On 31st January 2017 we headed to Sydney to deliver a special ergonomics forum for over 100 selected ergonomists, health and safety professionals and managers. Working in partnership with Procare Group, a leading provider of integrated insurance and risk solutions, the event brought together four separate organisations and six expert speakers.

The talks covered a range of topics, from the ergonomic risks to our future workforce, to the changing landscape of our office environments, concluding with a few bottles of fine English sparkling wine for our delegates to taste.

The event opened with Jon Abbott (Cardinus Risk Management’s Sales and Marketing Director) talking about one of his pet projects, heightening the awareness around musculoskeletal issues impacting young people due to prolonged use of mobile and tablet devices. As young people prepare to enter the workforce the cost to employers will be significant.

Following on from that Procare’s Carrie MacDonald and Michelle Bremer took on activity-based working and its impact in the workplace. The positive benefits of activity-based working are numerous, including enabling employees to perform at their best, improve physical and mental wellbeing, boost performance and multiply the effects of an ergonomics programme beyond the workplace.

We then heard from Westpac’s David Ninnes and Aimee Willis on the how the work environment and employee wellbeing offer productivity boosting benefits. In particular, the focus was on putting in place the right type of interventions to optimise productivity levels.

We hope to obtain the full presentation for the above talk so that you can get an insight into the topic they discussed, however it is unavailable at this time.

Lastly, we heard from Trent Chapman. This talk was a fascinating look into the changing face of the workplace, discussing not only the ergonomic developments over the years, but also the layout and organisation of office spaces as new ideas have entered the business world. Take a look at some of the fascinating office layouts and designs in his SlideShare below.

We’d like to thank all the delegates for attending. We had a fantastic time delivering this event to you and hope that you benefited greatly from it.

2 presentations from The Sydney Ergonomics Forum, 2017:

The Impact of Activity-Based Working on Work-Life, Wellbeing and Productivity