You change the oil in your car on a regular basis. When the warning light comes on the dashboard, you get your old oil replaced because you understand the consequences if you don’t. 

You spend about $40 or $50 dollars every six months to avoid spending thousands of dollars down the road on a new engine. But do you practice the same preventative maintenance when it comes to your company’s “engine”— your employees?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) account for almost 300,000 injuries per year and make up for more than one-third of all insurance premiums and HR expenses. Every year, U.S. companies spend billions on direct and indirect costs resulting from MSDs.  

These injuries create recordables, lost work days and time away from work, stress and overwork for remaining employees, absenteeism, and can even result in lower quality of work or higher product defect outcomes.  

If we were to apply the car analogy to workplace safety, we are letting our engines fail rather than spending money on inexpensive but effective oil changes. We not only have to buy new engines, and pay for installations, but have to go without transportation or pay extra for rental cars. We are doing this over and over again, every single year. 

MSDs are the leading cause of injuries, employee pain and suffering, and permanent disabilities in the workplace. As with catastrophic engine failures, MSDs are preventable. 

Sure, your oil changes can be costly and inconvenient—you’ve probably waited an extra thousand miles before heading to the shop—just as preventing workplace MSDs requires an investment. 

But think about the expenses you have with injured employees, as well as the costs to find new workers, train them, pay overtime to existing staff to cover lost productivity, and on and on. 

Companies could save money and prevent days away from work by treating the signs and symptoms of MSDs onsite, before the pain or injury becomes worse. They can reduce lost work time and recordable rates.

With today’s technology, industrial companies can now have work athletic trainers remotely triage and follow-up with every worker, on each shift, and at every location to help them recover quicker and return to work. These athletic trainers can provide effective and personalized programs that help them prevent injuries and maintain a healthier and more productive lifestyle. 

An injury prevention program like this costs more than posting safety signs and regulations, conducting safety meetings and morning calisthenics, and asking workers to try harder to be safe. But if those measures were going to reduce injuries, they would have worked already — and the injury rate across the country has plateaued. 

Think of the costs of introducing and sustaining your ergonomic processes as preventative maintenance — spend a little up front to save a large amount down the road. The financial leaders in your company will thank you.

Be cautious and vigilant because as soon as your workplace injuries begin to drop off dramatically, Safety and Wellness programs can be the first place executives look to cut costs. Keeping employees healthy and on the job is an ongoing process. Any type of ergonomic program that you put in place must be considered an investment and not an expense. Make sure your technology can provide pre-injury data and robust business intelligence so you can prove how well your efforts are doing.

When you have such a solution in place, output productivity and product quality will be more consistent and you should see gains across the board. Systems that promote safety and wellness are a boost to team morale, help recruit new more qualified workers, and create healthier employees who stay on the job longer.  

When you take care of your car, you’ll enjoy years of trouble-free service. When you invest in quality care for your employees, you develop a culture of safety that improves productivity, worker health, customer satisfaction, and your company’s safety rating.

Talk to Healthy Roster now to get started with your pilot program. We'll give your workers 24/7 access to industrial athletic trainers to both prevent and filter out MSD injuries — while keeping them onsite — and reduce lost work time and your recordables.