Can an ergonomic keyboard save me money?
The standard keyboard wasn’t designed for prolonged use. In fact, repeated use of a standard keyboard can cause pain, fatigue, and injury. If you’re an employer, you’ve likely had to deal with workers’ compensation claims due to carpal tunnel and other injuries caused by the repetitive use of traditional keyboards.
What if there was a solution that could lower your costs and, essentially, pay for itself over time? Ergonomic keyboards are that solution. Not only do they reduce repetitive stress injuries, causing fewer losses from workers’ compensation claims and time out of the office, but they also improve worker productivity.
What is a Repetitive Stress Injury?
Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSIs) affect hundreds of thousands of American workers and cost more than $20 billion a year in workers’ compensation claims. These injuries range from discomfort and soreness in the wrists, elbows, and neck to serious disability and everything in between.
One well-known RSI is carpal tunnel syndrome, which affects more than 3 million Americans a year. When we make the same movements day-in and day-out over a long period of time, like typing on a traditional, flat keyboard, we can cause inflammation and damage to the muscles, nerves, and tendons in the upper body. Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by reoccurring pressure on the median nerve, which leads to numbness and weakness in the hand or arm.
Surgical treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common surgery on the hand and wrist, with 463,637 occurrences annually. Almost half of these cases result in a loss of 31 or more working days.
According to the US Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, RSIs are the nation’s most common and costly occupational health problem affecting office workers today.
How can you avoid RSIs?
With proper forethought and the right equipment, RSIs can be avoided. Providing your workers with ergonomic keyboards can make a world of difference in maintaining nerve, muscle, and joint health.
Our keyboards are manufactured with a split in the middle and can be adjusted both horizontally and vertically so that each individual can type in their neutral position. With this proper ergonomic positioning and therefore proper posture, you will exert less pressure and strain on your tendons and arms.
A high-quality ergonomic keyboard also reduces write extension and flexion, which helps in preventing carpal tunnel syndrome.
A cost-benefit analysis of ergonomic keyboards
Providing ergonomic keyboards to your entire workforce may feel like an extensive cost, but our case study shows that the upfront cost of the keyboards actually pays for itself over time.
ChevronTexaco
In our first intervention initiative with ChevronTexaco, 22,000 employees were involved. Of those 22,000, 44% lowered their risk level for RSIs. Even more impressively, 49% of those who originally had constant or frequent discomfort now experience discomfort infrequently or never.
With this, the average cost per workers’ compensation claim for participants was 40% lower than it was for non-participants. Total workers’ compensation costs went from $27.7 million to $14.3 million in the two years of the initiative. The ergonomic keyboards more than paid for themselves in that time!
Productivity Increases
There are additional benefits to using ergonomic keyboards that go beyond preventing RSIs. Many people, when using ergonomic keyboards, find that they’re more productive than they are when they use traditional keyboards.
When you’re consistently typing on a traditional keyboard, you may find your hands get uncomfortable quickly due to the flat nature of how your hands have to sit. The ergonomic keyboard, being adjustable both vertically and horizontally, allows you to type with your arms aligned in a way that truly fits your body. This means you can work for longer periods of time without having to rest and stretch your hands, and you’re less likely to suffer from hand fatigue and soreness as the day goes on.
Do ergonomic keyboards really pay for themselves?
Yes! As we’ve seen in our case studies and anecdotal stories, the reduction in workers’ compensation claims and the increased productivity truly mean that ergonomic keyboards pay for themselves. It’s been proven time and again that the reason for most RSIs is the poor ergonomic design of computer keyboards. Even if your employees aren’t struggling with injuries today, they could start to experience damage a week, a month, or even a year from now – resulting in minor or significant injury.
If you want to mitigate the risk of RSIs in your office environment, providing ergonomic keyboards to your team is one easy and cost-effective way to do so. Reduce your overall workers’ compensation claims, increase productivity, and watch as the implementation of ergonomic keyboards pays for itself within your organization.
If you’re looking to purchase an ergonomic keyboard as an individual, you’ll find that it will still save you money in the long run. The cost of insurance deductibles, office visits, surgery, and physical therapy – it all adds up quickly! A simple way to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome, and therefore to avoid having to see costly specialists, is to use an ergonomic keyboard. You’ll be working more comfortably and with less risk to your joint, nerves, and tendons in no time.
Our line of ergonomic keyboards is strategically designed to make users more comfortable and productive by supporting their bodies and working styles. We’ve saved dozens of companies millions of dollars just by implementing our ergonomic solutions throughout their organizations.
If you want to learn more about how we can help you save your organization money, and save your workers from lifetimes of pain, email us at sales@goldtouch.com
