Get More Productivity and Less Absence
A survey of chief executives has revealed that very few of them are prepared to pay to prevent people getting health problems from computer use. Quite surprising when you consider that MSDs (musculo-skeletal disorders) account for more than half the people off sick today in the UK.
All too often it seems that employers will prefer to pay out only after the problem has happened rather than prevent it in the first place. If they thought about it a bit more it is obvious that this strategy doesn’t add up.
There is plenty of research data which shows the scale and cost of the problem. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, the Health & Safety Executive, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, produce regular reports. Musculo Skeletal Disorders or MSDs are the main problem. This includes back pain, Repetitive Strain Injury RSI, whiplash, and many other conditions including, tenosynovitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, tennis elbow, golfers elbow, De Quervain’s syndrome, and many more.
“You don’t need to live with this waste of time, money, and people” says Paul Goddard, RSI expert and education officer at Keytools. “For example, you wear a seatbelt to prevent a possible injury, it won’t help after the event!” There are plenty of other strategies that companies put in place as preventative measures.
Your organisation very likely has a healthcare programme, safety training, fire extinguishers, and security systems all of which are there for “in case” something bad happens.” So why don’t employers do a bit more to make workstations easier to use and less damaging for employees?
Organisations have measured the costs but got wrong outputs. Getting all of the sum of the wages, additional workload of employees and the missed opportunity, prevention will earn more than not working. E-bay, Visa and HP who has their own say in their field, the enhancement of their productivity has been positively credited having reduced their costs because of the absence of the employee.
In some case studies, organisations that have planned programme of office ergonomics and using of right equipments can feel within 2 years of return of investment. CEOs now can be proud and say that “I have no worries to fix because I paid to prevent!
Paul Goddard is the UK’s foremost expert on assistive technology for people with RSI and his company, Keytools provides a large range of ergonomic keyboards and mice to assist with the prevention of RSI.