A ‘Team Exercise’– Morning Stretches at NOVO Nashville

When an employee complained to Operations Manager See Lor about wrist and shoulder pains, she decided to do something about it. Lor had heard how other companies use a series of low-impact stretching exercises at the start of each shift to prepare employees for work. Eighteen months later, the complaints have stopped, and the exercise program at NOVO Health Services’ Nashville plant is now a model initiative for the company.

“It’s become a best practice,” said General Manager Brett Wooden, whose plant is one of 10 NOVO healthcare laundries from Miami to Williamsport, PA. “We have a monthly safety and health call. Some of the best practices that we’ve developed here, they’re adopting at other facilities in the company. The stretching is one of them.”

Lor says she worked with NOVO’s corporate safety team and tapped online resources to craft a program for a five-minute stretching session at the start of each shift at their facility in suburban Madison, TN. “An employee came up to me and said her wrist is hurting,” Lor said. “Her shoulder is hurting from pulling the linen every day. So I’m like, ‘You know what? We’re going to start doing exercises, a little warm up in the morning. We’re going to stretch because I don’t think they stretch at home. So ever since I started doing that, I haven’t heard from them.”

While NOVO Nashville does job rotations to minimize repetitive motion, Lor and Wooden agreed that they wanted to do more to protect employees from ergonomic injuries. Wooden said he was introduced to the idea of stretching exercises for employees at a TRSA safety event more than a decade ago. “We do some equipment rotations,” he said. “But you know 75%-80% of their job during the week is doing repetitive motions. So, when See brought this up to me, I said ‘absolutely.’”

A Textile Services Weekly correspondent observed a warm-up session during a recent visit to the Nashville plant. The 7 a.m. meeting began with a quick rundown from team leaders on production and safety issues to keep staff apprised of developments. Next, managers led the production team in exercises that included stretches aimed at limbering up wrists, necks, shoulders and more.

Employees were reluctant to jump into the program at first, but now that it’s part of their routine, most enjoy this warm-up session for “industrial athletes,” Wooden says. One reason is that management made a point of explaining the program’s intent. “We always let our employees know ‘the why,’ and not just tell them,” he says. Otherwise, “They’re going to look at us like, ‘Why do you want me to do that?’” Explaining the background for decisions helps boost employee engagement. If they have questions or concerns, they can voice them. “It’s just communication,” Wooden says. “That’s what we have out there.”

Wooden is a longtime industry executive. He’s also a U.S. Navy veteran. The morning meetings and stretching sessions at NOVO Nashville are similar to the morning “muster” that he experienced in the service. “When I was in the military, we called it a ‘muster,’” he said. “You muster every morning, and you have the news of the day.” At NOVO Nashville, after 5-7 minutes of meeting, staff move to their group-exercise routine. After that, they begin their shift.

As for concrete results, such as lowering the plant’s earned modification rate (EMR), it’s too soon to gauge the full impact of the stretching exercises, Wooden says. But in the 18 months since the program began, turnover is minimal, and the plant has experienced no reports of ergonomic injuries among its roughly 47-member production team.

Lor credits the program’s success to the fact that it “bubbled up from below” through employee input, coupled with a quick response by management. While she hasn’t heard many comments about the program, Lor feels the staff have accepted the exercise routine. She recently queried a new employee as to her thoughts on the exercises after her first day on the job. “She didn’t give that, ‘Oh, my God. What are we doing?’ But she just said, ‘OK, I guess we’re exercising.’” Lor says she’s now discussing with staff and managers the possibility of adding a lunchtime extension of the group exercise program.

Watch for follow-up coverage of NOVO Nashville in an upcoming issue of Textile Service magazine.