Providing PostureMinder clearly demonstrates your corporate social responsibility and concern for employee health and well-being

It will also help you reduce the significant visible and invisible costs of ill-health. Here's how...

We'll take as an example a company with 100 computer-based staff, and show how PostureMinder could save at least £81,000 over 3 years

Assuming our 100 employees are on the UK average wage, we take the average level of absences due to musculoskeletal problems (e.g. back, neck, shoulder pain, RSI) and headaches from this HSE report. If we factor in the indirect costs (see HSE Ready Reckoner), absences are likely to cost around £20-30,000 each and every year

However, the majority of absences are taken by a handful of people with serious problems. A further 65-70% suffer minor aches and pains in silence, never even contemplating taking time off

Suffering in silence still costs you money through reduced productivity and low morale. These costs aren't visible, they're not easy to measure, but they're definitely there

Some estimates put underperformance due to musculoskeletal disorders as high as 8% of overall productivity, or almost £2000 per employee

That sounds high to us (although as anyone who's suffered with a bad back can attest, the pain can certainly have a radical effect on your work). But even if aches and pains only reduce productivity by 5%, they're costing the equivalent of a further £88,400 per year amongst the 69 or so affected out of our 100 staff

These conservative estimates come to a total of £108,000 (or £1080 per employee) of mostly hidden costs each year

We believe PostureMinder should cut that figure by at least 25-50% (in a recent survey of users, some 81% of those with existing pain reported PostureMinder had helped reduce their pain, and 89% of all users said it helped them improve their posture)

In other words, even by conservative estimates, a 100-user company should save at least £81,000 over 3 years

Put another way, PostureMinder will pay for itself in just 2.7 months

Don't take our word for it: Demonstrate that you take employee health and wellbeing seriously by arranging to pilot PostureMinder today, and see for yourself the great benefits our award-winning solution brings to your business

Contact us now to arrange your pilot via sales@postureminder.co.uk

If you'd like to estimate how much PostureMinder could save your organisation, please contact us or download our RoI calculator (Excel spreadsheet)

Where do our figures come from?

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently commissioned a large study into the effectiveness of DSE training (HSE report (large pdf))

Besides finding that DSE training is very patchy and has produced no significant reduction in ill-health costs, the report also estimates that the average computer worker takes 0.85 days per year off sick with musculoskeletal problems (e.g. back, neck, shoulder pain, RSI) and headaches

Previous surveys by the CBI with PPP Healthcare, and by Norwich Union, have estimated that the indirect costs of absences, such as rehab costs, other workers covering absences, reduced morale etc. are 1-2 times the direct costs (see HSE Ready Reckoner)

Taking the lowest of these two estimates, that suggests that for 100 workers working at the national average wage, direct and indirect costs come to around £20,000 per year

However, that only reflects the handful of people (4-5%) whose problems are so serious that they take time off. A further 65-70% of computer workers report suffering problems in silence (see HSE report (large pdf) and ViewSonic @Work @Risk survey 2007)

Estimating the costs associated with silent sufferers is difficult as productivity is rarely closely measured and published. The problems themselves will range from the occasional ache or pain, to permanent discomfort which is just short of causing absences. Also, besides direct underperformance of the individual, there may be knock-on effects e.g. on the morale of other employees due to the grumpiness of the silent sufferer (they may not be silent to everyone!)

Etcom People Engineers recently reported a survey which asked people suffering the full range of musculoskeletal problems to rate the effect aches and pains had on their efficiency at work. The figure that came back was staggering: silent sufferers estimated that they were performing 8% below how they would work if pain free

That estimate (equating to almost £2000 per person) seems high. But it's certainly the case that aches and pains significantly reduce productivity. When we asked the same question of some of our users who'd indicated suffering aches and pains, we got back an average figure of 7.6% - remarkably similar to the Etcom figures

For the sake of our return on investment calculation we've taken a 5% figure to compensate for any exaggeration, and applied it to the 69% of users who typically suffer in silence. The equivalent cost of this lost productivity works out to a further £88,400 of costs amongst our 100 computer workers each year, dwarfing the absence costs

This gives a conservative estimate of the overall costs as £108,000 per year

By continually encouraging better posture and healthier working habits, and based on the feedback we've received about PostureMinder, it would be amazing if PostureMinder failed to cut this figure in half. In practice we expect PostureMinder to virtually eliminate work-related musculoskeletal problems if used daily by computer workers who want to protect their health, and help those who suffer injuries outside work to operate effectively and with minimal aches and pains at work

PostureMinder is priced so that the initial upfront cost of perpetual licences and webcams for the 100 example employees will be paid back in just 2-3 months based on the predicted savings