Case study: Southeastern – creating a company-wide musculoskeletal disorders policy
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the leading causes of health absence in the rail industry, and this is reflected at Southeastern.
The operator had several policies and processes to reduce MSDs but lacked a specific policy that defined how it would prevent, mitigate, and manage musculoskeletal health risks. So it developed one.
Southeastern shares methods and lessons from their journey to support other rail organisations.
What prompted the new policy?
We were carrying out a wider piece of work on cab ergonomics, following an inspection by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The ORR requires operators to outline how they plan to prevent and manage MSDs. We had all the measures in place, but they were not documented in an accessible location for staff. We were asked to create a standalone MSD policy.
How did you plan and design the intervention?
We conducted an information-gathering exercise to identify and fully understand current MSD risk-management measures. We spoke to, or had meetings with, local trainers, administrators, and functions across the business, including passenger services and engineering, among others.
We reviewed existing documentation, including risk assessments, reporting processes, and other internal policies. We also reviewed its training suite, guidance on manual handling risk, and display screen equipment.
We worked with its human resources department safety leads as well as third external occupational health specialists and physiotherapists. This preparatory work enabled us to review and identify areas for improvement.
What did you do to better manage MSDs?
We created a MSDs standard policy, which can be embedded within Southeastern. The policy, which is owned by the head of safety and environment, sets out arrangements to reduce work-related MSDs in order to avoid ill health and accidents in the workplace.
The policy:
- sets out responsibilities in achieving the agreed measures
- shows how Southeastern will monitor and review the efficacy of the arrangements
- includes referral pathways
- encourages colleagues to raise work-related MSD concerns
- sets clear expectations about how concerns will be resolved.
How is the policy structured?
The MSDs policy structure includes the eight sections below. Operators that are creating their own MSDs policy can use the list as a checklist.
- Purpose
- Scope
- MSD policy statement
- How MSDs may occur within the workplace
- Risk prevention
- Managing the risks of MSDs
- Responsibilities
- Review and monitoring
How will you measure the efficacy of its risk-reduction measures?
We are using existing data measures to monitor the effectiveness of the measures in place. This includes the use of absence rates, accidents and incident reports, occupational health (OH) referrals, and physiotherapy treatments. Going forward, this will also be covered as part of our internal and external audit scope.
We have recently carried out a survey with train drivers, which will provide comparative data. We will also use the feedback to make further improvements.
In addition, we plan to use benchmarking data, which will be obtained through third-party providers and their clients and, at an industry-wide level, through the implementation of a wellbeing key performance indicator dashboard.
What challenges were faced?
We did not face many challenges in implementing the policy.
Our Company Standards and Recommendations Group, which has representation from across the business, reviewed and approved the policy before it was rolled out company-wide. During the development process, an ergonomics consultant, an OH practitioner, a physiotherapist, and the ORR, among others, provided feedback on the policy.
We did not find any examples of MSD policies in the industry, so it had to be created its from scratch. We drew on individual knowledge around policy writing and examples of MSD policies other industries.
What has the impact been so far?
Bringing together the information and guidance from existing policies has enabled us to systematically review our risk-prevention measures and identify the additional information needed through a gap analysis.
As with all policies, this will take time to embed across the organisation. We will continue to work with our staff to ensure the policy and measures within it are both fit for purpose and reduce MSDs within the workplace.
