Posted on 7th Oct 2011 @ 2:24 PM

It sounds like one of those potentially silly luxury services -- like pet therapy, perhaps, or an aura analyst. But ergonomic consultants can be tremendously helpful to companies and private individuals who want to minimize the impact, economic and physical, of repetitive stress injuries.

The service itself isn't cheap. Costs vary depending on the consultant and the services provided, but many start at as much as $150 an hour, not including the expense of equipment, such as ergonomic chairs, keyboard and mouse trays, and similar. All of this begins to sound much more reasonable, though, when you stop to consider that companies spend huge amounts of money on lost working hours due to repetitive stress injuries -- $600 million in 2008 alone.

Most ergonomic consultants offer a variety of different levels of service, from classes to office assessments to OSHA compliance. Almost all appear to offer some type of workplace audit, in which they watch the employee use their work area and make recommendations about how to minimize the risk of injury and maximize production.

To determine whether or not your organization needs an ergonomic consultant, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What type of business are you in?

For some organizations, costs for improving ergonomics are fairly minimal, especially during the office planning stage. It may be worth the relatively minor expense of a few hours of consulting time to assess areas in which a small investment will have the greatest impact.

2. How much is it costing you to ignore ergonomic problems?

Are you already seeing significant productivity issues or costs associated with lost work hours?

3. What is your budget?

Your consultant doesn’t need to address every possible problem in order to make an impact on your business. Figuring out how much you're willing to spend ahead of time will help reduce sticker shock in the long run.

Once you've decided to hire an ergonomic consultant, make sure that he or she understands what you're looking for, how much you're willing to spend, and seems in sync with your company's culture and goals. Also, be sure to check their credentials. There are a number of different ergonomic certifications, but the main ones are CIE (Certified Industrial Ergonomist), CPE (Certified Professional Ergonomist), and CPEE (Certified Professional Ergonomic Evaluator.)

Finally, the usual advice for hiring contractors always applies: Ask for references. Anyone worth working with will have plenty of satisfied customers who are willing to tell you how the service has improved their companies.