I was at a meeting of chief executives recently discussing health problems arising from computer use. One CEO said he didn’t mind paying to fix problems but would not pay to prevent them. It was alarming to discover that intensive use of computers was actually the most common cause of absence from work in the UK.

It is a common perception that it is cheaper to cover the cost of injuries than it is to make improvements to the workstation. If you do the sums it is easy to see that this thinking doesn’t add up, not to mention a lack of concern for the workforce.

Much research has been done to demonstrate the size and seriousness of the issue. The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, and the Health & Safety Executive, have all published detailed accounts on the subject. Mostly the concerns are about Musculo Skeletal Disorders or MSDs or back pain to you and me, Repetitive Strain Injury RSI, whiplash, and a wide range of other conditions including, De Quervain’s syndrome, golfers elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, tennis elbow, tenosynovitis, etc.

“You don’t need to live with this waste of time, money, and people” says Paul Goddard, RSI expert and education officer at Keytools. “For example, you wear a seatbelt to prevent a possible injury, it won’t help after the event!” There are plenty of other strategies that companies put in place as preventative measures.

Your organisation very likely has a healthcare programme, safety training, fire extinguishers, and security systems all of which are there for “in case” something bad happens.” So why don’t employers do a bit more to make workstations easier to use and less damaging for employees?

It seems that many organisations have totalled the costs and simply got the sums wrong. If you add up the wages, the extra work for colleagues and the lost opportunity it is not surprising that the bill for doing nothing finishes up a lot more than the prevention. For organisations like HP, E-Bay, and Visa, that have adopted a more proactive stance the reality is that bottom line savings and productivity improvements have been well worthwhile having effectively halved their costs of employee absence.

Their are studies that show organisations that are into office ergonomics, education, and the right apparatus can anticipate return on investment within 2 years, reduced problems with open risk workers and more cash in the bank. Excellent CEOs can tell its workers “I paid to prevent it and now have no problem to fix!

The author, Paul Goddard is the UK’s foremost expert on assistive technology for people with RSI and his company, Keytools provides a large range of ergonomic keyboards and mice to assist prevention of RSI.