Fatigue has real consequences in manufacturing, but not always the kind you notice right away. Workers who stand for long shifts without adequate rest are at risk for musculoskeletal injuries and other cumulative stress injuries. When it goes unaddressed over time, it can result in lost productivity all the way to employee turnover.

Jessica Hillman, ergonomics specialist at SureWerx, says a large portion of employees are on their feet on hard surfaces throughout their workday and don’t have the support they need.

In her role, she aims to understand the overall picture of the job so she can design solutions to better support workers as they perform their tasks.

Anti-fatigue solutions are foundational to this effort. Particularly, mats and insoles provide support to the feet, which moves that support up the body in a chain, she says.

Here, Hillman explains why anti-fatigue insoles and other solutions are so important to manufacturing businesses.

What physical challenges do employees face when standing on hard surfaces?

Direct physical consequences include musculoskeletal disorders, which affect the muscles, ligaments and joints. Things like strains or chronic back pain. Plantar fasciitis could happen with the feet.

There are also impacts to circulation. If you’re standing for long periods, it might affect how your body pumps blood and lead to pooling in your veins and swelling in your legs.

Whenever you have insufficient time to rest, you are unable to get your resilience back up, and it increases your risk of further injury. It might not be a sudden injury. We’re talking about something that accumulates over time because of all that standing and a lack of rest periods.

How does standing fatigue affect performance?

You might have a certain level of performance for the first half of the morning, and by the second half, you’re looking at fatigue, and you might need to increase breaks or potentially have unscheduled breaks.

Every time that a person is not at their workstation, of course that’s impacting the larger picture of output and revenue. If you aren’t supporting the negative effects of standing and fatigue, you may potentially have less ability to retain that workforce as people age.

The first factor of ergonomics is designing job tasks to reduce the risk of injury, but then we also do it in a way that a worker can perform those tasks more efficiently and productively.

What are the limitations of floor matting?

The largest factor with floor matting is that it’s an external solution. You have to think about how it interacts with the individual but also the environment.

For example, are you in a food production facility where the environment is wet and the mat might absorb something it’s not supposed to, creating a sanitation risk? Are employees having to haul carts and equipment over this mat? Is the mat wearing and tearing or curling over time?

Employees might stack their matting, so now you have an even higher barrier when it comes to slips, trips and falls.

And unfortunately, you can’t put matting everywhere. We have a highly mobile workforce who don’t get the opportunity to consider matting as a solution. They’re on their feet, constantly moving.

Are there anti-fatigue solutions besides floor matting?

A lot of the time, anti-fatigue insoles can come in as an alternative to matting. Rather than being external, it’s now internal to the footwear.

You’re able to have the anti-fatigue benefit, but also some arch and heel support. We want to support the foundation of the body and have a nice shock absorber.

It also fits into a broader safety strategy. Whenever you’re evaluating your footwear solutions and you’re adding an anti-fatigue insole, you want to look at your requirements and the style and selection of the footwear that you’re choosing.

Do you have a steel-toe mandate, for example? Is there a 6-inch or 8-inch boot mandate? Do you need puncture resistance? Do you need insulating or cooling benefits?

You want to look holistically at the hazard you’re trying to address. That determines the best fit and style of the insole. With MEGAComfort, we have a lot of different styles to help with different needs.

How is employee comfort connected to job satisfaction?

With standing tasks, when you provide an anti-fatigue solution that improves fit and comfort, we’ve seen that you’ll improve compliance with safety footwear, because you’re creating a comfortable base of support for employees throughout the day.

There has been an increase in employers having on-site wellness programs to be more proactive versus reactive and build a supportive work environment for employees.

Anytime you implement a solution, whether it’s personal protective equipment or a wellness initiative, you want to educate workers on why you’re doing it. Create that direct connection for them. When they see the benefits, you’ll see an improvement in culture, happiness and well-being.