Posted By Jerry Lucey
The issue of hot desking makes the risk assessment process very onerous in that you will probably need to assess every User on every workstation. A strategy to group personnel and restrict them to a set number of workstations would cut down on the number of assessments but realistically speaking in most workplaces where hot desking takes place this is very difficult.

When in a situation such as yours I have undertaken the following programme;

1/ On joining the company and at regular intervals thereafter all personnel were trained on workstation set-up. I have found the 12-point plan produced by IOSH very useful.

2/ Once trained in workstation set up all personnel undertook a User self assessment and completed a questionnaire and this had to be returned within a week. I allowed a week as it allowed personnel to think about the assessment and the risks while they became comfortable with their worksatation. This is useful as it will alert you to a User's specific requirements and possibly further training/ assessment.

3/ Within one month all Users were risk assessed on their workstation(s).

In a hotworking situation it is important that personnel are aware and comfortable with setting up/ adjusting their workstation to suit their personnel requirements.

It is also important to consider vulnerable Users or those with special requirements to ensure that their equipment could be transferred and not misused by other Users e.g. some Users require foot rests and these should be transferrable or additional lumber support where required should be made available and consideration should be given to clarifying that it is issued to the User and not the Workstation.

By keeping the workstation set up as uniform as possible will reduce the amount of effort required on risk assessment as control measures can be tackled enblock in many cases.

Posted By Kieran J Duignan
Cathy

There's a HSE Rsearch Report on this subject by an ergonomist. From memory I recall that the major issue he and his colleague discoveref rom their reseach was that the critical issue was not really anthropometrir ie. physiological aompatibility but the srresses employees experienced.

In operational terms, this suggests that the problem may be most productively tackled in terms of 'collaborative' working, with an emphasis on mutual understanding and team communications rather than on gadgetry.

So, maybe the root challenge for you is to 'collaborate' with your HR specialist so everyone 'wins'?

He-he: who said the 'ooft' side of health and safety management was easy?