):
businesses.
It can take anywhere betweenseven to 11.
Communication points for aclient to even be aware of you
and your offering ergonomics,let alone consume your content
related to all the wins and howamazing you are.
This is true even fororganizations.
If you're like the in-houseergonomists, I've done both.
(15:21):
As an in-house ergonomists,you're also dealing and working
with other departments who havetheir own goals at the exact
same time as you have theseergonomics goals.
So there's not endless resourcescommunicating these wins can
get.
A win-win situation going whereyou're supporting other
departments in what they'redoing in a way that's not gonna
(15:45):
take up all their resources ortime or money, whatever you do
to define the term resources, wewanna be aligned and be mutually
supportive.
It's not this or that.
The most successful ergonomicsprograms, support departments,
and they're tied together andare really.
Useful way.
But even that takes time tomanage and constant
(16:07):
communication to decision makersin an organization.
So there's four things that Ithink that you can do to fully
leverage these headlines so thatyou can take less effort.
For your communication and startbringing in clients into your
world effortlessly.
So the first thing you wanna dois tailor your message to hit
your client at their stage ofawareness.
(16:30):
And then number two, you wannaprovide relevant information.
You can do this with offeringthe news articles that are
already out there, the casestudies, and the data that
supports each of these stages.
Then what you wanna do is buildrelationships, not make sales,
but build relationships.
You wanna be a trusted advisorand partner in their journey
(16:51):
toward ergonomic excellence.
just because they're not readyto buy from you, from today's
episode and your history ofdoing.
Psychology and other coursesthat you may have taken in your
undergrad or your graduatedegrees, that it takes time to
go through this awareness toaction.
(17:12):
It takes time, but they're gonnaneed ergonomics help at some
point in their lives becausepeople get injured and the
statistics proves it without ashadow of a doubt.
Lastly, number four here I wantyou to showcase success stories.
Start there and if you can comeup with at least five success
stories and talk about theemotions and the wins and who
(17:35):
was involved and get reallytight on that story.
And if you don't have that, Iwant you to look at news
examples, and I want you to dothis to highlight the positive
outcomes of ergonomicinterventions.
And if you can't do that, go tothe literature, check up palmed
Google Scholar, and search thesuccess stories related to
(17:57):
ergonomics.
And you can find it there.
It's not gonna take a lot oftime because there's tons of
success stories, but just talkabout this.
Bring this in, and when you'retalking about ergonomics, when
you're meeting with people,bring it up because although the
headlines are out there andwe're finally hearing ergonomics
success stories and the negativeconsequences of not doing
(18:18):
anything, there's still so muchcommunication that needs to be
happening about what to expectwith the ergonomics.
I think that there is Anopportunity to educate regarding
that.
And a lot of the hard stuff likegetting your foot in the door.
I think that has been done withthe newspaper headlines, which
is really cool.
(18:38):
I wanna remind you that you havethe expertise and the world is
finally recognizing what we'redoing.
How cool is that?
I wanna encourage you to seizethis opportunity to do more
ergonomics assessments, helpmore people, help more
businesses.
So cool.
And if you're doing thisprofessionally already, you love
(18:58):
ergonomics.
You're passionate aboutergonomics.
I want.
You two go to my webinar thatI'm hosting on April the ninth,
and I want you to sign it upbecause I'm gonna show you how
to do more ergonomicsassessments.
All you have to do is go toergonomics
help.com/free-ergo-workshop.
I'm gonna give you the detailsin the show notes.
(19:20):
Till next time, can't wait totalk to you again.
Hope you have a great day, and Ihope you have an even better
week.
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