Ergonomics Specialist

**THE OPPORTUNITY**

Western Forest Products is hiring an **Ergonomics Specialist** to join our Health and Safety team on **Vancouver Island.**

**What You’ll Do**: As Western’s Ergonomics Specialist, you will play a vital role in ensuring the well-being and safety of our employees. Your responsibilities will encompass an array of professional, consultative, and technical tasks, focusing primarily on MSI prevention and associated ergonomics initiatives. You will provide day-to-day health and safety support to Operations Managers, Supervisors and Employees with equipment and process risk assessment, injury prevention initiatives and program development, return-to-work support, process improvement strategies, training and education. A component of your role will involve general health and safety coordination tasks, comprising up to 25% of your duties.

**Who You Are**: This is a great opportunity for a health and safety or ergonomics professional to get exposure to a variety of different work processes in some amazing Vancouver Island locations. You bring knowledge and experience with ergonomic tools and programs, musculoskeletal injuries, return-to-work programs and general health and safety reporting and documentation. You are a strong communicator with a solution-oriented mindset, who takes a hands-on approach to supporting your client base.

**RESPONSIBILITIES**
- Drive ergonomic program success and injury risk reduction through assessment, training, and employee awareness initiatives.
- Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams including Manufacturing and Timberlands Operations and Human Resources to ensure new processes, workstation designs, work procedures, and human-machine interactions promote health and high performance.
- Carry out ergonomic risk assessments in Manufacturing, Timberlands and office settings.
- Collect and analyze physical task parameters and provide assessment reports.
- Supports Operation Managers, Supervisors and employees through development and mentoring in ergonomic techniques, engineering, and work system safety design, acting as a catalyst for positive change.
- Analyze injury data to pinpoint areas of concern and establish improvement objectives and benchmarks.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement by suggesting modifications to policies, procedures, work environment, and equipment to enhance human performance and prevent injuries.
- Support compliance inspections, assessments, enforcement, investigating complaints and incidents, and provide accurate reports from these activities to ensure consistency with corporate standards and regulatory requirements.
- Occasionally lead incident investigations with Operations Managers and Supervisors including root cause analysis to establish shared learning(s) and actions required to promote preventative measures identified. Monitor and carry out any assigned actions discovered as required to completion.
- Provides clear and actionable communication to the Operation Managers, Supervisors and employees as it pertains to MSI Prevention and the overall implementation of the HSMS.
- Participate in the identification of health and safety performance targets and objectives at an operational area level.
- Provide guidance as required to improve safety performance and safety management systems of contractors.
- In coordination with the H&S Analyst, review health and safety performance and compliance of the operating areas and respond to performance issues providing targeted programming as required.

**QUALIFICATIONS**

**Education and Experience**
- Post-Secondary education in disciplines such as Occupational Health & Safety, Kinesiology, Ergonomics, Human Factors Engineering, or an equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
- Eligibility for certification as an Associate Ergonomist through the Canadian College for the Certification of Canadian Ergonomists or equivalent certification is preferred.
- Minimum of three (3) years of relevant experience working in a manufacturing or industrial environment, focusing on ergonomics is the strong preference.

**Skills, Knowledge and Required Competencies**
- Proficiency in using ergonomics analysis tools.
- Knowledge of ergonomics tools and equipment (i.e.: force gauge, dynamometer, etc.), Musculoskeletal Injuries, return to work programs.
- Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act, Regulations, and enforcement laws and practices an asset.
- Experience in writing comprehensive reports that outline the steps taken, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
- Ability to design, develop, implement, and evaluate relevant ergonomic program elements.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the capacity to manage multiple tasks, work under pressure, and meet stringent deadlines.
- Exceptional attention to detail and superior written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to simultaneously manage multip