Effective and successful workplace ergonomics involves the application of basic workplace principles to help address a worker’s discomfort, chronic pain or injury. A large part of good ergonomics involves workstation arrangement, equipment orientation and employee work habits. Proper placement of workstation equipment helps, but good ergonomics starts with the selection of furniture that can be easily adjusted to meet the needs of varied employees.

Having an effective ergonomics process can help you identify those job tasks and workplace factors that can put employees at risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). These types of conditions can result in additional expenses and lost productivity for your company. Addressing the risks should be a business imperative. Establishing a good ergonomics process can help reduce the frequency of MSDs, address ergonomic risk factors and concerns, and control workers compensation costs.

Some areas to consider in minimizing the risk of MSDs include:

• Good workstation chairs.
• Proper keyboard and mouse placement.
• Correct monitor/reference material positioning.
• Sufficient lighting to help reduce eyestrain.

Good work habits are essential to avoiding injuries from computer use. Even with the best workstation and properly positioned equipment, employees could end up with discomfort or MSDs. Your employees may develop bad habits over time that can lead to the development of MSDs.

Good habits to promote include, but are not limited to:

• Change your work position, chair height and angle, and keyboard position throughout the day.
• Look away from the screen periodically to focus on distant objects.
• Use the “ALT” functions on your keyboard where possible to reduce mouse use.
• Hold the phone with your non-writing hand or use a headset. Do not hold the phone with your chin and shoulder as this can lead to neck tension, headaches and pinched nerves.
• Stand to reach items on shelves above your desk, rather than reaching from your chair.
• Squat or go to one knee while getting materials from bottom drawers or shelves.

Changing work habits takes time and dedication. Even a slight keyboard height change can initially feel awkward. If a change feels awkward, work using the modified arrangement for at least a week to give it a chance to become natural.

Armed with this information, you can increase employee safety and comfort through education and workstation modifications, rather than making costly furniture or equipment purchases.

Long associated with meditation and relaxation, the practice of mindfulness has become more mainstream in recent years. And, with studies showing that humans aren’t as good at multi-tasking as we think we are, practicing mindfulness or meditation may actually help us be more productive at work.

Ever felt scattered while having 12 browser tabs open on your laptop, while keeping up with a group text on your smartphone and answering emails as they come in? In an age of multi-tasking, mindfulness can help us be in a state of moment-to-moment awareness of our experience. So, can practicing mindfulness help your small business become more productive?

Here are five potential benefits:

1. Mindfulness may help you and your team prioritize better. Multi-tasking is really task-switching, because it’s not possible for the brain to handle two tasks simultaneously. A research study at Stanford University found that multi-tasking actually made participants less able to switch tasks effectively, likely because they were less able to filter out irrelevant distractions.1 Since not every task has the same level of importance to your small business, being able to discern what’s most important can be a critically important skill.

2. Mindfulness can help boost your working memory. Research has shown an increase in working memory among participants in an eight-week mindfulness training.2 That working memory can translate to productivity if employees are able to better recall training and other information useful for their work – and may even help them avoid accidents and injuries at work if they are better able to remember safety practices.

3. Mindfulness can help reduce stress. According to an American Psychological Association survey, 60 percent of respondents reported that work is a very or somewhat significant source of stress, second only to money matters.3 Serious health issues can arise from stress, from hypertension to cardiovascular disease. Mindfulness training, especially when practiced as a team, can help reduce anxiety and teach emotion regulation strategies to better handle difficult situations.

4. Mindfulness can help improve focus. Distractions abound in the modern office. Open office concepts can mean employees need to filter out foosball matches to focus, frequent meetings may disrupt workflow, and notifications from email, texts and other social media can make it hard to concentrate. A study that looked at how participants were able to focus found that experienced mindful meditators performed better on all measures of attention and had higher self-reported mindfulness than those with no meditation experience.4

5. Mindfulness can be a good team-building activity. Practicing mindfulness can be a great way to bring a team together, by providing a team-building activity and by teaching how to better relate to one another. Whether you invite an instructor in to lead a yoga, tai chi or qigong class, or you offer a more structured meditation training program, the team can apply what they learn to handling challenges at work, being more focused and taking time to be present.

Thinking of how to get started? Of course, any mindfulness program should be voluntary for employees. Thirty-minute sessions once or twice a week can create a space where your team can practice guided meditation and discuss how to apply it to their experiences at work. Creating a more mindful culture can have benefits for you and your team, both inside and outside of the office.

Sources:
1 http://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15583.full.pdf?sid=d448f6fe-219c-402a-a617-03e7c5ed527c
2 http://www.amishi.com/lab/wp-content/uploads/jha_stanley_etal_emotion_2010.pdf
3 http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2014/stress-report.pdf
4 Moore, A. & Malinowski, P. (2009). Meditation, mindfulness and cognitive flexibility. Consciousness & Cognition, 18(1), 176-186

The term distracted driving has become much-discussed as of late, but distracted walking is another common phenomenon. From crossing intersections to pushing shopping carts in crowded parking lots, you can see pedestrians focused more on their smartphones in potentially dangerous situations than their surroundings. There are near-misses with passing cars, twisted ankles on potholes and collisions with objects or other distracted walkers.

Injuries from walking while using a cell phone more than doubled over a five-year period, while the total number of pedestrian injuries dropped during the same time period.1 Researchers believe the actual numbers might be higher than reported, especially if patients are reluctant to share the true cause of their injuries. It has become such a problem that for the first time, the National Safety Council included cell phone distracted walking as a cause of unintentional deaths and injuries in its 2015 Injury Facts Report.2

When distracted walking meets the workplace, employee health can suffer. Workers operating machinery while texting or using their smartphones may injure themselves or others, which may lead to lost time from work. Employees more focused on their devices than another person as they pass in common corridors may not be as engaged in their immediate surroundings and might not see potential hazards.

Creating a Formal Policy

There are also concerns about productivity associated with distracted walking. If you go to a common area in a company, you will likely find employees walking and talking or texting during business hours. Distracted walking can be part of a broader conversation about the use of mobile devices, personal email, texting and browsing the Internet during the work day.

A formal policy to address distracted walking, as part of a policy on the appropriate use of personal devices in the workplace, can help set some guidelines for employees and reduce distractions. As with all aspects of creating a culture of safety, it is important that people at all levels of the company adhere to the policy.

Sources:
1 http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/distractwalk.htm
2 http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/news-and-resources-pedestrian-safety.aspx

The modern office for the road warrior could find you working anywhere at any time, from early mornings at the corner coffee shop to red-eye flights at your airplane’s seatback tray table. You may even work virtually, without a traditional corporate office, moving your laptop from the kitchen counter to your home office without setting up an ergonomically-correct workplace. Over time, these work situations can take their toll on the body.

Although laptops and tablets allow for greater mobility and compactness, they lack the adjustability of traditional desktop workstations. With the on-the-go workforce here to stay, it is important to avoid the discomfort, strains and sprains that can accompany poor ergonomics. Following are some tips to help road warriors improve their comfort, wherever their travels may take them.

Trading Adjustability for Mobility

The standard desktop computer consists of three basic and traditionally separate elements: the monitor, the keyboard and a pointing device, such as a mouse. These three are integrated into the laptop in a design that typically trades adjustability for compactness. According to Travelers Risk Control ergonomics professionals, adjustability is a major factor in user comfort.

That lack of adjustability in a laptop may either mean that having the laptop keyboard in an optimal position results in a difficult-to-read screen, or that positioning the laptop screen for better eye comfort places the laptop keyboard in an uncomfortable position. Fortunately, there are ways to compensate for this lack of adjustability.

Pointing Device (aka Mouse) Tips

• Consider using an external mouse (either a full size or travel size) or pointing device, which you can connect to your laptop.
• To help maximize comfort for your arm, hand and fingers, use your whole hand and arm when moving the pointing device.
• Do not tensely hold your fingers and thumb or squeeze them together when keying or using the pointing device.

Keyboard Tips

• Continue to float your hands and lightly touch the keys while typing.
• Check for any special key commands (e.g., isolated cursor control, function keys and hot keys) that can provide shortcuts and reduce the use of your pointing device.
• Take short breaks to relax your wrists, hands, fingers and arms.
• Wherever your main workstation is located, such as an office or home setting, use an external keyboard that you can connect to your laptop. Ideally, the keys should be at elbow height.

Laptop Monitor Tips

• Angle the laptop screen so that you can see the font with the least amount of neck deviation.
• Work to position the top of the screen at or slightly below eye level. You may need to elevate the laptop using books or a monitor riser, and then have a separate attachment for the keyboard and mouse.
• In the office or at home, attach a full-sized monitor to your laptop.
• For easier connection for your laptop, a docking station quickly connects a full-sized monitor and keyboard. This allows the user the ability to adjust for comfort.

Tablet Monitor Tips

• Connect an external keyboard if you have to frequently type into a tablet. This is typically available via Bluetooth.
• When typing directly onto a touch screen, vary your postures by frequently alternating your typing styles, such as typing with the tablet on a table or holding it in a vertical orientation and typing with your thumbs. This can help reduce neck discomfort caused by constantly looking down while typing on the screen when the tablet is on the table.
• Limit your typing directly on the touch screen to the least amount necessary.
• When reading only, prop the tablet at a comfortable position with the least amount of neck deviation.

Extreme temperatures, from wintry winds to summer heat waves, can make us more mindful of the importance of an energy-efficient home. But no matter the season or which climate you live in, taking a few key steps can make a significant difference on your energy bills and improve the comfort of your home.

That’s because making your home more energy efficient can do more than help control temperatures. Mold, excessive dust, ice dams, moisture on windows, sinus problems and inordinate noise can also be potentially addressed by making home improvements.

Rather than one-off solutions, such as adding insulation or replacing dated appliances with more energy efficient ones, ENERGY STAR® recommends a more holistic approach. Their Home Performance survey, conducted by a qualified contractor, can help homeowners identify specific problems. For example, ice-cold kitchen floors, a second-floor bedroom that’s too hot in the summer or high energy bills, might be signs of larger issues.

According to ENERGY STAR, here are some improvements that homeowners typically make after an audit of their home:

• Air sealing and adding insulation. Sealing up all of the small holes throughout your home can improve energy efficiency and also keep out dust and pests. Attics and basements can be primary culprits, but doors and windows can also account for air leaks.
  • Lack of insulation in the attic or air leaks around pipes and chimneys can lead to escaping heat in the winter.
  • In the basement, leaks are common where the basement walls meet the floors above.
  • Leaks around doors, windows and pipes may be sealed with caulk or expanding foam.
  • Crawlspaces can draw in cold air in the winter and humid air in the summer.
• Heating and cooling. Systems that are more than 10 years old can be replaced with models that have earned the government’s ENERGY STAR rating.
  • ENERGY STAR-rated heating and cooling systems, when properly installed and used correctly, can help homeowners save up to 10 percent on home utility bills.
  • When used correctly, an ENERGY STAR-rated programmable thermostat can provide additional savings and increase comfort by having your home programmed based on your schedule.
• Ducts. Forced hot air and central cooling systems use ducts to move air throughout the home.
  • If some rooms in the house are never comfortable, it could be due to gaps, leaks or tears in ductwork.
  • Sealing leaks and making sure ducts are straight and properly connected will help increase the home’s energy efficiency, while making those difficult-to-heat-or-cool rooms more comfortable.
• Lighting and appliances. Replacing appliances with ENERGY STAR-rated versions can save money on utility bills.
  • Refrigerators, clothes washers and dryers, dishwashers, and lighting fixtures are among the more than 50 kinds of products that carry the ENERGY STAR label.
  • These products also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

After a home contractor inspects your home, you should receive a detailed work proposal following the evaluation. The contractor may have other recommendations, such as installing solar panels or a solar hot water system. Homeowners can expect to save 20 percent or more on the annual utility bill, depending on the type of improvements. For more details and to find a participating contractor, visit www.energystar.gov.

Learn more about Travelers homeowners insurance products, or if you’re ready to take the next step, click here to get a quote or find an agent.

Company Release – 2/25/2019 2:41 PM ET

HARTFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV) has announced an innovative new benefit for its employees that takes the tough choice out of paying down student debt or saving for retirement.

With The Travelers Paying It Forward Savings Program, payments by eligible U.S. employees toward their student loans will qualify for the company’s 401(k) Plan “matching” program.

The new program will help tackle two of the biggest financial challenges Americans face today: getting out from under the burden of student loan debt and building healthy savings for retirement.

“We have the most talented workforce in our industry and benefit immeasurably from the education and expertise they bring to their work,” said Alan Schnitzer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Travelers. “Yet many of our colleagues all too often struggle to save for retirement because student loans weigh so heavily on their finances. Investing in their education shouldn’t stop our employees from investing in their future. We are promoting a standard of employee care that enables them to do both.”

According to the Federal Reserve, student loan debt in the United States reached more than $1.5 trillion at the end of 2018. Starting to save early is key to a healthy retirement fund, yet the Fed’s latest Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households noted that 41 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they had no retirement savings. The report also highlighted that 42 percent of those who attended college, representing 30 percent of all adults, have incurred at least some debt for their education.

As part of its leading benefits package, Travelers currently has a “matching” program for employee contributions to 401(k) accounts. Beginning in January 2020, when The Travelers Paying It Forward Savings Program takes effect, student loan payments will also be taken into account when determining the company’s 401(k) contribution.

Employees, including those who are not in a position to contribute at all to their 401(k) accounts because of student loans, who participate in the new program could accumulate tens of thousands of dollars in their 401(k) accounts over a decade, which could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars at retirement. That demonstrates the importance of starting to save for retirement early in order to realize the benefit of compounding returns over time.

Travelers hires thousands of employees each year under the age of 35, most of whom have college degrees and many of whom have advanced degrees.

“This program is truly life changing for those of us who are chipping away at our debt and still trying to build for our futures,” said a user experience designer who joined Travelers in 2018 with a degree in visual communication design. “It speaks volumes about how a company that cares about its employees invests in their personal well-being and success.”

Blake Perry, a claim manager at Travelers, said, “In a long list of initiatives I’ve seen Travelers implement to support and invest in employees during my nine years with the organization, I believe this is among the most impactful of them all. I look forward to participating fully!” Blake joined Travelers in 2010 and has a degree in political science as well as an advanced degree in law.

About Travelers
The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV) is a leading provider of property casualty insurance for auto, home and business. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Travelers has approximately 30,000 employees and generated revenues of approximately $30 billion in 2018. For more information, visit www.travelers.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190225005944/en/

Media:
Matt Bordonaro, 860-277-7014
mbordona@travelers.com

Source: The Travelers Companies, Inc.