If you are planning an office move, you need to be sure that the members of staff who are moving items around are not going to be prone to manual handling injuries. If you hire a removal company to deal with your office move this is less likely to be an issue for heavier items such as filing cabinets and desks; however, staff will still be packing boxes in the lead up to the move and will be carrying them at some point.
First of all, it is a good idea to make sure that staff have had the relevant manual handling training. This only takes a couple of hours and several members of staff can undergo the training at the same time. The training will show them how to minimize injuries by picking up boxes and other items in the right way. You may think that training such as this is only relevant to staff working in stores or warehouses; however, even office staff can benefit. If you are expecting staff to be packing and moving things for your office relocation, such training is essential.
Set some limits for box weights; for example, you could say that filled boxes should not weigh more than 20lb to ensure that staff are not carrying anything too heavy. This is not always practical, but you can make sure that there is an additional person on hand to help with heavier boxes so that the weight can be divided between the two.
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