The economics of ergonomics: finding the right fit

HR Magazine, August, 1996 by Dominic Bencivenga

Soon after The Bureau of National Affairs Inc. (BNA), a Washington, D.C., publishing company, completed a four-year, $13 million office renovation project in 1992, an ergonomics coordinator from its insurance carrier wandered through the offices. From floor to ceiling, everything was new: carpets, ergonomic workstations, computer keyboard trays, glare screens, and lighting fixtures. The redesigned floor plans even moved more employees closer to the windows.

The company's assistant treasurer, Gilbert S. Lavine, recalls one observation the ergonomist made after the tour: "He said, 'You have a lot of wonderful equipment, you spent a lot of money; it's too bad no one knows how to use it.'"

Jane Tamagna, director of training and organizational development, already knew BNA needed one clear ergonomics training program that would "supply information about adjusting workstations, sitting and working correctly" to ensure all employees in its Washington and Rockville, Md., offices worked safely and cost effectively.

The training program became an hour-long session, spearheaded by BNA staff trainer Nan Freitag, that includes a 30-minute ergonomic training video dealing with the proper use of equipment and warning signs for computer-related injuries. Also featured are a self-help checklist and the opportunity to adjust chairs, computer screens and keyboards at a model workstation in the training room. The company established a corps of ergonomic coordinators from each division to help employees adjust their workstations and direct them to medical providers at the first sign of injury.

The combination of proper equipment, training and education about potential injuries has contributed to a significant drop in BNA's costs for workers' compensation claims related to repetitive stress injuries. In fiscal year 1991, BNA had more than 1,000 employees and a dozen claims that cost $132,000. By fiscal year 1995, 10 claims among the company's 1,600 employees cost less than $30,000, Lavine said.

"Education is the key," according to Lavine. "We are still having claims reported, but they are not as severe or we are getting to them earlier. Where a claim might have cost $12,000 to $14,000 before, it may cost only $300 to $600 now."

Some of this reduction in costs is related to changes in medical treatment and a decreasing need for surgery. But BNA employees are also reporting injuries sooner, "when they first feel a twinge, as opposed to waiting years and years," Lavine said. "More often than not, there is no lost time."

THE PLAGUE OF THE COMPUTER ERA

Whether called carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive stress injury or cumulative trauma disorder, wrist, hand, elbow, shoulder and back injuries continue to be an almost unavoidable plague for workers using computers in manufacturing, service and office businesses.

Increasingly, companies are focusing on proactive ergonomic techniques to prevent or contain such injuries in their early stages and reduce costs. Even in this era of corporate downsizing, human resource and loss prevention professionals are able to obtain money for ergonomics training and equipment from skeptical finance officers by explaining the potential for fewer, less costly workers' compensation claims, increased productivity, healthier employees and fewer lost work days. In May the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that repetitive motion injuries were the leading cause of lost workdays in 1994. According to the survey, 36 percent of employees suffering repetitive motion injuries lost at least 31 days of work. The overall average loss was 18 days.

In studies conducted by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, companies implementing ergonomics programs eliminated injuries for about 60 percent of employees, says Gary Orr, an OSHA ergonomist. OSHA has targeted cumulative trauma disorders and "electronic sweatshops" in proposed ergonomic standards. The standards are complete but implementation had been stalled because business groups have labeled them onerous. A stipulation in the OSHA appropriation for this year prohibits release of the standards as a condition of agency funding, Orr said.

EMPLOYER, HEAL THYSELF

Businesses may be reluctant to have standards imposed on them, but many have improved their bottom line by making ergonomic improvements on their own.

For example, the U.S. Postal Service estimates workers' compensation claims from carpal tunnel syndrome alone cost between $18 million and $29.5 million from 1992 through 1995; costs for individual cases ranged from $13,000 to $33,000. The Postal Service developed and tested an ergonomics program in its automated mail sorting sites last year that has resulted in savings of more than $10 million, according to a report on the program.

The West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. in West Bend, Wisc., saw productivity among more than 400 employees increase by 16 percent when it moved into a new, ergonomically correct building in 1991. Since then, carpal tunnel complaints have dropped from about 14 a year in the early 1990s to a single case last year, says Ronald Lauret, West Bend executive vice president.