Reduce costs and increase profit = invest on ergonomics
To prevent a costly string of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) injuries, you will need to consider a proactive ergonomic plan. The Canadian Orthopedic Care Strategy Group considers both occupational and non-occupational MSDs to be the most expensive medical condition in Canada. In 2017, MSDs cost Ontario employers $72 million in claim related expenses and resulted in 462,000 lost days. The MSDs are the top lost time injury at work reported to the WSIB in Ontario. High forces, non-neutral postures and repetitive motions are generally found when workers are required to push, pull, lift or lower materials or other people (i.e., client handing activities). This may lead to the development of the MSDs, which results in direct and indirect costs as well as intangible costs (i.e., the human costs associated with a decreased quality of life associated with pain and disability).
Since an employer may consider the ergonomic solutions to be too costly, an ergonomic return on investment (ROI) can be used to justify an investment. The ROI calculators measure the rate of return on money invested in order to decide whether or not to undertake the investment. The Cornell ROI Estimator is a calculator that helps you to estimate the potential financial benefits of an ergonomics intervention. The ROI Estimator is based on the salary of the employee or average salary of the employees when more than one employee will be affected, the number of employees, the expected productivity increase and the cost per employee of the intervention. The Cornell ROI are publicly available and accessible online. Since there is strong evidence that ergonomic changes results in financial returns to companies, the focus of any MSD prevention should shift from how much needs to be spent to how much can be saved. Reducing the number and severity of work-related MSDs, will increase productivity. Higher productivity can lead to higher profitability.