Prevent repetitive strain injury at work

Train staff to avoid repetitive strain injury

Guide

Training is one of the most important steps you can take to prevent people in your business developing repetitive strain injury (RSI). If workers do not follow the correct guidelines when carrying out tasks, it can increase their risk of RSI.

For example, sitting at a computer workstation won't necessarily cause an employee to develop a RSI, but the risk will be much higher if your employees:

  • don't know how to adjust their seats correctly
  • don't take regular take breaks
  • don't know how to position the computer's screen, keyboard and mouse correctly

Key areas employee training should cover

Be sure that staff training includes the following:

  • potential risks their work involves, eg making repeated forceful movements or using hand-held power tools for long periods
  • how to reduce risks, eg following correct-usage guidelines supplied by equipment manufacturers
  • what's expected of them, eg if power-tool workers need regular short breaks, make sure they take them
  • the symptoms of RSI - the earlier RSI are spotted, the swifter the recovery usually is
  • the correct procedure for reporting a RSI, or a task they think poses a RSI risk