Deli Home employees lug an average of 7,000 kilos of mostly wooden home products or building materials every day. To reduce physical strain, training employees to become occupational coaches started at the end of 2019. They then transfer the knowledge to other colleagues.
The building materials company has 15 in-house occupational coaches, trained by the Buro voor Fysieke Arbeid. The ergocoaches first learned how to do their work with as little physical strain as possible, for example by lifting differently, and then how to transfer their acquired knowledge and skills to their colleagues in the logistics and production departments.
All employees will be guided by an occupational coach in their team for four to six weeks. In this way, working with as little physical strain as possible should become part of the daily operation.
Training its own coaches works positively, according to Deli Home, because the employees speak from their own experience and colleagues take their advice. Because of the coaches, adjustments have been made to machines and better agreements have been made about the height of pallets to be delivered. The occupational coaches are also involved in setting up new workplaces in the company.
