A powerful process which businesses are able to apply in the assessing component of their health and safety review is the completion of a site-wide physical demands analysis. By breaking down the critical and non-critical physical demands involved with all jobs onsite, with reference to the dictionary of occupational titles, your business can take that next step in injury prevention and make great, data-informed hiring decisions. 

What Is A Physical Demands Analysis?

A physical demands analysis involves breaking down a job into its smaller tasks and parts. It is a process of identifying all critical and non-critical physical demands essential to a particular job, and also taking any environmental influences into consideration.

Why is Identifying Physical Demand Levels Important?

Reduced Injury Rates

A site physical demands analysis is a powerful tool in effective health and safety risk management and assists in the thorough assessment of risk. By gathering data in reference to the standardised dictionary of occupational titles, workplaces can implement controls based on the information gathered around physical requirements, thus reducing the risk of high injury rates.

Better Pre-Screening of Applicants

A thorough assessment of risk allows businesses to not only implement controls at a work level, but also at a worker level. Having a detailed physical demand of a job allows for job specific pre-employment medical screening, creating greater hiring decisions and is in line with current recommendations around the use of workplace pre-medical screening in research (Schaafsma et. al, 2016).

Clearly Defined Physical Requirements

Understanding which specific critical physical demands are involved in a job simplifies the pre-employment medical requirements for physical and musculoskeletal screening.

Increased Productivity

Right People for the Right Job. Workers that are physically suited for the role will only optimise productivity onsite. Similarly, workers that have potential for improved physical capacity can also be supported to achieve the necessary physical demands.

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What Does A Physical Needs Analysis Include?

A physical demands analysis may include:

  • Initial consultation and discovery session regarding onsite jobs
  • Worksite walkthrough
  • Site engagement with the experts of the jobs - the workers
  • Industry experienced workplace physiotherapist conducting the assessment
  • Breakdown of task physical demands, environmental factors, capacity requirements etc.
  • Concise, detailed summary report

What Are The Benefits?

Your business will benefit from partnering with Employ Health in receiving the highest quality analysis, specific to your physical demand requirements. Employ Health physiotherapists are workplace health professionals who specialise in musculoskeletal assessment and are experienced in a wide variety of industries. Employ Health seek to proactively partner with you to manage health and safety risk management and increased productivity.

Foundation For Pre-Employment Screening

Right people = Right job. Right physical demand = right fit for the role. Reduce uncertainties in the decision making process of hiring, as decisions are backed with through a complete job demands analysis.

Benchmarked Requirements

Customising physical demands for each task allows for the benchmarking of physical capacity required to perform a task or job. This is often summarised by what is known as the “critical physical demands” of a job.

Improved Onboarding Efficiency

Transparency is important for great worker-workplace relationships. Having a complete physical demands analysis allows a clear understanding for candidates of what is required and expected for the job.

Customised Per Task

A physical demands analysis breaks down a job into various smaller tasks. These tasks are then further analysed into their critical and non-critical physical demands, providing the highest level of detail and specific customised quality.

Clear Information For Medical / Insurance

Having a complete physical demands analysis for a job with listed critical physical demands is invaluable for return to work planning and injury management of workers that may be currently under a broader medical team care. This also provides accurate, concise information to doctors to increase confidence to approve and encourage early return to work on suitable duties.

Why Employ Health

Industry experienced physiotherapists

Our team of workplace physiotherapists have a wide range of experience conducting physical demand analysis across a broad spectrum of industries. 

Simple, user friendly reports

Employ Health offers an unique software system which provides clear, concise reports and can also be transformed into user friendly dashboards to visualise all job demand analysis onsite.   

Integrated software and platforms

Employ Health offers a database that seamlessly integrates physical demands analysis into powerful interactive dashboards and integrates with other services such as pre-employment screening.

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Frequently Asked Questions

The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DoT) was first developed around the 1930s in the United States as a means of standardising the way all jobs are categorised and defined in the effort to better match workers to jobs. Initially labelled under a scale from skilled to unskilled work, the DoT has since evolved to be described with regards to the physical requirements of a particular job (often through a physical demands analysis).

A physiotherapist is a health professional focused on the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of primarily musculoskeletal conditions. An occupational therapist is a health professional focused on the rehabilitation and return of an individual to their activities of daily living and their occupation. 

A Job Demand Analysis (JDA) breaks down the physical, environmental and psychosocial elements required for a job, whereas a physical demands analysis (PDA) breaks down the physical and environmental impacts of a job. 

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