You already have an industrial athlete program at your worksite, whether you’ve formalized it or not. Following is the case for having a formal program and caring for your industrial athletes comprehensively with an eye toward a far better safety record and human performance for your workforce.
First, what is an industrial athlete program?
Before making the case for one, it might be helpful to set the stage by explaining what we’re talking about with industrial athlete programs.
The analogy is just what it sounds like. The idea is that a comparison can be drawn between an industrial worker and an athlete. Both use their physical abilities to perform a function that requires skill, strength, flexibility, coordination, and endurance.
The act of working a shift takes a toll on the human body just like playing a game or attending practice takes a toll on the body of an athlete. Working a week of shifts takes a toll on an industrial worker like attending a week of practice takes a toll on an athlete. Working a year of shifts? Same idea. An entire career? Yes, it takes a physical toll on the industrial worker similar to an athlete with a long playing career.
While there are differences between industrial workers and athletes and the nature of work each performs, the analogy holds up well most of the time. Your workers can be viewed as industrial athletes.
Recognizing that workers are industrial athletes, the goal of industrial athlete programs is to provide a high level of prevention-focused healthcare through an industrial athletic trainer. By regularly interacting with your workforce and providing prevention-focused care, industrial athletic trainers are able to help companies achieve dramatically better musculoskeletal health outcomes.
Just like a sports team, companies that are able to achieve better health and human performance are able to be more effective in their field of competition in a way that greatly benefits and improves the lives of their people.
Industrial athlete programs solve large and growing safety threats
Industrial athlete programs have been around for a long time, but they are becoming increasingly popular as a solution to shifting demographics and workforce population health challenges. The population is aging, recruiting and retaining blue collar workers is increasingly difficult, the population’s health profile is declining, and the opioid epidemic shows no signs of slowing down.
Aging workforce
By 2024, baby boomers will have reached ages 60 to 78. About 10,000 of them will turn 65 every day from now through 2030. This is a challenge for many industrial companies and one you’ve likely experienced firsthand.
Like athletes near the end of their careers who spend more time in the training room after practice compared to their peers, older industrial workers are likely to take advantage of industrial athlete programs to stay healthy and at work.
Recruiting and retaining workers
Demographic challenges make taking care of aging workers a priority, but industrial companies today also need to be thinking about how they can recruit and retain younger workers. Companies with a better safety record and culture tend to be an easier sell to younger workers. There is overwhelming evidence that industrial athletic training programs improve safety records and they are excellent culture-builders.
Obesity
Obesity is one of many documented individual risk factors that can lead to musculoskeletal disorders. In 2018, the United States obesity prevalence rate was 42.4%. Providing early care for workers with individual risk factors for MSDs is essential in preventing them, and early care is exactly the goal of industrial athlete programs.
Opioid epidemic
Studies have shown a correlation between jobs with the highest injury rates and opioid-related overdose death rates. Industries like construction, agriculture, production, and health care have the highest rates of opioid-related deaths. These industries might sound familiar because they are the same industries with high rates of musculoskeletal disorders.
One study in Utah found that 57% of those who died from an opioid overdose had at least one prior work-related injury. Primary prevention of these injuries through ergonomics and industrial athlete programs should be a key strategy to ending the opioid epidemic.
Industrial environments
You already know this, but these safety threats are all on top of the regular challenges of the industrial environment, where the work is often physically demanding and musculoskeletal disorders have been a problem for a long time.
Industrial athlete programs are a prevention-focused solution to these challenges. The outcomes of these programs are good for your business and great for your people.
Industrial athlete programs are good for your business
Whether you choose to partner with ErgoPlus for your industrial athlete program or not, these programs have an incredibly high base rate of success. Case study after case study shows the value of an athletic trainer proactively interacting with and caring for your industrial athletes.
Preventing musculoskeletal disorders though industrial athletic training programs help you accelerate safety excellence, reduce worker’s compensation costs, improve productivity, lower presenteeism/absenteeism, and build a culture you can be proud of.
Industrial athlete programs are great for your people
Providing your people with prevention-focused care leads to better health outcomes and a higher quality of work and life. Research and firsthand experience has taught us that people who experience a musculoskeletal disorder are at a higher risk for a downward spiral in life.
Industrial workers with these injuries have higher rates of opioid abuse and experience significant loss of income over time. Is this preventable? Yes! The root causes of musculoskeletal disorders are well documented. Solutions that work, including industrial athlete programs, are available to you. It’s up to your company and safety organization to put them into practice.
The result would be great for your people.
Stay tuned…
The article is an installment in our latest series on Industrial Athletics. We’ll be back next week! In the meantime, sign up for updates to make sure you get the rest of the articles in the series.
