The article addresses the problem of the economic aspects of ergonomic innovations in the sector of small and medium sized Polish businesses. In the first part we made literature analysis of the nature of innovation and ergonomic innovations. Second part of the article defines external and internal determinants of innovative activity of small and medium-sized enterprises. As the next step, pilot results of a quality-quantity research was presented that was conducted in 2014 among 64 SMEs. The study aimed to determine the economic aspects of innovation, ergonomics, which is one of the key factors to build competitiveness and goodwill. The last part of the article includes a short summary of the issues discussed.