By Cindy Festge, OTR
Vice President of Customer Experience, Fit For Work
In the past, we have dedicated significant focus to the health and safety benefits of Early Intervention – and rightly so. When it comes to creating a safer and more productive environment for your workers, Early Intervention is the only place to start.
But did you know EI can have a positive and lasting impact on the business side of things, as well?
Everything from your financials and reputation to morale and employee retention stand to improve with the help of Early Intervention, and businesses who take advantage are able to experience these far-reaching advantages on a long-term basis.
Here is a closer look at several of the lesser-known areas Early Intervention can serve to benefit organizations like yours.
Cost savings
Early Intervention can greatly benefit your organization’s bottom line, especially in the area of workers’ compensation . In many cases, employees do not file workers’ comp claims until their injury reaches a severe level that affects their ability to work. Injuries might also take place at home and fail to get addressed, only to worsen at work before resulting in a costly claim.
This is obviously costly to you in terms of medical bills, but there are also several other factors at play, including:
- The employee may need time off for recovery, which can lead to a loss of productivity or the need to hire a replacement.
- Frequent workers’ comp claims can be damaging to your reputation and morale, which can also have a negative impact on recruiting and retention .
- The injured employee may develop a fear of reinjury while other employees in the same or similar roles may be afraid of the injury happening to them.
Reducing the number of claims made against your company starts with reducing injuries in the first place – which starts with a proactive, onsite approach to injury prevention. An effort can also be made to decrease personal health claims by allowing workers to visit medical professionals for personal issues.
Issue identification
Strategizing and deploying an effective solution to anything always starts with identifying the root cause of that issue first and foremost. This is one area Early Intervention can deliver incredible value. By working with employees one-on-one in their roles and in their environments, more visibility is gained into the true cause of an issue – which can then be used to pinpoint the best possible solution.
The work of Early Intervention can help uncover answers to many important questions, including:
- Is the issue a squeaky wheel who is simply complaining about a job task, or is there a deeper problem at play?
- Is the problem ergonomic in nature?
- Could the problem give the employee a secondary gain?
- Are they getting attention they want?
- Do they not like who they work next to?
- Is the issue systemic?
- Is it a true ergo problem?
- It is a training issue?
- Is it an HR issue?
- Is it morale-related?
By drilling to the bottom of a given issue, Early Intervention helps facilitate improved problem-solving and decision-making at many levels of the business.
Justification through ergonomics
The issues uncovered by Early Intervention can also provide tangible proof to help justify ergonomic improvements throughout the workplace, including:
- Capital improvements
- Enforcement of rotation plans
- Implementation of preventive maintenance programs
Removal of guesswork
There are several areas that can also enjoy added clarity and accuracy with the help of Early Intervention.
Rotation plans can be more thoughtfully laid out to decrease potential injury. Research of any additional tools or devices to decrease ergonomic risks can also be streamlined and improved, as you can determine exactly what your needs are and what tools or devices you should be looking for. Early Intervention can also help businesses more effectively implement stretching programs that are most meaningful to the job tasks at hand.
Stop chasing injuries with help from Fit For Work
Are you looking for a safety program with staying power? Through onsite Early Intervention, we work directly with your employees in their environments to help you get ahead of workplace injuries before they occur. We go beyond a symptom/response approach to create a safety program that ensures your workers are safe, healthy, and productive – and that your business is profitable, as well.
Contact us today to see how proactive prevention can reduce injuries and associated costs by 50%.
