Injury Treatment’s Training Services include:
- Staff Manual Handling Training
- Staff Ergonomic Training
- Key Worker ‘Train the Trainer’ Programs
Injury Treatment can conduct an onsite “Job Analysis” to observe workers’ duties, identify the critical demands and potential risk factors and suggest risk reduction measures.
From this, a tailored training package is developed and delivered.
The duration of training sessions is based on client’s needs and requirements.
‘Train the Trainer’ Programs are designed to educate key workers within an organisation to cascade training to all workers. This empowers the organisation to prevent and manage injury risks internally.
Injury Treatment’s Consultancy Services include:
- Ergonomic Assessments
- Usual and Suitable Duties Registers
- Risk Assessments
Ergonomic assessments can be provided for individual workers either to prevent injuries, or to identify the cause and minimise aggravation of an existing injury.
Educational and instructional information is provided regarding safe working postures and practices, (such as task rotation, work breaks and stretching exercises), to minimize the risk of injury
The level of detail in the report can be vary depending upon the employer’s requirements and each individual’s circumstances. Reports can be a ‘group summary’, ‘brief individual summary’, ‘detailed individual report’.
Usual and Suitable Duties Registers involve onsite assessments to establish the inherent physical demands of ‘high risk’ roles, indentify ways to reduce risk and identify relevant suitable duties.
A “matrix” report is compiled, detailing physical demands and relevant suitable duties, with accompanying photographs.
Benefits to the Organisation:
- The identification and management of OH&S risks to prevent workplace injuries
- A reduction in incidence of workplace injuries
- A reduction in workers’ compensation claims
- A reduction in workers’ compensation premiums
- An improvement in staff morale
- Empowering staff to participate in taking responsibility for their own health and safety
- Promotion of safe working practices and a positive safety culture
- A reduction in staff turnover and associated costs
- Promoting early return to work post-injury
Cost Benefit Analysis – an example demonstrating the benefits of manual handling training:
A study of the impact of manual handing injuries on the mining industry was conducted in 2008*,
(*ref: ‘Manual Handling Review of WA Mining Industry Project: Scoping Study, W. Pietracola, Consultant Ergonomist, Ergonomica, April 2008).
‘Data from WorkCover Western Australia revealed that between July 2004 and June 2006 workplace manual task injuries in the Mining Industry resulted in 643 lost time claims and 1,064 no lost time claims. This represents 38.5% of all lost time compensation claims and 30% of all no lost time compensation claims in the Industry.
The total cost of the manual task lost time claims in the period was $23.9million (37% total lost time claims cost) and the cost of no lost time claims was $1.8million (30% total no lost time claims cost). The average cost of a manual task injury claim was $36, 891 per lost time claim and $1,719 per no lost time claim. Costs for no cost claims include medical and other rehabilitation costs.
A total of 96,763 days were lost as a result of manual task injuries in the period, representing 45% of the total days lost from mining workplace injuries. In addition to the direct compensation claims costs, a workplace manual task injury will also incur other costs. Other costs to organisations include lost productivity, staff replacement and training costs, loss of expertise and administrative overheads. The costs of manual task injuries to the injured worker include pain and suffering, loss of income and possible long term disability.
Obviously the compensation costs and other costs of manual task injuries are a major contributor to total injury costs in the WA Mining Industry. Reducing the number and severity of these injuries would be of considerable cost benefit to all stakeholders’.
As noted from the excerpt of this study above, ‘the average cost of a manual task injury claim was $36, 891 per lost time claim’.
In contrast, the cost of providing an effective manual handling training program which can aid in preventing injuries in the first instance is approximately $200 – $400 per worker (depending on the complexity of the task or the worker’s role). This equates to approximately ½ – 1% of the total potential cost of a single claim – preventative measures are a cost effective way of managing injury risks!
