Pre-placement examination: A strategy to ensure benefit to the employees and employers -

Ergonomics is the “science of work” that encompasses different measures to ensure fitting the workplace to the worker. Among all the strategies implemented to safeguard the interests of both workers and employers, pre-placement examination, has been acknowledged as the foundation element. A comprehensive pre-placement examination assists in careful selection of workers, developing systematic plans to help workers to get acclimatized to their job, minimizing health risks to the workers, improving the quality of life of workers, reducing burden on the health care delivery system / insurance companies, maintaining good relations between employee & employer, building a healthy environment at workplace, and eventually augments the outcome of the industry. The pre-placement examination for a given job position is difficult to standardize worldwide, and thus should be tailor-made based on the characteristics of the employee; the type of equipment / process utilized to perform a specific job; routine policy of the industry; and amount of workload. To conclude, pre-placement examination is an integral component of the ergonomics and thus there is an immense need to implement it effectively in all settings to ensure benefit to both employees and employers, and eventually augment the productivity of the industry or economic growth of the nation.