A study from the Colorado State University and the Colorado School of Public Health shows that employers who focus on the welfare and safety of their employees as much as they focus on their productivity see better results all around from their workers.

“Ergonomics Climate Assessment: A measure of operational performance and employee well-being” looked at the Ergonomics Climate Assessment that workers gave to their workplace. An ergonomics climate looks at how the workplace is adapted to “get the job done” in a way that also tries to make sure workers face less hazard in how they do their job. Over a two year period, researchers asked 706 employees about how well they thought their workplace structured the work environment to make sure they were getting the best out of their workers while also paying attention to their well-being and pain at work. Those workers who said they felt their workplace did not focus on well-being and focused heavily on performance or the other way around said there was a higher amount of work-related pain in their job. Employees who said the two were more closely balanced (positive ergonomics climate) reported lower amounts of work-related pain. Authors thought that employees might be feeling pain even if their workplace did heavily emphasis well-being over productivity, because then they might feel like the ergonomic improvement would actually hinder their performance at work and they might strain themselves to get the job done.

According to the authors, adopting ergonomic principles in the workplace can reduce physical pain and mental burnout, lower risk of work-related illness and injuries and improve the overall efficiency of the workplace. Employees were asked about their involvement, hazards on the job, training and knowledge they had or received, and the commitment of management.

This could be a wake-up call to employers who are only looking at the bottom line. Sometimes employers argue that making such improvement will be costly to their business and they won’t see ROI. This study shows it might be a good idea to make such improvement as it could benefit the overall performance of their workplace and keep employees happier and healthier.