Back to the future
June 1st 2008 Launched in March this year, Back-Track enables companies to identify employees facing increased risk of back injury and modify their behaviour - or your money back. It's a bold claim, and one that's ruffling feathers in the manual handling training industry. But it's all about results, says Back-Track Europe MD, John Pelling. Brendan Coyne reports
John Pelling's original back-saving idea was sparked in 1994 by pens falling out of his top pocket every time he bent over. To stop the pens falling out, he had to use the recommended method: knees not spine. So he designed and built a 'posture pen' concept, which would sense when the user was bending over and sound an alarm. But the idea was shelved until 2003, when, with the advent of internet ubiquity and more advanced, affordable electronics, Pelling sensed its time had come.
After much work in HSE labs, input from manual handling trainers and ergonomists, the Back-Track launched earlier this year, promising to 'drive stooping out of your processes through behaviour change or your money back'. Quite a claim, so how does it work? The hardware is a pager-sized sensor unit that clips to the user's belt, detecting when they are stooping then transferring this information to the internet. A web-based reporting function allows the data to be viewed by a web browser – so managers can see which employees risk back injury due to poor manual handling practice or posture related issues. And to stop wearers forgetting their training, it buzzes every time they fail to bend correctly, reminding them to change their behaviour.
But the system's application doesn't stop there. After trialing the device with Derriford Hospital, where many staff (for example, surgeons) had posture related issues arising from leaning forwards in awkward positions for extended periods, another parameter was added to the device: Users can set it to vibrate after a given period of time, reminding them to straighten up, rest back muscles for a moment to reduce the risk of strain injury, and then carry on with what they are doing.
Additionally, Back-Track can also be used to manage and monitor staff returning to work with an existing back condition.
The system is now being used by companies such as Network Rail, Serco, Linde Material Handling, and is currently undergoing trials with one of the world's largest soft drink manufacturers. According to Pelling, those taking an interest in the technology are currently large organisations with a proactive behavioural safety culture in place. "Back-Track dovetails beautifully into those organisations and larger firms do perceive it as an agenda item," he says.
Is that because larger firms, as opposed to smaller companies too busy firefighting, also have the human resources to spend time analysing the reports and taking action? "Not particularly. The reporting system is very streamlined. You log in and it quickly tells you what you need to know – the top five per cent of employees who are most at risk," says Pelling. "It's certainly not an onerous task, and it means that if the organisation has 100 employees, management can sit down with the five employees most at risk and work out whether the problem is task related, or whether it's their technique. Because with manual handling, people go through the training, but training doesn't change behaviour. We strongly believe that to bring about positive improvement with people's manual handling techniques you need to fundamentally change their behaviour.Training doesn't do that." Hardly the kind of statement to win friends and influence those in the manual handling training industry, but Pelling points to a recent study of 18,000 workers More articles from Back-Track Europe Ltd: | 
