Investing in people: why good ergonomics is good economics
Ergonomic design is one of those invisible infrastructures that sit below the waterline inside organisations. But failure to address employee discomfort can be costly, says Humanscale
When WORKTECH Academy ran an online Expert Session with furniture company Humanscale last autumn on the value of improving ergonomics in the workplace, the message about the unseen toll of poor design on productivity and wellbeing struck a chord with organisations struggling to make the return to office count.
The online session, which WORKTECH Academy members and partners can view here, featured Jonathan Puleio, Global Vice President at Humanscale Consulting, and Matthew O’Sullivan, Managing Consultant at Humanscale. Together, they explored how better ergonomics can help organisations build healthier, more productive offices.
Cost of inaction
Now Humanscale has followed up with a blog which features key video highlights from the Expert Session and starts with an important provocation: ‘The real question stakeholders should ask isn’t “What will it cost to implement ergonomics?” but rather, “What will it cost if we don’t?”’
According to Humanscale, losing just ten minutes of productive work each day due to discomfort equates to about US $2,000 of lost value annually. The company points to research that suggests employees who experience ongoing discomfort lose more than five hours of productive time per week—roughly 25% of their working year.
However, fitting the job to the workers, rather than the other way around, produces an alignment with several benefits:
- Reduced musculoskeletal discomfort
- Lower risk of injury and absenteeism
- Increased comfort and focus
- Higher quality work and faster task completion
Below the waterline
The Humanscale Expert Session reframed ergonomics as the invisible infrastructure of healthy performance. The Humanscale blog extends this line of thinking, explaining that ‘absence of injury does not equal the presence of health. The majority of ergonomic challenges exist below the waterline—and they’re often the most expensive to ignore.’
Its also reflects a key trend in WORKTECH Academy’s new report, The World of Work in 2026: ‘In 2026, ergonomic integrity is set to emerge as a critical measure of workplace quality: an organisation’s ability to design environments that not only protect but also enhance human capability, sustain healthy postures, and minimise the hidden productivity losses associated with discomfort.’
Read the Humanscale blog in full here.
Watch a video of the Humanscale Expert Session in full here.
Join WORKTECH Academy as a member to enjoy access to premium content here.
