Ergonomics is a study that figures out how a workplace is best designed to achieve efficiency, safety, productivity and comfort for the employees. Ergonomics put a lot of focus on how the physical arrangement of a workplace affects the well-being of the employees.
An Ergonomic Trend
Ergonomics seems to have become part of mainstream marketing lingo, with many businesses claiming to subscribe to an ergonomic culture. Ergonomic furniture is gaining popularity as more and more companies are recognizing the practicality in investing on their employees’ comfort and well-being. They are fast realizing that this type of investment yields significant returns�"employee productivity, retention and savings on medical and insurance expenses.
The benefits businesses get from ergonomic furniture go beyond the obvious. Unknown to some people is the existence of ‘cumulative trauma injuries’, an epidemic that has been hitting computer users. The injury may start with simple sore shoulders and neck. At its worst, the disorder translates to employees getting disabled or losing their jobs. These disasters could cost your company in terms of health insurance, costly employee recruitment and training for replacements.
Beyond the Furniture
Your choice of furniture pieces undoubtedly holds major influence on the type of workforce you have. Still, providing for a quality workplace should go beyond the physical arrangement of the office. You should be able to cultivate a generally positive outlook among your employees. You should teach them to embrace a quality way of life. Remind them to listen to their bodies, to take note of ails or any such warning.
You should also teach your staff some basic stress management techniques. Get personal. Pay attention to individual needs. Many firms pay too much attention on technology that promises to increase productivity, only to fail with the basics.
Cultivate a healthy lifestyle among your employees. Remind them to get enough sleep and to take on a healthy diet. Also, take heed of what professionals are recommending�"instruct your employees to take a fifteen-minute break every after two hours of work.
Beat the Irony
Another ironic thing about businesses’ ergonomic efforts is that they put a lot of attention on putting together the right furniture pieces, with all the right adjustment at the right places, only to fail to communicate their functions to the employees who will actually use them.
Do not make this mistake. So you bought the perfect desks and the chair with the right adjustments. Don’t just stop there. Be ready to give your staff the right training so that they do learn to make the proper adjustments. The key is to have the workplace adjust to your employees’ unique anatomical needs (not the other way around).
Invest in a quality workforce and be ready to get enormous ‘return on investment’.
The Aberdeen Group states, in The Cost of Not Acting: The Total Telecom Cost Management Benchmark Report, that the average Fortune 500 Company spends 3.6% of their total revenue on telecom and related expenses. Telecom expense management is the end-to-end, automated management of wireline and wireless expenses, as well as circuits and devices. This encompasses the entire telecom lifecycle, including contract sourcing, procurement, provisioning, inventory management, wireless management and invoice processing/auditing. Reducing these expenses by even a few percentage points can have a significant effect on the enterprise's profitability.
The dramatic drop in telecom rates over the past two decades has created the perception that controlling telecom expenses is less important than in the past, but this belief is not borne out in practice. The reality is that, on average, corporate telecom costs have gone up, due to the proliferation of new applications, such as cell phones, smart phones, pagers, laptops and other portable devices. The sharp increase of high-speed Internet connections has also driven up costs.
Telecom cost savings can be achieved in many areas. For example, the same Aberdeen report mentions that a surprising 65% of survey respondents incur late fees. Although this constitutes but a small percentage of the overall costs, that money could have been put to good use instead.
A complete telecom expense management system is a software system that comprises the following areas:
- A centralized telecom inventory control system. The maxim that one cannot control what cannot be measured suggests that the first area to be addressed is to establish a complete inventory of all telecom resources and services. Many companies have only a vague idea of what equipment and services it is paying for. Companies are often billed for equipment or services they no longer use.
- Centralized telecommunications procurement. This is a logical next step. Unless procurement is also centralized, the inventory will quickly go out of date because of unreported telecom purchases. Moreover, centralized procurement will also tend to avoid unnecessary purchases and save money through bulk purchasing.
- Centralized processing of telecom invoices. This helps to make sure they are paid on time. In addition, by comparing invoice detail against actual call detail records (CDR) and vendor tariff agreements, billing errors can quickly be identified and corrected.
Monitor resource usage. This will help to identify discontinued resources that may still be billed for, as well as inefficiencies, waste, telecom bottlenecks, and unauthorized or fraudulent use of resources. By detecting and reporting anomalies, the system improves security, which is important in this era of terrorism and industrial espionage.
The key to a successful telecom expense management system is automation and organization. The savings in labor costs alone can be dramatic. In addition, productivity can be boosted by relating telecom costs to individual departments, sections, projects, or even individual employees.
In short, a company that does not have a telecom expense management technique in place is in fact wasting funds, while an investment in TEM software will soon pay for itself.
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Both Benicio Brown & Peter Verhoeff are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Benicio Brown has sinced written about articles on various topics from computers and the internet, Cosmetic Surgery and Entertainment Guide. Learn more about ergonomics and also buy the right type of at the Online Office Furniture store.. Benicio Brown's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.
Peter Verhoeff has sinced written about articles on various topics from The Internet, Guide Guitar. For more information about , visit the. Peter Verhoeff's top article generates over 590 views. to your Favourites.