Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are the most common and costly injuries in the workplace today. Proactive safety leaders are meeting this challenge head on and turning it into a valuable opportunity to make a difference within their organization.
In last week’s article, I wrote about two different approaches to musculoskeletal health and asked this question:
“If people are consistently falling off a cliff, is it smarter to build a fence at the top of the cliff or to put an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff?”
The fence at the top of the cliff represents a proactive, prevention-focused approach and the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff represents a reactive, treatment-focused approach.
I arrived at the conclusion that we need to build strong fences when it comes to musculoskeletal health — too many people are falling off the cliff.
If you’re a proactive safety leader, I imagine you’re with me and probably don’t need much convincing. But there is a good chance you’ll need to convince others in your organization to commit the resources needed to build a strong fence to prevent MSDs.
Fortunately, there is a clear and compelling case to support MSD prevention as a valuable organizational initiative.
Ultimately, the goal is better musculoskeletal health for people
Before we talk about organizational benefits, I should make it clear that doing everything we can to keep people safe and healthy is the priority. Businesses exist to serve others and add value to the world. That starts by providing people an opportunity to do creative and fulfilling work. A business that willingly puts its people at risk reduces its place in the world.
On the other hand, a business that views MSD prevention as a worthy endeavor elevates its position and turns it into a valuable opportunity and difference-maker.
Here are five strong organizational benefits of a world-class MSD prevention process:
- Lower costs
- Improved productivity
- Improved quality
- Employee engagement
- Better safety and prevention culture
Let’s go through these one-by-one.
1. Lower costs
By systematically reducing MSD risk factors, you can prevent costly MSDs. With approximately $1 out of every $3 in workers compensation costs attributed to MSDs, this represents an opportunity for significant cost savings.
Ergonomics Plus clients have an average cost reduction of 78% within four years of partnering with an onsite injury prevention specialist.
What could that mean for your organization?
We’ve created a simple Prevention Opportunity Calculator you can use to discover your organization’s MSD prevention opportunity.
As an example, consider a facility that has $250,000 in annual direct costs of MSDs and their organization’s profit margin is 5%.
In this example, direct costs of $250,000 also cause $300,000 in indirect costs (using an indirect cost ratio of 1.2) bringing the total cost to $550,000. At a 5% margin, the organization has to generate $11,000,000 in revenue to cover the cost of MSDs.
That’s some serious damage to the bottom line. The numbers also demonstrate the value of a comprehensive MSD prevention process.
By partnering with an onsite injury prevention specialist, you can reduce direct costs by 78% within four years (on average). Reducing direct costs by 78% in this example saves the organization $429,000 per year.
Over three years, that’s a cost savings of $1,287,000.
Over five years, that’s a cost savings of $2,145,000.
This is just an example, of course, but I hope you can see the value in prevention. And I hope you find the calculator useful in making the case for investment into a comprehensive MSD prevention process.
2. Improve productivity
The process of reducing MSD risk factors will remove barriers to productivity. Better worksite design and overall musculoskeletal health contribute to productivity improvements.
Better worksite design is more productive.
By designing a job to allow for good posture, less exertion, fewer motions and better heights and reaches, the workstation becomes more efficient.
Healthier musculoskeletal systems are more productive.
Tired, fatigued people are rarely capable of doing their best work. When the musculoskeletal system is tired and hurting, productivity and quality suffers.
3. Improve quality
Poor ergonomics leads to frustrated and fatigued workers that don’t do their best work. When the job task is too physically taxing on the worker, they may not perform their job like they were trained. For example, an employee might not fasten a screw tight enough due to a high force requirement which could create a product quality issue.
4. Engage employees
Employees notice when the company is putting forth their best efforts to ensure their health and safety. If an employee does not experience fatigue and discomfort during their workday, it can reduce turnover, decrease absenteeism, improve morale and increase employee involvement.
5. Shape culture
Ergonomics shows your company’s commitment to safety and health as a core value. The cumulative effect of the previous four benefits of ergonomics is a stronger safety culture for your company. Healthy employees are your most valuable asset; creating and fostering the safety & health culture at your company will lead to better human performance for your organization.
Ready to start building a strong fence?
To start reaping these benefits, you need to start building the fence. Next week, I’ll be back with an article on how to begin building a world-class MSD prevention process.
Stay tuned …
