Back injuries are the No. 1 cause of workplace injuries across the U.S. and the No. 1 cause of workers’ compensation claims. In fact, 80 percent of Americans will experience back pain at some point in their life.
“About one in five work-related injuries involves the back,” says Jonathan Theders, president of Clark-Theders Insurance Agency Inc. “Helping employees take care of their backs is important for reducing costs and keeping employees safe.”
Creating a back injury prevention program can help a company reduce the cumulative effects of back injuries, as well as reduce the frequency with which they occur.
Smart Business spoke with Theders about how to keep employees from injuring their backs in the workplace.
Why should employers be concerned about back injuries in the workplace?
Back pain affects everything you do. Your quality of life in everything from work to home life to driving is greatly affected by the back. There is also a mental aspect to that pain that is quite powerful.
It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting at a computer all day, working on a factory line, driving a truck or cutting hair. Your back is potentially at risk regardless of your occupation, as back injuries affect everyone.
Helping employees take care of their backs is important because back injuries lead not only to workers’ compensation costs and potential disability, but they also affect morale, resulting in decreased productivity.
It certainly negatively affects the company’s bottom line.
What are some causes of back injuries in the workplace?
Three prominent causes of back injuries are employees who are tired, stressed or short of help. When they have more work to do, people tend to move faster or do things they’re not completely trained on. So if you take an employee out of the work force for any reason, the effect it could have on the next person could be dangerous. They will be more tired because they are doing more work, and they are more stressed because they are outside their comfort zone of what they normally do. Plus, because you’re short on help, they are cramming more and more into the same day.
A lot of back injuries involve surgery and/or months of therapy. Not only have you lost that employee’s productivity, but because somebody else is picking up the extra work that person is missing, there is additional stress. It causes a domino effect. That first work-related injury can lead to another and another because you’re compounding its effects across the spectrum of the business.
