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Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are among the most common workplace injuries. The Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index consistently shows that overexertion injuries from activities such as lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing, or pulling are the leading cause of injury across industries, with awkward working postures also ranking in the top ten. The serious health impacts and associated costs of MSDs highlight the need for a strong workplace ergonomics program to predict and prevent these injuries.

Organizations that deploy a formalized and standardized approach to ergonomics often achieve best-in-class results, including significant reductions in MSDs and worker compensation costs annually.

During this session, we'll cover the six common barriers to effective ergonomics programs, including:
• Lack of a formalized management system (e.g., ISO 45001 or ANSI/ASSP Z10)
• Inconsistent methods to assess overall MSD risks (e.g., MSD heat map of risk)
• Inadequate tools to quantify efforts and evaluate the effectiveness of controls
• Reliance on outdated or ineffective assessment tools (e.g., REBA and RULA)
• Overuse of ineffective controls (e.g., job rotation, lifting techniques, stretching)
• Misalignment of ergonomics with broader business priorities like sustainability, operational excellence, lean manufacturing, or Industry 4.0/5.0 initiatives 

OEHS professionals are increasingly asked to contribute to an organization's ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting activities. Reporting criteria have been evolving, but historically have been scattered in the absence of regulations, or consensus standards published by a significant standards-development entity. This session will provide a brief review of the ESG reporting landscape, with emphasis on elements related to our profession. An update on activities of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) will be given. The primary focus of the session is on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) related to "own workforce" (S1) and "workers in the value chain" (S2). Examples of how organizations are addressing these requirements are given. The importance of materiality (single and double), impacts, and dependencies are reviewed along with associated reporting complexities.