Display Screen Equipment (DSE) such as computers, smartphones and laptops are part and parcel of the modern working world. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require employers to carry out DSE assessments to ensure their team have safe working environments in line with specific guidelines.
In the not so distant past, employers had limited options when it came to assessing their team’s workspaces. Many companies distributed self-assessment questionnaires for staff to complete and manually compiled the responses in spreadsheets. Lots of admin, lots of chasing…all for a low compliance rate, as most employees see traditional questionnaires as a tick box exercise with little value to them.
Today, digital DSE solutions such as Vitrue VIDA are changing the landscape of DSE compliance. With VIDA, you can seamlessly onboard your team in a few simple steps and become DSE compliant in as little as 30 seconds. Employees are empowered to assess and optimise their workspaces at home, in the office and everywhere in between.
Digital DSE assessments are worlds apart from their paper-based predecessors, but they are sometimes considered a ‘luxury’ product. At this economically uncertain time when budgets are tight, you may be wondering whether it’s worth paying for a digital DSE solution.
In reality, digital DSE solutions like VIDA offer a significant return on investment in the long run. Here are 7 ways paying for a digital DSE solution can actually save you money:
1. Fewer compensation claims and lawsuits
28% of people are working at a workspace with substantially increased MSK health risks. In severe cases, this can result in hefty personal injury lawsuits if an employee sustains an injury caused by a poorly set up workstation. A freelance journalist claimed £37,500 in compensation for a repetitive strain injury she developed at work, as her employer was negligent in providing a safe working environment.
Digital DSE solutions like VIDA empower your team to self-correct any health risks in their workspace setups, significantly reducing your legal risk as an employer. DSE compliance becomes much quicker, easier and more engaging for you and your team. Workplace compensation claims often reach six-figure settlements, so you can’t really put a price on that!
2. Saves time and reduces admin
Time is money. Every hour you spend sending out questionnaires, manually compiling responses, recording completion rates in spreadsheets, or chasing people via email is a costly and unnecessary use of your time.
With VIDA, you can send up to 10,000 assessments with one click of a button, making you DSE compliant in 30 seconds. The admin dashboard holds all the assessments you’ve sent to your team in one central place, easing your admin burden and freeing up your valuable time for other things!
3. An employee benefit wrapped into a health and safety tool
Many employers see DSE assessments as a tick-box exercise, something you ‘have’ to do to satisfy the law. Traditional DSE tools help you meet your legal obligations, but they don’t give your employees any other benefits.
VIDA’s dual purpose as a compliance and employee wellbeing tool allows you to use your health and safety budget to provide your team with a valuable employee benefit. Pain Coach within VIDA is a personalised pain management programme with tailored exercises to help your team keep work-related pain at bay – no need to invest in any other wellbeing or exercise tools. With 65% of employees currently suffering from MSK issues like neck and back pain, it’s the perfect time to show your team you care about their wellbeing.
Want to calculate the potential return on investment you could get by providing your team with workspace assessments through VIDA? Check out our ROI calculator!
4. Helps you spend your ergonomic equipment budget wisely
Many companies spend thousands on ergonomic equipment such as standing desks and wrist rests or issue generous budgets for employees to purchase equipment of their choice. However, a survey we conducted with HR and Health and Safety leaders at global companies revealed that employees rarely understand how to best use these budgets and employers can’t measure the return on their investment.
VIDA analytics gives you insight into your team’s workplace setups and pain levels, helping you spend your budget wisely on the things that will make the biggest impact for your team.
5. Reduces staff absences and time off for MSK pain
MSK issues such as lower back pain are the number one cause of absences in the workplace. 2.6% of people require time off work for MSK issues each year, with absences lasting between six to nine days on average. A study by Recruiting Times reveals that the cost of sick pay each year for a company with 50 people is more than the average employee salary.
Most MSK issues are entirely preventable with the right knowledge, exercise and workplace setup. VIDA is proven to reduce work-related pain by 34%, helping employees stay in work and take their wellbeing into their own hands.
6. More productive workforce
Around a quarter of all desk workers are working at roughly 15% below capacity due to MSK issues like back pain. All it takes is six people in your team with pain for you to lose a whole full time employee (FTE)’s worth of productivity…
Our extensive research into workplace MSK trends highlights that this dip in productivity costs the global economy a whopping $1.69 trillion every year. VIDA helps employees to create better workspace setups and adopt healthier habits like taking short bursts of exercise throughout the day, keeping them pain-free and reducing the costly productivity dip in your company.
7. Improves retention
Employees with musculoskeletal pain are 64% less likely to view their job as rewarding. These employees typically have 4 times shorter tenures than people who are happy at work. It costs £30,000 on average to replace an employee and £1,530 for new employee training, so pain and unhappiness carries a big financial burden too.
In this era of the Great Resignation and quiet quitting, staff retention has never been more important. A study by Paychex revealed that over 60% of employees consider wellbeing support and benefits a top priority when applying for a new job, so it’s clear that investing in a solution like VIDA could save you thousands in the long run.
Hopefully by now it’s clear that digital DSE assessments like VIDA are not just a luxury and are worth the investment ten times over. If you still need convincing, get in touch with us at sales@vitruehealth.com or try out VIDA yourself for free!
