If you're involved in the safety industry, you're familiar with the acronym OSHA. But do you know what OSHA is or what they do? Is OSHA the boogeyman, constantly hiding behind the next corner, waiting to pounce on your next mistake?

Well, information cancels out fear, so let's do some education.

OSHA:

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, more commonly known by its acronym OSHA, is responsible for protecting worker health and safety in the United States. Congress created OSHA in 1971 following its passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for workers by enforcing workplace laws and standards and providing training, outreach, education, and assistance. In 1970, when the Government enacted the OSHA Act, there were 14,000 worker deaths and 2.5 million disabled workers in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that by 2017 the workforce in the U.S. had almost doubled, but the number of worker deaths had decreased to 5,000, which, when adjusted for workforce growth, amounts to a nearly 80% reduction in workplace deaths. And it's not just deaths; recordable instances have dropped from 10.9 per 100 workers in 1970 to 2.8 per 100 workers in 2017.

OSHA Coverage:

OSHA coverage extends to most, but not all, private-sector employers and their workers. OSHA rules cover most non-public workplaces, including construction, logging, manufacturing, and many others. The agency also covers some public sector employers and their workers, usually through state OSHA agencies that regulate public sector employers. However, OSHA does not protect self-employed workers or immediate members of farm families who do not employ non-family workers. OSHA extends throughout all U.S. states, territories, and jurisdictions. States can have their own federally approved occupational safety and health regulatory programs (currently, 22 states do), called state plans. The State-Plan States must have regulations as stringent as federal OSHA regulations, but they can also implement stricter rules if they choose.

OSHA Standards: 

OSHA determines which standards and requirements apply to workplace environments and then enforces employer adherence to those standards and requirements. OSHA sets these standards and conditions based on workplace research and input from subject matter experts and other stakeholders. To help employers adhere to its standards and requirements, OSHA offers training and consultation to educate employers and employees. OSHA must explain the procedures, equipment, and training that employers and workers must use to reduce hazards and ensure safety measures specific to the employers' workplace and workers' jobs.

OSHA Enforcement:

In addition to education and training, OSHA is tasked with enforcement. OSHA officials can issue fines ranging into tens of thousands of dollars for violations (even more for repeat violations) and refer violators for criminal prosecution if they deem such action warranted. Recently, OSHA has even referred workplace safety violations to state district attorney offices in fatality cases, allowing individuals (owners, safety managers) within an organization to be charged when willful negligence is found.

OSHA is also tasked with identifying possible causes of job-related injuries, deaths, and illnesses. According to a U.S. Department of Labor release, just last week, OSHA cited Dollar General with four willful and ten repeat violations for "failing to keep receiving and storage areas clean and orderly, and stacking materials in an unsafe manner. These violations exposed workers to hazards associated with slips, trips, and being struck by objects." [1] The company faces $1,682,302 in proposed penalties after these inspections, a portion of the more than $9.6 million total initial penalties the company has received since 2017. To date, OSHA's most significant action has been against B.P. Products of North America Inc., following a 2005 explosion and fire at the B.P. Texas City Refinery, which killed 15 workers and injured 170. The proposed penalties totaled $87.4 million.

OSHA Compliance:

To comply with OSHA requirements, employers must take several specific actions; those include inspecting the workplace for potential hazards, eliminating or minimizing hazards, keeping records of workplace injuries and illness, training employees to recognize safety and health hazards, and educating employees on precautions to prevent accidents. OSHA also requires employees to follow the rules, such as complying with all applicable OSHA standards, following OSHA safety regulations, wearing required protective equipment, reporting hazardous conditions, and reporting job-related injuries and illnesses. OSHA also protects employees by guaranteeing a host of rights. Those include the right to have copies of OSHA regulations and request information about workplace hazards, precautions, and procedures. To request OSHA inspections if they believe hazardous conditions or violations exist in their workplace and to refuse to be exposed to the danger of death or serious physical harm.

Additionally, OSHA and federal laws protect workers who complain or report possible violations to their employers, OSHA, or other agencies against retaliation. Employers are prohibited from taking adverse personnel action against a whistleblower. Employees who feel their legal rights have been infringed upon can file a complaint to OSHA alleging employer retaliation.

Why you need OSHA's help:

Just because OSHA has regulatory and even punitive capabilities doesn't mean they are the bad guy. We all want our team members to go home in the same condition they showed up to work in, and OSHA wants the same thing. Because of this, OSHA offers "no-cost and confidential occupational safety and health services to small- and medium-sized businesses in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories, with priority given to high-hazard worksites. On-Site Consultation services are separate from enforcement and do not result in penalties or citations. Consultants from state agencies or universities work with employers to identify workplace hazards, provide advice for compliance with OSHA standards, and assist in establishing and improving safety and health programs." [2]

Conclusion: 

So, use the tools that OSHA has provided, and when you need additional help identifying and remediating the issues, contact ErgoScience. With 30 years of experience in ergonomics and injury reduction, we can help you identify and fix the problems. And if you've engineered out the ergonomics issues but still have injuries, you're hiring the wrong people. We can help with that too. Let us show you how a legally defensible pre-hire physical ability testing program can help you put the right people in the right jobs, and you sit back and watch your injuries drop by an average of 73%.

HURRY! Contact us today for more information.

(1] https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osha/osha20221017

[2] https://www.osha.gov/consultation/

Since the pandemic, the average turnover rate has mushroomed to 47.5%! This means that nearly half of every position filled will need to be filled again. (1)

The Impact of Injuries.

And to make matters worse, newly hired employees are significantly more likely to experience a work-related injury within the first months of employment. A review of federal accident data showed that employees in their first year on the job account for 40% of all workplace injuries, and half of that 40% occurred within the first 90 days on the job. (2)

 In another study of 3752 employees, 31.2% terminated their employment before the first 2 months on the job. The risk of early resignation was significantly greater among those who had visited the occupational health clinic to address a work-related injury during those first 60 days. (3)

With 14 workplace injuries happening every second, you can bet that workplace injuries impact turnover. (4)

The Impact of Heavy Physical Demands.

It's not just injuries that create an early exit. In a study published in 2020 involving 2351 employees, heavy physical requirements such as awkward body postures, heavy lifting, and high work pace were associated with an early exit. (5) People who have never done physically demanding work or have done it in a while get easily overwhelmed with heavy lifting and highly repetitive work. The exit strategy is often not showing up for work the next day. One of our clients related the story of a delivery driver who abandoned his entire loaded truck in a parking lot rather than complete the rest of the workday!

Turnover is Expensive.

According to the Department of Labor, turnover is expensive, adding up to about a third of the replaced worker's annual salary in lost productivity, recruiting, retention, and replacement costs. Suppose the turnover is due to a lost-time injury. In that case, the company is incurring an additional $40K in direct injury costs and (according to OSHA) another $44K in indirect costs for a total injury cost of $84,000.

A Whopping Example.

Take the average warehouse worker earning $28,500. Based on the above figures:

• turnover costs = $9.4K
• lost time injury = $84K
• Total Cost = $93K
• Assume a 3% profit margin
• Additional Sales to cover total injury costs = $2.8M

Once the other sales to cover the turnover costs have been added, the actual price of that lost time injury + turnover will equal an astounding $3M! That's the actual cost of injuries and turnover.

So, what can you do?

5 Ways To Get Off The Proverbial Wheel

1. Pre Employment Testing of Physical Abilities.

   A logical first step for preventing injuries is hiring individuals capable of performing the physical requirements of the work. Pre-employment Physical Abilities Testing addresses two birds with one approach – not only are employees capable of performing the work less likely to be injured, but they are also less likely to depart early from their jobs. The current severe workforce shortage, however, makes eliminating job candidates for any reason difficult. Not to mention that recruiters are incentivized on the number of positions filled or the time required to fill positions (shorter being better). So, employers today are hiring just about anyone they can find.

But is this the way to hire? Let's look at some more numbers.

Without pre-hire Physical Abilities Testing, you can assume that approximately 10% (10) of those you hire will experience a lost time injury. If you hire 100 warehouse workers and each lost time strain or sprain requires the company to increase sales by $3M, suddenly, sales must be increased by $30M to make up for those bad hires. Did the company gain $30M worth of business by making those 10 bad hires? Only you and your organization can answer that…but, likely, the math does not add up.

2. Physical Abilities Placement.

   If you're not convinced to do physical abilities testing to select applicants, consider using Physical Abilities Testing post-hire for placement. If you have jobs of varying levels of physical difficulty, you can use a test with multiple passing criteria and place people according to the level at which they passed.

3. Ergonomic Assessment.

   Whether selecting or placing applicants or reducing the physical stress associated with your jobs makes sense. An ergonomic assessment, at least for the jobs creating most of the injuries, can help identify and quantify the ergonomic risk factors. ErgoScience utilizes Computer Vision AI for its ergonomics assessments. The use of this cutting-edge technology makes our assessments more objective and cost-effective. Supervisors can also use the technology for training your workforce in better materials handling and safer work practices.

4. Ergonomic Training.

   Classroom training alone has been shown to have minimal impact on improving materials handling techniques or reducing strains and sprains. But with Computer Vision AI, you can personalize and augment your ergonomic training. The technology shows the front-line employees exactly which movements and body postures create ergonomic hazards. Repeating the assessment using better body mechanics or more safe work practices shows them the precise impact of those improvements and makes a lasting impression that engages and motivates employees to work smarter, not harder.

In addition, wearable sensors can reinforce the day-to-day implementation of your ergonomic training. They provide haptic feedback (think slight vibration) when employees get out of the safe zone, bend too much, twist the body, or lift in an unsafe manner. The haptic feedback helps them improve over time, and their progress can be tracked by safety/management. Reports can also show which areas of your operation create the most significant risk factors.

5. OSHA-Compliant Early Intervention Programs (EIP)

   All of the above solutions are primary prevention approaches. But even if you implement all of them, there will still be some employees who experience fatigue and discomfort. The key is to have a program that can address this discomfort before it becomes full-blown pain and a recordable or worse - a lost time injury. OSHA allows three interventions that are considered "first aid" for musculoskeletal issues:

• Heat and cold
• Massage
• Non-rigid supports (think kinesiotaping)

In addition, the EIP practitioner can educate program participants on proper lifting techniques, body mechanics, and body positioning for achieving the best ergonomic work practices. Most participants come for 3 to 6 30-minute sessions. The program can be administered onsite, provided there is ample space. The convenience of onsite promotes participation. Alternatively, the program can be provided by PTs in a near-site clinic. In our experience, at least 70% of participants decreased their discomfort and improved their function with EIP. The other 30% triage to a physician or physical therapist.

Bottom Line.

There's no question that injuries and turnover are sucking the life out of our businesses. Just think what you could do with the resources spent on the $3M/injury turnover! Raises? New Equipment? Research and development of new products and services? But it's not hopeless. Some strategies can have a significant impact on both injuries and turnover.

Act now. Click here to discuss ErgoScience injury and turnover prevention strategies.

Sources

(1) Bureau of Labor Statistics

(2) Christopher D. B. Burt. New Employee Safety: Risk Factors and Management Strategie, 2015

(3) Nathan C. Huizinga et al., Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Feb; 16(3): 433.

(4) https://techjury.net/blog/work-related-injury-statistics/#gref/OSHA

(5) Angelo d’Errico et al, Int Arch of Occup Env Health, 2021 94, Feb 117–138.

(6) https://www.osha.gov/safetypays/estimator