Health and Safety – A Waste of Time
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.
It is a common perception that it is cheaper to cover the cost of injuries than it is to make improvements to the workstation. If you do the sums it is easy to see that this thinking doesn’t add up, not to mention a lack of concern for the workforce.
Much research has been done to demonstrate the size and seriousness of the issue. The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, and the Health & Safety Executive, have all published detailed accounts on the subject. Mostly the concerns are about Musculo Skeletal Disorders or MSDs or back pain to you and me, Repetitive Strain Injury RSI, whiplash, and a wide range of other conditions including, De Quervain’s syndrome, golfers elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, tennis elbow, tenosynovitis, etc.
“Most of these problems can easily be avoided” says Paul Goddard, a well known RSI expert and education officer at Keytools. “Think about the reason you wear a seatbelt before you have an accident and you get the idea”. Take a look at all the preventative strategies that companies commonly adopt.
Most medium and large companies will have an education and healthcare programme. There will be fire extinguishers at every corner, safety policies and training, and many more, all of them are there to minimise possible disasters. Wouldn’t it make sense to include the major cause of health problems – the workstation – as well?
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.
Their are studies that show organisations that are into office ergonomics, education, and the right apparatus can anticipate return on investment within 2 years, reduced problems with open risk workers and more cash in the bank. Excellent CEOs can tell its workers “I paid to prevent it and now have no problem to fix!
The author, Paul Goddard is the UK’s foremost expert on assistive technology for people with RSI and his company, Keytools provides ergonomic keyboards and mice to assist with the prevention of RSI.
categories: RSI,Repetitive Strain Injury,Health,Arthritis,health,fitness,disability,work related injuries,healthcare