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Communications and Media Group

Working with display screen equipment

01 February 2010

Introduction

Over the last 30 years businesses across the world have developed such that it is second nature for most employees to use PCs or Laptops in a variety of ways to support their tasks.

During the 80’s as their use grew it became evident that poorly designed work stations, repetitive tasks and physical health limitations could lead to an increased risk of ill health and sickness absence related to upper limb disorders, back ache, fatigue, stress, temporary eye strain and headaches.

Of course the more employees that businesses have using this equipment the greater the risk of employees experiencing ill health.

In 1993 The Display Screen Equipment (DSE) Regulations came into force with some minor amendments made in 2002. In brief the Regulations require employers to:

Analyse workstations to assess and reduce risk
Ensure that workstations meet specified minimum requirements
Plan work activities so that they include breaks or changes of activity
Provide eye and eyesight tests on request, and special spectacles if needed
Provide information and training.

In the Regulations a ‘workstation’ can be defined as a permanent or temporary assembly including screen, keyboard, other parts of the computer and accessories (mouse keyboard etc), the desk, chair and immediate work environment”.

The definition of “user “within the regulations [i] can cause confusion, as the majority of individuals may not meet any one laid down criteria, but throughout their day predominantly sit at a DSE Workstation. This may vary from call centre staff (could be users) who interact with the DSE throughout their shift patterns to those who use it as a communication and reference tool (operators).

A Corporate Approach

Orange PCS launched in 1994 with the Regulations still very new and easy to misinterpret. Today Orange has around 12,000 employees, with about half based in UK call centres and the remainder spread throughout 16 office sites and 400 retail stores. Their DSE tasks vary from permanent workstations with extensive use to laptops with occasional, light email use. It was clear that there was no simple definition of a DSE user for Orange and that pragmatism and flexibility was required in order to stay competitive and maintain legal compliance.

Orange defines “users” as those who normally work with DSE for continuous or near continuous spells of an hour or more on a daily basis [ii].

To cover off the requirement for information, training and risk assessments with minimal disruption to business Orange developed a bespoke e-learning package for all DSE users (including home workers). Additional on line training modules were also made available to cater for task specific software.

E-Learning

The e-learning is designed to give employees an overview to the basic ergonomic principles that apply at their workstation. The session should take individuals no longer then an hour to complete. Additional assistance is available via;

Locally appointed first Line Assessors
Regionally appointed Ergonomic Assessors, and
Orange internal policies and procedures

Modules

1. Introduction

This is a brief outline of the course and how to re-enter for refresher training or reference purposes at a later date.

2. About your body

Covers the effects that a poorly adjusted workstation can have on your body

3. Adjusting your chair

Information is provisioned so that individuals can adjust their chair to suite their own needs (the company preferred chair is also similar to most chairs on the open market and therefore applies to the majority in use)

4. Adjusting your screen

Gives guidance on correct distance and height adjustment, it also gives information on adjusting brightness, contrast, fonts and colour.

5. Work arrangements

This stresses on the importance of varying tasks and the taking of breaks, here breaks are classed as, formal (lunch coffee etc) Informal (filing and other non related DSE work) and exercise (getting up, stretching).

6. Adjusting the layout of your workstation

The key points covered in this module, are the making of simple adjustment to the workstation to avoid personal discomfort.

7. Adjusting your work environment.

This highlights the effects that the office environment can have on the individuals comfort and covers topics such as lighting, temperature, humidity, ventilation, and noise.

8. Risk Assessment

This module confirms that the individual has completed the training and can adjust their workstation to meet their own personal needs. Where this cannot be achieved the individual is prompted to write a brief explanation.

On completion, the results of the assessment are generated into an email to their Line Managers

Summary

All Line Managers are responsible for resolving identified issues. Additional assistance is readily available via the DSE policy and the Health & Safety Team.

This approach has proved very efficient and has greatly reduced the need in Orange for specialist assessments. The process minimises disruption to business and allows management first sight of any issues that may exist with their team members.

This E learning process is however, dependent on other internal policies to support it such as: