HAM Associates are at the BAPCO Autumn Event: Making a business case with ergonomics in Control Rooms.
- jh1836
- Oct 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 3
Figure 1: Ergonomic desk solution for a police control centre.
HAM Associates are delighted to be presenting at the British APCO Autumn Event, where we’ll explore how using ergonomics can directly link staff comfort, health, performance, and well-being to strategic business investment.
John Hargreaves, Senior Ergonomist and Paul Marshall Senior Business Manager will be presenting a brief session based on their recent collaborative work on emergency services projects.
The session will demonstrate how human factors and user-centred design deliver measurable satisfaction outcomes, driving comfort and performance with the potential to reduce absenteeism and turnover.
What Is Ergonomics?
Ergonomics is the scientific study of work and applies human factors principles to improve the fit between people, processes, and technology. Ergonomics is a user-centred design philosophy that ensures every aspect of the workspace from seating, lighting to digital interfaces supports safe, comfortable and efficient, sustainable human performance.
The Human Factors that Matter
During the talk we will first define the key human factors of Comfort, Health, Performance and Well-being using standard references from BS EN ISO 9241 Ergonomics of Human-System Interaction and organisations like the Economic and Social Research Council and World Health Organization. This shows how design should support wider connection, purpose and satisfaction not just physical health and comfort to help deliver well-being e.g;
The Economic and Social Research Council: Defines Wellbeing as 'a state of being with others, where human needs are met, where you can act meaningfully to pursue goals and enjoy a satisfactory quality of life.' This highlights the importance of connection, purpose, and satisfaction beyond physical health alone.
Figure 2: Example of over-saturated interface promoting visual and cognitive fatigue
How Ergonomics Drives Better Investment Decisions
Good ergonomics delivers tangible business results by linking human outcomes with operational performance. At the session we will aim to give some real examples of how ergonomics can improve the specification of:
Seating: Why 'real' ergonomic features are important, how to satisfy a wider range of staff and why effective lumbar support is a key feature.
Room Layout: Avoiding cramped, noisy layouts causing twisting, stretching, and distractions based on a suppliers catalogue.
Cable Management: Why standard office furniture often won't support the volume of cables associated with control rooms.
Lighting Design: How glare and luminance ratios affect visual fatigue and the importance of control.
Human - Computer Interface: Why bright, saturated colours increase cognitive load and visual fatigue.
Human - Machine Interface: How the arrangement of displays and other equipment affects posture and musculoskeletal health.
Interior Design: Balancing contrast and reflectance to avoid visual fatugue.
Each factor can contribute to a reduction in fatigue, human error while improving staff performance, satisfaction, and retention.
Figure 3: Example of standard noisy and cramped 'office based' furniture layout.
Measuring Success Through Evidence
We will then explain the use of satisfaction data to baseline current workspace, define a brief for improvements and capture the impact of ergonomic interventions as part of an In-Service Review. These metrics combine rich qualitative and quantitative data, showing how workspace design can directly affect comfort, well-being and productivity.
Figure 4: Resilient satisfaction data from an In-Service Review
Benefits of taking this approach include:
• Key to understanding usability through efficiency and effectiveness.
• Defines a ‘rich’ mix of empirical ratings and narrative.
• Easy to apply across a range of situations and contexts.
• Engages staff directly with the design process.
• Defines an improvement brief likely to deliver ‘fit for purpose solutions’
• Links Comfort, Health, Performance and Well-Being to Investment Objectives.
The HUSI™ Framework builds an evidence chain from Baseline - Intervention -In-Service Performance, providing robust data for business decision-making.
The Five-Case Business Model for Ergonomic Investment
We will then go through the structured approach that connects ergonomics improvements to organisational goals and describe the Five-Case Business Model:
Strategic Case: Define the need for change and desired outcomes.
Economic Case: Analyse costs and benefits using evidence-based data.
Commercial Case: Inform procurement and specification with measurable requirements.
Financial Case: Assess affordability and impact on revenue.
Management Case: Plan delivery, track benefits, and evaluate outcomes post-implementation.
By aligning ergonomics with this framework, organisations can move beyond compliance building a strategic investment case for healthier, more efficient control rooms.
The Real Cost of Poor Workplace Health
We will then touch some statistics that show the enormous human and financial cost of workplace ill-health from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting most sickness absence stems from work-related stress, depression, and musculoskeletal issues. The Health and Safety Executive and Institute for Public Policy Research also define some related costs.
Beyond the numbers, absenteeism undermines morale, disrupts operations, and reduces long-term productivity and with recent reports of burnout in emergency services call handling centres, well-being is becoming a critical issue in control rooms.
Figure 5: Glare from lighting with an underlit ceiling plain.
Human Impact: The Ultimate Return on Investment
By allowing ergonomics to drive your business case, we can design control rooms that will ultimately;
Support healthier, happier staff.
Reduce turnover and absenteeism.
Improve focus, performance, and safety.
Deliver measurable financial and operational benefits.
HAM help organisations build evidence-based, human-centred workspaces that truly perform providing a strong foundation for staff comfort, performance and well-being.
We look forward to presenting at BAPCO and hope to see you there.
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