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The costs associated with work related injuries can be financially devastating. Suppose your company has a goal to retain a 10 percent profit margin for each project. if one of your employees sustained a repetitive strain injury that cost $ 25,000 in related expenses, you would need to increase sales volume by $ 250,000 to maintain your margin and offset this unplanned expense.
This is the harsh reality of failing to plan. However, you do not need to waste bottom-line profits to pay for these injuries. By implementing cost-efficient policies and programs, you will go a long way toward avoiding the costs mentioned above.
- Know the risks. Identify which risk factors exist in particular jobs and to quantify their potential impact on employee health. Examples are excessive force or exposure to vibration (drilling, pipe ting in the lab) and repetitive movements such as cutting or assembling parts.
Actively solicit employee feed back on what makes the job difficult. Employees’ complaints give vital feed back and are essential in assisting other employees in making necessary changes and avoiding the same mistakes.
- Find solutions. After you have identified the risk factors, do something about them. Measures could involve repositioning computer equipment, reordering a process or task, or even using an old phone book as a foot rest.
Some changes may incur some cost, like purchasing new or special equipment, redesigning the workstations, designing job rotation programs, and eliminating certain procedures that may be unnecessary. Further still, you may consider reengineering such as in lab automation or assembly line production.
One biology lab determined that through automation, any person instead of four could complete the same task. The entire process was reengineered, eliminating the ergonomic hazards.
- Train in ergonomics. Calculate the time and costs you put into training a new employee, and incorporate ergonomics into that effort. One publishing company has ergonomics training as part of its new employee orientation process. Another firm has all new employee workstations individually adjusted.
Training is like buying car insurance. You don’t plan on getting in an auto accident but you cannot afford to risk driving without it.
- Get help. One of the common concerns you can hear is that no one person has time to run the ergonomics program on his or her own. If that is the case, then seek help from within the organization. The purchasing department is one of the best places to turn to.
- With training, purchasing personnel will understand what questions to ask and what product attributes to look for. They should be wary of claims about ergonomically correct equipment and instead look for adjustable, flexible, and task-specific products. Does your home work, compare, ask for sample models? All products are NOT created equal and shame on you if you think they are. A well seasoned consultant can help you start an ergonomics program, or recommend equipment and process changes.
- Think long term. Addressing ergonomic issues makes good sense from a profitability stance as well as a human relations perspective. Just as repetitive strain injuries developer time, ergonomics is an ongoing process, not a one time event. You cannot maintain profit margins if you allow costly injuries to eat away at the bottom line. Prevention is part of working smarter. This thinking process will not only save your company money but will also allow you to retain healthy, committed, and productive employees.
