Okay put your thinking caps on for a moment........Lets Talk finance?

Okay Say for instance, You are working in the finance department of an Information Technology company. Recently, there has been an unexplained increase in employee back injuries that have left several employees unable to work for varying amounts of time. The Department of Labor and Industries is threatening to increase your employer costs substantially unless this trend can be reversed. What if the the Vice-President of Finance asks you to conduct action research into this issue. As an insider, what will be your focus and how will you conduct this research?

Focus: Investigate out what is causing the increased injuries all of a sudden. Has there been a change to procedures, or increased work load?

Corrections: Are you in full compliance with OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) If you can prove full compliance you may be able to mitigate financial responsibility. Go to the OSHA website http://www.osha.gov/ and view the recommendations applicable to your industry. Maybe you just need to replace the chairs the workers use with more ergonomic ones. Perhaps you can institute a mandatory 10 minute stretch break after 2 hours at the desk?

specifically, see http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/ergonomics/contributing_conditions.html

Both work-related and non-work related conditions can either individually, or by interacting with each other, give rise to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). There are several approaches that may be used to determine whether conditions in the workplace might be contributing to employees developing MSDs. These approaches can be used individually or in combination.

Review and analyze injury and illness records to determine whether there is a pattern of ergonomic-related injuries in certain jobs or work tasks.

OSHA 300 Logs and supporting 301 forms (see the Recordkeeping Home Page for more information)

Workers' Compensation claims

Analyze the jobs or work tasks themselves to identify potential ergonomic problems before employee injuries occur. Determine if jobs present ergonomic risks that may contribute to musculoskeletal disorders.

Analysis tools may help in analyzing jobs. While there is no one size fits all approach, there are numerous non-OSHA, voluntary analysis tools that may be used to learn more about potential ergonomic risks associated with jobs.

Seek employee input about the existence of ergonomic problems related to particular jobs or work tasks. This may be accomplished, among other ways:

by speaking with employees

by conducting symptom surveys

through use of employee questionnaires

Be aware of common contributing conditions within your industry or job classifications. If other companies in the same industry have ergonomic-related problems, then it is possible these potential problems are also your concern.

Obtain information from others in your industry:

to see what problems others have experienced in their operations

to gain a better understanding of potential problems that may exist in your workplace.

from a finance perspective you need a risk mitigation strategy

(1) is there a discernable cause for the change? if so, can the incidence rate be reduced? what costs are involved in reduction? what additional insurance should be acquired to reduce the economic exposure? are the 'industrial' investigative efforts properly funded and how do they impact the P&L?

(2) from a current financial statement standpoint, are there any current period expenses or liabilities that need to be recorded for the existing cases

(3) from a planning and forecasting perspective, are the potentially ongoing higher costs included in financial forecasts and are they material enough to require public disclosure?

As a finance person, it is important to remember that you may be able to facilitate investigation and solutioning activities, but the details of the solution must be addressed and adopted by the areas with operational line responsibility. The finance emphasis should not overlook the appropriate recording and forecasting of the economic impacts of the events.

Note that these steps are explicitly oriented to the financial reporting aspects of the situation, not because finance people shouldn't care about workplace injuries, but because their primary role as corporate finance is to assure the flow of correct and timely financial information to internal and external decision-makers.

My focus would be on what those employees duties were that possibly lead to their injuries. If they sit all day, maybe its the chairs. I would either get some chairs that have better back support or get the accessories that will help.

Always go back to where the injuries occurred, find out if there was any employee negligence. Find out if all the injured employees, are acquaintances outside of work, is it a ploy to make extra money from the company?

"...Recently, there has been an unexplained increase in employee back injuries that have left several employees unable to work for varying amounts of time..." end of quote

Seems to me the employees are suffering from stress and morale.

It easier to collect dividends [easy money] from elusive back injuries.. than to collect for overwhelming stress.

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