Ergonomics Return-On-Investment Calculators

By Blake McGowan, CPE

Demonstrating the value of your ergonomics initiative and calculating the return on investment (ROI) for specific engineering improvements have become common requests for many safety professionals. Unfortunately, many of us struggle to even begin to justify improvements, let alone choose a meaningful calculator to demonstrate the benefits of improving workplace conditions. In order for one to be truly effective, it needs to be based on meaningful business metrics or leading ergonomic indicators, such as ergonomic risk reduction and/or increases in productivity.

VelocityEHS has designed a set of Return-on-Investment Calculators that will give specific insight into the benefits an organization can see from assessing one job or a whole program for musculoskeletal disorder risk. They

Something that is common among other calculators is that they’re based on traditional, lagging indicators – such as injury and illness cost avoidance. When using these calculators, you certainly hope your improvement will eliminate or reduce future injury and illness cost.  But, as I have heard many times, “hope is not a strategy.” What happens if your improvement doesn’t actually reduce future injuries and illnesses? (Typically – bad things for your career.)

Is there a better way to verify if your improvements are making a positive impact? Yes. Utilizing informative, accurrate calculators can help you estimate what you’ll gain from assessing musculoskeletal disorder risk in your workplace.