Manufacturing

Industrial Athlete Program Helps Manufacturer Reduce Injury Costs and Expand Preventive Support

A manufacturing client partnered with WorkCare to strengthen injury prevention, expand ergonomic support, and reduce the downstream cost of discomfort and work-related musculoskeletal issues.

In manufacturing environments, minor discomfort can quickly become a larger operational and financial problem if it is not addressed early. Safety-focused employers like this manufacturer partnered with WorkCare to implement an on-site Incident Prevention program focused on preventive education, ergonomic assessment and solutioning, early intervention, and wellness-based support. Over time, the program helped employees access support earlier, resolve many issues through self-care, and reduce the need for more costly downstream care.

Client Profile

Industry: Manufacturing

Challenge: The client needed a more proactive way to address discomfort, reduce injury-related costs, support employees earlier, and bring more structure to ergonomic training and preventive services.

Solution: WorkCare deployed an Industrial Athlete Program built around three core strategies: preventive education, ergonomic assessment plus solutioning, and early intervention. The program included health promotion support, ergonomic education, wellness exercise programs, job-task evaluation, functional movement screening, first-aid-based discomfort resolution, and onsite support designed to reduce unnecessary emergency room and urgent care utilization.

The Solution    

To help the client move upstream on injury risk, WorkCare implemented a prevention-focused model designed to identify and address issues before they escalated into more serious and more expensive cases.    

Key components of the program included:    

Preventive
Education

Preventive education to promote safer movement, healthier behaviors, and improved resilience to physical job demands   

Ergonomic assessments
and solutioning

Ergonomic assessments and solutioning to identify root-cause risk factors in tasks and work areas and recommend practical improvements         

Early
Intervention

Early intervention to address minor musculoskeletal discomfort before symptoms affected work performance or progressed into more serious cases    

Functional movement
screening

Functional movement screening to identify muscular compensations before they became symptomatic   

On-site first aid
support

On-site first aid support to resolve discomforts early and reduce avoidable off-site care         

Group and individual
wellness activities

Group and individual wellness activities covering topics such as fatigue management, hydration, weight management, heart health, and nutrition    

The program also created a structured cadence of individual and group preventive services. Across the reporting period, WorkCare delivered 624 individual encounters, including 392 preventive encounters, 193 discomfort cases, 34 preventive maintenance visits, 5 first-aid encounters, and 650 group activities. The engagement mix was heavily preventive, with 84% preventive services versus 16% reactive services.

The Results

WorkCare’s Industrial Athlete Program delivered value in several ways: reducing projected injury costs, expanding ergonomic support, resolving discomfort more quickly, and increasing workforce engagement in prevention.

Measurable Cost Savings: Between November 2023 and September 2025, the program was associated with:

That represents a combined estimated cost savings of ~$585,759 over the measured period. The occupational estimate was based on 46 occupational cases, an 86% self-care rate, and a case mix of 76% medical-only cases and 24% lost-time cases. The non-occupational estimate was based on 10 non-occupational cases, a 100% self-care rate, and an assumed ~$15,000 average cost per claim.

For the shorter period of January 2025 to September 2025, the program was associated with an additional estimated:

That represents ~$248,499 in total estimated cost savings in 2025 year-to-date during that measurement window.

Ergonomic Training Value: The ergonomic component of the program also delivered significant standalone value.

Across the full reporting period, WorkCare provided:

Using the market-rate assumptions in the deck, that equates to an estimated:

Combined, that is ~$186,650 in estimated ergonomic training value delivered during the period.

For January 2025 to September 2025 alone, WorkCare delivered approximately:

That equals ~$49,450 in estimated ergonomic training value in 2025 year-to-date.

Faster Resolution and Earlier Support: The program helped address discomfort earlier and close cases quickly.

Across the reporting period:

These metrics matter because they point to a program that is not just active, but effective. Employees were engaging with support early enough for many cases to be addressed through self-care and short-duration intervention rather than becoming more disruptive, more complex, or more expensive.

Prevention at Scale: The program also created broad preventive reach across the workforce.

During the reporting period, WorkCare delivered 650 group activities involving 3,295 participants, with an average group size of 5. Common prevention topics included:

The detailed prevention breakdown also shows a wide mix of services, including stretch-and-flex programming, health coaching, ergonomic coaching, safety training, ergonomic evaluations, mindfulness training, work hardening, and preventive maintenance. That breadth matters because it shows the program was not limited to reactive case handling. It created an ongoing prevention presence tied directly to job demands and employee well-being.

Ongoing Partnership

This engagement shows the value of combining early intervention, ergonomic expertise, and workforce education into one connected prevention strategy. By helping employees address discomfort earlier, expanding access to ergonomic support, and increasing preventive engagement across the workforce, WorkCare helped the client reduce projected injury-related costs while strengthening day-to-day support for employee health and safety.

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