Unique Training Program Assists Businesses in Reducing Costs and Enhancing Safety

Rochester Institute of Technology’s Occupational Safety and Ergonomics Excellence Program is offering free ergonomic consultations to small and medium-sized grocery stores through a Susan Harwood Training Grant sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Program engineers provide a walk-through assessment and on-site ergonomics training to identify possible risk factors stemming from repetitive motion or activities causing undue muscle stress. The team then provides a confidential report to management that summarizes the findings and offers a series of recommendations for reducing risk. Qualifying stores must have fewer than 200 employees.

“Companies we work with see significant reductions in worker’s compensation costs and improvements in overall productivity due to decreases in lost worker hours due to injury,” says Tracy Freas, staff engineer and ergonomics team leader at RIT.

The current grant project follows a previous training initiative offered to grocery stores in the nine-county Finger Lakes region. The successes realized by businesses through the initial program led to an expansion to other areas of New York State.

The Occupational Safety and Ergonomics Excellence Program was formed in 1996 and has assisted numerous companies in reducing ergonomic risk factors and improving health and safety. For more information about the program or to request an assessment please visit their Web site at http://www.cims.rit.edu/OSEE/ or contact Tracy Freas at (585) 475-5807.