WELL Building Feature V11: Ergonomics Programming
A consultants response to the WELL Building Standard’s Movement Feature V11: Ergonomics Programming
What is the WELL Building Standard?
The WELL Certification process for WELL V2 is now widely established as the leading healthy building and wellness real estate standard in the world today.
It is essentially a series of guidelines backed by rigorous scientific research, that when taken together, will guide a real estate project, whether new build construction or refurbishment and fit-out, towards a final product that is aligned with human health and wellness.
Sections of the V2 standard are dedicated to Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Sound, Materials, Mind, Community & Innovation.
What is WELL consulting?
A WELL AP or WELL consultant is there to assist a project team through the certification process, ensuring maximum points are scored along the way by offering expert advice not just on how to lock-in points but also the principles that lie behind them. As a result, the project has every chance of becoming a model of health and wellness in the built environment.
Additionally, a WELL consultant’s skill set might include wellness interior design, biophilic design, knowledge in healthy buildings and consideration for sustainability / green buildings, a WELL building’s close cousin, as well as expertise in health and fitness, or as WELL like to call it ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Movement’ and ‘Nourishment’.
What is required from projects pursuing WELL Feature / Movement V11 Ergonomics Programming?
Real estate and healthy building projects pursuing WELL Certification are, for feature V11, required to engage with a certified ergonomist to assist in creating comfortable workstations for all staff in order to avoid the most common issues such as lower back pain, wrist pain or a sore neck.
This specialist should also be brought in for regular visits to make ongoing improvements. Given the shift to working from home of late, he/she is also to assist with remote workers’ ergonomics arrangements.
Why is ergonomics important for a healthy building or healthy workplace?
In short, we’re confronting musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) here, one of the primary health risks in the modern workplace that has a direct correlation with absenteeism / sick days and low productivity due to anxiety, discomfort and low level stress.
What does the WELL standard aim to do about it?
An ergonomics specialist will look at the physical environment, for example sit-stand desks or active workstations, as well as internal organizational culture / behavior and, especially in blue collar circumstances, the type of movements and processes involved in the work itself.
For a separate blog article on ergonomic furniture in a healthy office design see our blog post here
Implementing an ergonomics program for WELL Feature V11 (1 point)
Firstly, in terms of human resources, a project must either engage with a certified ergonomist / consultant for help with this feature or have an employee with a similar certification and iis formally responsible for delivering the program.
In other words, this needs to be handled by someone who knows what they are doing and WELL want to see proof of a company taking it seriously!
Additionally, a program needs to include stakeholder consultations, a task analysis by a certified ergonomist, individual ergonomic assessments either virtually or in-person on an annual basis after initial employee on-boarding.
This program also needs to be backed up by an engagement plan with workshops or annual training delivered by the certified ergonomist.
Ergonomic improvements for a healthy workplace (1 point)
A project pursuing WELL certification Feature V11 needs to either describe how this feature informed their decisions in Feature V02 Ergonomics Workstation Design and V07 Active Furnishings.
Alternatively, the project team show that they have heard individual ergonomic needs of employees and have actioned a plan to respond to them, with a timeline communicated to those individuals.
Supporting remote work ergonomics (1 point)
Finally, a project team ought to show they have taken into consideration working from home ergonomics too, tailoring parts of the plan above to those spending time at home on a regular basis for remote work, this includes making ergonomic furnishings available to remote workers, whether via a subsidy or reimbursement.
We hope this article has proven useful! Contact us here to discuss how we can help you with workplace wellness and the WELL Building Certification process.