What numbers do you know? What’s the price of gas in your area? Here outside Chicago, it’s about $2.37/gallon. We stopped for fuel in Cleveland over the weekend and it was $1.91/gallon. We know that it costs about $15 for Spencer, the QP3 Ergo Lab, to get his nails done at Petco.
That said, for all of the company CEO’s, CFO’s, COO’s, Risk Managers, Safety Directors, Safety Managers, and Safety Representatives out there, do you know your numbers? Off the top of your head, what is your leading cause of lost workday case frequency, also known as DART? What about severity, or dollar cost?
When I was at Alcoa, the CEO told the business units to start focusing on their top losses, including vehicle-pedestrian safety and ergonomics. I was one of the very first Ergonomists at the company, at Warrick Ops in Indiana. Click on this link to learn about some of my experiences!
After a few years at Alcoa, I moved to a global commercial insurance carrier, and we knew our numbers pretty well, too. By reviewing large groups of data, we knew that the most LWD/DART cases came from soft tissue injuries & illnesses. Soft tissue cases also comprised the single largest severity among case types. These cases may not be massive explosions causing death and widespread destruction, but they are more akin to “death by 1,000 cuts,” due to claims costs falling below deductibles, yet still affecting a company’s experience modification factor (premium rates.)
Now that we have discussed a few loss numbers, where are you allocating your EH&S resources? What are you spending your time on? How about your consulting dollars? (We’ll keep COVID-19 out of this conversation.)
Addressing ergonomics issues is not always easy. Real ergonomics is less about “bend your knees,” and more about “let’s design tools, processes and equipment correctly.” It is more about “let’s maximize employee effectiveness when they’re working,” “how can we improve product quality,” and “how can we help people be just a bit more comfortable at work?”
Please give me a call at (847) 921-3113 or send an email to info@qp3ergosystems.com to discuss things further. Also, check out our website by clicking the link. We can help with even more than Ergonomics!
