eBook

5 Steps to Protecting Your

Employees and Reducing
the Cost of Workplace
Injuries and Discomfort
Table of Contents

Introduction 03

Identify leading indicators 04

Translate data into usable information 06

Turn information into action 08

Establish standards and drive accountability 10

Develop a robust culture to get you there and keep you there 12
Introduction
As you strive to protect employees
and also increase profitability in this
challenging business environment, more
focus than ever is on reducing health care
and workers’ compensation costs.
As a safety professional, you are doing your
part to cut costs. One of the best examples
of how to make a big impact is in office
ergonomics efforts, which can prevent
widespread injuries and discomfort when
executed well.
© CORITY SOFTWARE INC.
Although many executives do not realize it,
preventing injuries and discomfort is within
the grasp of every company in the world.
Sustaining that rate of zero injuries is also
achievable by instilling a culture of safety
throughout the entire organization. The five
steps below will help get you to zero and
ensure you stay there.
3
Chapter 1

Identify leading
indicators
Identifying leading indicators of injury is the and shoulder discomfort, and more – any
first key to driving to zero. Before you begin to of which could be caused by a number of
develop a program to achieve zero, you need factors, including the height of a desk or chair,
a more insightful view of where your risk exists placement of the keyboard or mouse, lack of
– discomfort is a great example of a leading breaks from the computer, or the improper
indicator that can provide valuable insight into use of a phone or headset.
the risks in your organization.
Identifying leading indicators, such as
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, discomfort while working, provides insight
musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 30 into where intervention can have the biggest
percent of all reported workplace injuries proactive, preventive impact. So now that
and illnesses requiring time away from work you’ve taken that first step, what’s next?
in 2018. In addition, our experience in the
industry has shown more than 20 percent
of employees constantly or frequently feel
discomfort while working. These employees
are at the highest risk of becoming a group
health cost and keeping you from your zero
goal.

Discomfort comes in many forms and

frequently goes unreported as a safety issue
at work because it’s difficult for employees
to identify the cause of their discomfort.
Employees may experience leg discomfort,
arm and hand pains, lower back pain, neck

© CORITY SOFTWARE INC.

5
Chapter 2

Translate data into

usable information
Hammering management with raw numbers get injured and learned that the employees
might inform them of the level of performance, with high-risk ergonomic behaviors, such as
but it does little to show what actions prevent not taking frequent breaks from the computer
injuries from occurring. As a health and safety or sitting improperly while working, were
expert, you are responsible for analyzing the 17 times more likely to develop an injury.
data and then using that analysis to prioritize By comparing data related to high-risk
and set the direction for organizational efforts behaviors with the resulting injury rates, we
to ultimately prevent injuries and cut costs. drew conclusions that drove the reallocation
of resources to focus on high-risk employees
Technology is key to effective analysis. While and address their risky at-work behaviors. This
ergonomic assessment data on individual data-driven shift in resources ultimately saved
employees can assist in identifying the money and increased productivity.
best intervention to help that employee,
extended value comes from digging deep
into aggregate numbers to identify patterns
across the entire organization. Through the
analysis of larger data sets, you can begin to
pinpoint the specific causes of discomfort
and potential injury. The key is to look for non-
obvious correlations and ask, “What are the
most common, easily resolved issues with
discomfort that are not reported?”

We recently conducted a thorough analysis

of ergonomics data in an effort to identify the
characteristics of employees most likely to

© CORITY SOFTWARE INC.

7
Chapter 3

Turn information into

action
It is not good enough for you to know
poor ergonomics causes discomfort and
costs your company money. You must go
beyond just knowing and also use concrete
analysis to design interventions and educate
management and employees on what action
to take to drive desired changes.

Once you gather the data and conduct

a thorough analysis, you will have the
information you need to develop a program
to proactively intervene and make employees
aware of what they can do to stay healthy, feel
comfortable, and work productively. This is
yet another area where technology can greatly
enhance the effectiveness of your efforts – by
allowing monitoring of program progress from
afar, providing a centralized system to manage
communications, and constantly collecting
and analyzing data that sheds light on the
effectiveness of your interventions over time.

© CORITY SOFTWARE INC.

9
Chapter 4

Establish standards
and drive
accountability
Change is possible, but in order to jump-
start that change, you must give your leaders
the tools they need to assess their workforce
and educate their employees. You must also
empower your employees with knowledge and
foster a sense of accountability for their own
health and safety – you can drive toward this
sense of accountability by providing them with
training and a feedback system to easily report
their problems. When employees know what
actions to take when they feel discomfort,
it is easier to intervene in time to eliminate
the variety of potential injuries that might
otherwise develop.

© CORITY SOFTWARE INC.

11
Chapter 5

Develop a robust
culture to get you
there and keep you
there
A culture of safety is the product of individual Getting to zero is possible, but staying there
and group values, attitudes, perceptions, while lowering overall costs is something
competencies, and patterns of behavior all safety professionals should strive to
that determine the commitment, style, and achieve. While many of us work hard to get
proficiency of an organization’s health and to zero, we must not forget the importance of
safety program. Simply put, culture sets the looking beyond zero. Beyond zero is all about
norms of behavior for the organization. Culture sustainability and making sure that once we
is far more impactful than the smartest safety have achieved this goal and created a culture
team, most supportive management, top- of safety, we continue to re-evaluate and
of-the-line safety management system, and reassess, so we stay accident and injury free
most robust data analysis tools. Culture is the for the maximum benefit to our organizations.
glue that holds all these things together and Sustainability requires ongoing monitoring
amplifies the effect of each. Your employees and feedback systems and a commitment to
are far more likely to do the right thing and feel data tracking and analysis.
accountable for their own actions when they
see: There is no greater justification for future
investment than concrete evidence of past
• The company doing its part by providing success. Creating a system that collects,
safe facilities and the tools they need to do monitors, and analyzes the constant flow
their job. of data will provide the numbers to support
• Management being supportive and continued investment in your safety initiatives.
consistently hold- ing everyone It will also empower those involved to be
accountable to the established standards. accountable for their own health and hone the
• Their peers doing the right thing efforts to enable a sustainable zero injuries
consistently and hold- ing each other and discomfort rate year after year.
accountable.

© CORITY SOFTWARE INC.

13
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Introducing CorityOne™. The human centered enterprise
EHS SaaS platform—designed by industry experts for EHS
experts and business leaders to empower healthier, safer,
and more sustainable organizations that fulfill the business
imperative of building the better enterprise of tomorrow.

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Designed to help transform
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and drive continuous
improvement towards your
corporate goals. Advance your
performance to a cleaner,
greener f​ uture more easily and
efficiently.​
Designed to protect a client’s
global workforce from
operational risk and streamline,
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compliance for better worker
performance.
Designed to manage
workplace and workforce
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programs to enable better
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Designed to reduce complexity
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Designed to simplify the job
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