The online tools and information produced by the FCOS will help you to make your workplace safe and healthy. They provide information about occupational safety and health protection and show you how small changes can make a big difference. You can find out here how the information works best for you, whether on or offline.
With the “Prevention at the Office” campaign, the Federal Coordination Commission for Occupational Safety is raising awareness of the often-underestimated risks for companies in the service sector with office workstations. Taking a playful approach, it provides information and practical tips for management and employees on topics that include “Setting up the office”, “Buildings/Maintenance” and “Ergonomics in the workplace”.
Marie-Claire Rochat, Head of Human Resources and Administration at Inspectorate (Suisse) S.A., finds the information and practical advice provided by the FCOS helpful for both Safety Officers and employees: “Among the useful aids are the information sheets that one can order from the FCOS. These can be put up in various places around the office so that they are seen and read by the staff.”
In addition to advice in print form, there are also various online tools that can be used to optimize occupational safety in the office. You can apply these directly at work or use them as part of training or lectures. And the big bonus: the FCOS has certified sector solutions (available in German, French and Italian) for small and medium-sized companies that have been developed by representatives from each sector together with social partners. You can find out more about different types of solutions in the article Become a Safety Officer with the right training.
We take in information better when we can not only read it, but also see or hear it. And this was the approach taken by the FCOS when developing the FCOS Box. Short, easily accessible, animated sequences communicate the essentials on occupational safety and health protection. A virtual tour of various office situations on the FCOS Box shows how little it takes to improve health and safety in the office.
The seven chapters of the FCOS Box cover the key topics relating to occupational safety and health protection such as accident prevention, building maintenance, work organisation and ergonomics in the workplace. With 56 topics packed in short film sequences, you can acquire a good basic knowledge that extends from adjusting the height of the table, through storage of objects to avoiding tripping hazards and keeping escape routes clear. In every chapter, the two animated characters in the FCOS Box, Sophie and Alex, take a playful approach to communicating what needs to be addressed in order to avoid accidents and health problems in the workplace.
The FCOS Box is not just for small and medium-sized companies. Large companies also use the FCOS Box on their internal e-learning platform or present the tool via other internal company channels. The FCOS offers simple and practical solutions for offices in order to adapt this multifaceted prevention tool to the individual needs of a company and sensitize employees to occupational safety and health protection.
The FCOS Checkbox, the FCOS’ second online tool, serves to identify tripping hazards in your office and to check the ergonomic status of your working environment. This interactive online tool complements the FCOS Box by giving you the possibility to review the knowledge you have acquired and apply it directly in the office. The goal is to check on important aspects of occupational safety and health protection with minimal effort and to put measures into place where necessary. The FCOS Checkbox is easy to use and it saves the data that is entered into the system. This allows management and employees to check periodically whether everything is in order or if further adjustments need to be made. The FCOS Checkbox uses two smartphone apps: SafetyCheck and ErgoCheck.
SafetyCheck alerts users to the necessary precautions for safety in the office, which, with a minimum of effort, will help towards avoiding tripping and falling accidents, collisions with objects or other workplace hazards. The app shows the most frequent danger zones that are typically encountered by a Safety Officer when carrying out a check. When going around the office, the app can be used to document which “tripping hazards” or other sources of danger are found. The app shows how they can be remedied.
ErgoCheck verifies that the settings for the table and chair height, positioning of the monitor and documents, as well as posture when at the computer are all within ergonomic tolerances. Thanks to easy-to-follow illustrations, a comparison can be made with the actual situation. Sometimes, it requires only an adjustment to the chair height or to place the document holder between the keyboard and monitor in order to optimise the workstation ergonomically.
It takes only a few minutes to carry out the checks. And all the data that is entered is automatically synchronised with FCOS Checkbox. This means that the tripping hazards, preventive measures and further information can all be consulted on the computer at a glance. The data is, however, available to the respective user only. Try it out for yourself: www.fcos-checkbox.ch
The third tool provided by the FCOS are the FCOS Learning Modules. When preparing the modules, the FCOS made use of an old tried-and-tested learning principle and simply adapted it to today’s technology. Everyone knows them: the flash cards that we used to use to learn vocabulary. We worked through them card by card until we had learned all the words. The FCOS Learning Modules offer users the possibility to work through each topic in occupational safety and health protection using an online quiz. Any questions that were answered incorrectly reappear at the end of each quiz until the content has been taken on board and all the questions have been answered correctly.
Test your knowledge with the FCOS learning Modules and then use your newly integrated knowledge to check how safe and ergonomic your office environment is. Discover any shortcomings, and act quickly to avoid accidents and health problems. And don’t forget, it is often the small changes that have the greatest effect.
