How to Run an Ergonomic Risk Assessment From a Task Video

Most ergonomic assessments stall at the same point. Someone flags a task as hard on the back or shoulders, and the assessment waits until there is time to stand at the station with a clipboard, score postures by hand and write it up. By then the person who raised it has often stopped asking.

SoterAI shortens that loop. You film the task, ask for a structured assessment, and get risk scores, a body part breakdown and a ranked list of controls in the same conversation. This guide walks through the process the way an EHS professional would run it on a real task, and it is explicit about where your own judgment still has to carry the result.

Step 1. Pick one task and film it properly

The quality of the assessment depends on the footage. A few habits make a large difference:

• One task per video. A packing station, a pallet build, a tub lift from a conveyor. If a job has several distinct tasks, film them separately.
• Full body in frame. Feet to hands, including the load. Cropped knees or hands hide exactly the joints you want scored.
• Side view first, front view second. Trunk flexion reads best from the side; twisting and reach across the body read best from the front or at an angle.
• Several full cycles. Capture the worker picking up, moving and placing the load at least a few times, including the awkward ones at the bottom or top of the pallet.
• Note what the camera cannot see. Load weight, frequency per hour, shift length and any rotation. Write these down; you will give them to SoterAI as text.

Check the file upload limits for your plan before you record a long clip.

Step 2. Ask for the assessment in chat

Open a new chat, attach the video and give SoterAI the context, the task and the output you need. Soter's help center describes this three-part structure as the basis of a strong prompt (Importance of Prompts). The EHS guide names REBA and ManTRA as methods you can request for a task video.

A prompt that works:

I've attached a video of a warehouse associate building a mixed pallet from a conveyor. Cartons weigh 8 to 14 kg, about 220 lifts per hour, 8-hour shift, no job rotation. Run a REBA assessment of the worst postures in the video. Give me the score for each posture you assessed, a breakdown by body part, the main risk drivers, and a prioritized list of controls using the hierarchy of controls. Flag anything you could not assess from the footage.

The last sentence matters. Asking SoterAI to list what it could not see gives you a clear picture of where the assessment is solid and where it is an estimate.

Step 3. Turn findings into controls

A score tells you how bad a task is. Controls tell you what to do on Monday. Once you have the assessment, ask for solutions in a structured way. The help center's Ergonomic Solution prompt asks for five parts: a hazard overview, immediate low-cost mitigation, long-term engineering and organisational solutions, training, and monitoring.

A follow-up that builds on the assessment:

Based on this assessment, act as an ergonomics consultant. For the pallet build task, give me: immediate low-cost fixes we can make this week, engineering or layout changes worth budgeting for, organisational measures like rotation and breaks, what to train the team on, and how we will measure whether it worked. Keep each control tied to the posture or risk driver it addresses.

Tying each control to a specific risk driver keeps the list honest. A lift table that removes floor-level picks should map to the trunk flexion score; a rotation schedule should map to frequency.

Step 4. Produce the report

When SoterAI creates a document in chat, it opens in the SuperDoc Editor next to the chat. You can edit the text directly or ask for changes in the conversation, then export the report as DOCX or PDF.

Two things are worth doing here:

• Ask for a structure your organisation already uses. If your site has an assessment template, attach it and ask SoterAI to fill it in. Reviewers move faster when the format is familiar.
• Publish the final version to Data Sources (Enterprise plans). Published documents become part of the workspace knowledge base, so SoterAI can reference them in later chats. That is useful when you reassess the same task after controls go in. A published document can no longer be edited, so publish the version you have signed off.

Step 5. Measure over a shift when one video is not enough

A video is a sample of a few minutes. For tasks where risk depends on how often awkward movements happen across a whole shift, a wearable gives you a fuller picture. SoterCoach measures movement hazards for the lower back and the shoulder, one body area per device mode (Hazards Measured by SoterCoach). Device data can be analysed in SoterAI through the Ergonomics Analysis (SoterCoach Starter) workflow, which produces a summary report and hourly breakdowns (SoterCoach Starter guide).

Used together, the video assessment explains what the posture looks like and why it scores high, and the wearable data shows how often it happens.

Where the limits are

Be clear with yourself and your stakeholders about what this method covers:

• The camera sets the ceiling. Joints out of frame, a load hidden behind a rack or a poor angle reduce accuracy. If SoterAI flags something it could not assess, treat that part as open.
• Weights and frequencies come from you. A video does not reveal that a carton weighs 14 kg or that the task runs 220 times an hour. Wrong inputs give confident but wrong results.
• Methods answer different questions. REBA scores whole-body postures. Lifting equations and push-pull assessments answer other questions. Ask for the method that fits the task, and ask SoterAI to explain why if you are unsure.
• Wearables have a defined scope. SoterCoach does not measure upright rotation, side bending, spine extension, elbow movement or shoulder rotation, per the help center. Do not promise those measures in a program plan.
• Long multi-step requests are easier to check in parts. Assessment, controls and report as three steps give you a review point after each one.

What a qualified person should check

SoterAI produces a structured draft quickly. Before it goes into a file, a risk register or a conversation with operations, check:

1. The postures scored are the worst ones. Watch the video yourself and confirm SoterAI picked the frames that drive risk.
2. Scores are plausible. Spot-check one posture by hand. If your score and the tool's differ by more than a level, find out why.
3. Inputs are correct. Weight, frequency, duration and rotation match what actually happens on the floor.
4. Controls are feasible on your site. Engineering options fit the space, budget and process. Remove anything that does not.
5. Regulatory references match your jurisdiction. If the report cites a standard, confirm it applies where the work happens.
6. Workers have seen it. The people doing the task usually know which part of it hurts. Ask them before you finalise.

The help center makes the same point in its EHS guide: SoterAI drafts, and your judgment stays central. Asking it directly, "What would an ergonomist challenge in this assessment?", is a cheap final check.

A practical starting point

Pick the task that generates the most discomfort reports or strain-related incidents on your site. Film it this week, run the assessment and the controls follow-up, and bring the report to your next operations meeting. One well-documented task with a clear control plan builds support for the next ten.