Incorrect lifting can cause injury and, as an employer, it’s your responsibility to protect your employees from the risk of manual handling injuries. Wherever possible, it’s always better to avoid lifting heavy equipment, but this isn’t always an option. So, where that’s not possible, teaching and encouraging good handling techniques when lifting heavy furniture or equipment is a great place to start.

 How to lift correctly:

1. Plan ahead. Where are you lifting from and to? Move anything that might be in your way to reduce the risk of trips and falls while carrying your load. If you have a long way to go, is there something you can rest on midway between your start point and your destination? Make sure you’re wearing comfortable clothing where you can bend properly. Ensure your footwear has an effective grip to avoid slipping.
2. When lifting, keep the load close to your waist with the heaviest side of the load nearest your body. If you can’t get close to the load before you start to lift, try sliding the object towards you before lifting.
3. Keep your feet hip-width apart with one leg in front of the other for optimum stability.
4. Hug the load tightly to your body – you may find that this allows you to get a stronger grip on the item you’re moving.
5. Bending slightly at the back, hips and knees is better than fully stooping or bending as you lift upwards. Once you’ve started the lift, be careful not to further flex your back.
6. Keep your shoulders level and face the same direction your hips are facing. Avoid twisting or leaning sideways – particularly while your back is bent. If you need to rotate, use your feet to reposition, rather than twisting from the waist.
7. Keep your head up, move smoothly to avoid snatching at or jerking the load as this is more likely to result in an injury. And finally, never, never lift more than you can handle.

Where such equipment or furniture needs to be moved regularly, castors could be a good solution. By fitting castors to the feet of equipment or furniture, you can encourage employees to roll or slide heavy equipment rather than lift it. You can read more about using castors on your furniture and equipment in our recent blog ‘Threaded feet or castors?’.

If you have any questions about any of our products, you can chat with our friendly advisors online.