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ChevronTexaco is recognized as an employee health and safety leader for its strong safety culture and commit-ment to minimizing workplace injuries. However, in 2000, corporation data analysis showed a nearly 67% increasein office workstation-related repetitive stress injury (RSI) over the preceding 5 year period (based on Chevron dataprior to the merger with Texaco). This rise in injuries existed despite conscientious prevention efforts. In fact, 42%of all injuries were RSIs and 37% of these were among office workers. Thus ChevronTexaco took action.

ChevronTexaco’s Revised Injury Risk ApproachChevronTexaco gave its safety teams a mandate to develop a plan that would decrease the RSI rate to zero. Key stake-holders including medical experts, health and safety professionals, IT staff, ergonomic consultants and leaders fromacross the organization came together to develop a Repetitive Stress Injury Prevention (RSIP) Plan that would func-tion as policy to move the company towards achieving its zero injury goal.

The ChevronTexaco RSIP Plan required a risk-based approach. This approach called for each office based employ-ee (and contractor) to provide data about his/her work habits and environment through an online risk assessmenttool, which in turn calculated relative risk levels. Managers could then use the data and risk information to takeaction and make decisions about how resources should be allocated. High, medium, and low risk employees wereeach treated differently, as indicated in the following table (illustrative, not comprehensive):

Ergo ROI:MMeettrriiccss ffoorrPPrrooffiittaabbiilliittyy &&PPrroodduuccttiivviittyyMitigating Workplace Injuriesand Ergonomic Risks atChevronTexacoBy Kelly Doughty and Kim Lopez

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The primary benefit of a risk-basedapproach is using the data to focusthe application of resources. In thiscase, data gathered by ChevronTexacoenabled safety managers to:

● Optimize resource use to ensurethat expert, hands-on assistance wasoffered to employees who need itmost

● Obtain knowledge about whichemployees did NOT need attentionand resources

● Avoid a “one size fits all”approach (an approach which oftendrives disengagement)

● Create a corporate risk levelbenchmark against which progresscould be measured

● Conduct trend analyses to modi-fy future plans and programs

Beyond risk assessment, the RSIPPlan required:

● involvement and accountabilityfor supervisors and employees to“manage” and or decrease risk to thebest possible degree

● inclusion of contractors, not justemployees, in Plan implementation

● employee RSI prevention trainingand supervisor responsibility training

● behavioral approach to encour-age safe work habits including report-ing discomfort early

● timely response and resolutionfollow-through for employees withdiscomfort, including availability ofspecialized evaluators

● metric setting with leading indi-cators and progress monitoring overtime

* continuous data informationmanagement to ensure reportingaccuracy

Remedy Interactive of Sausalito,

California developed and deliveredthe injury prevention software used atChevronTexaco that has assisted withthe majority of Plan elements. Thesystematic use of technology hasallowed ChevronTexaco to increasesafety staff efficiency and effective-ness by helping them focus theirefforts where they are needed most.

Implementation of the ProgramEarly in 2001, ChevronTexaco imple-mented the RSIP Plan across theorganization, with a focus on U.S.locations first. Implementation beganwith an aggressive data collectioneffort through use of the validatedonline assessment tool, which deter-mined relative risk levels. To date,data for over 30,000 employees exists.This data is being supplementedthrough ongoing automated commu-nications, email sent by health andsafety staff or supervisors through theSystem, and manual record updates.During its initial data evaluation,ChevronTexaco discovered that morethan 30% of employees who used thetool were high risk.

Leveraging TechnologyThe technology used byChevronTexaco empowers employeesand supervisors to mitigate risksthemselves. One important compo-nent of successful risk reduction isthe automation of messages to highand moderate risk employees (andtheir supervisors).

After providing data through theonline assessment, each employeereceives online office ergonomicstraining. Employees are then enteredinto a “feedback loop.” Depending ontheir risk level, they automatically

receive ongoing email communica-tions describing their risks as well asremediation recommendations.Supervisors receive copies of the sameemails to ensure they remaininformed. Regularly, employees areasked to answer additional questionsabout their work habits and worksta-tion setup. The software applicationautomatically updates each employ-ee’s risk profile based on the new data.This gives ChevronTexaco a continu-ally updated corporate ergonomicprofile of its employee base.

Allocating Resources toEmployees Who Need It Most

Once an employee becomes lowrisk, he/she receives less attentionunless the risk increases to moderateor high levels. Therefore all employ-ees, including low risk workers, areasked to update their profiles at leastonce per year. Capturing the updatedinformation allows ChevronTexaco torecognize job changes, office moves,and of course, changes in existingenvironments.

For employees who experiencediscomfort, ChevronTexaco hasimplemented a program called RapidResponse. The Rapid Response teamconsists of highly trained individuals,usually in the field of occupationaltherapy or physical therapy. This teamworks closely with high risk individu-als, providing more personalizedattention to help them reduce dis-comfort levels.

Key Results and MetricsChevronTexaco realized severalimprovements and cost savings as aresult of using a technology-basedinjury prevention system. The corpo-

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ration has measured results in many ways. Success metricswere both outcome-oriented and process-oriented.

Outcome-oriented metrics have been primarily targetedat incident rate reduction as well as workers’ compensa-tion costs and claims. At the end of 2003, ChevronTexacoperformed an analysis of workers’ compensation trendsusing data collected from more than 6,000 employees.Results were impressive and informative:

Reduction in Lost Work Days (LWD): Severity, as meas-ured by LWDs, decreased significantly—from 840 in 2000to 246 in 2002.

Reduction in workers’ compensation costs: The averagecost per claim, for those who participated in the RSIP pro-gram, was at least 40% less than non-participants. Forexample in one business unit, the average cost per claimdecreased from $83,000 to $36,000; in another the averagecost per claim decreased from $41,000 to $13,000.

Risk reduction over time: The technology used byChevronTexaco tracks issues that exist for each employee.Issues that increase an employee’s relative risk level arenoted, and remediation efforts are suggested to bothemployees and their supervisors (who often assist in issueresolution). Since rollout in 2001, over 50% of all identi-fied issues (greater than 31,000 issues) have been resolved.This translates into a risk level reduction for over 60% ofthe population.

Reduction in discomfort levels: ChevronTexaco’s safetyleaders believe that discomfort is a critical risk indicator.Therefore, one primary effort of the RSIP Plan has been todecrease discomfort levels. At the time of the data analysis(Q4, 2004), 53% of those who initially indicated that theyhad constant or frequent discomfort, later indicated thatthey infrequently or never experience discomfort.

Employee participation and satisfaction: Of the numer-ous process metrics measured at ChevronTexaco, two areof particular importance. Employee participation is neces-sary for the Plan to have an impact. The program hastouched over 35,000 employees and contractors in over 30countries. And, those “touched” by the Plan are generallysatisfied with their experiences. Of those who used theonline tool, 94% would recommend the tool to a colleagueand 97% rated the user-friendliness of the technology 3 to5 (on a scale of 1 to 5).

Key Learnings Program Expectations: Because of variation in resources,cultural differences, and injury severity, it is very challeng-ing to implement one program worldwide, despite benefits of a centralized approach. To address this challenge, ChevronTexaco provided program flexibilitythrough high level RSIP expectations. Organizations areheld accountable for meeting these expectations throughperiodic reviews.

Implementation Plan: The Plan was initially developedas a policy, to be implemented consistently across the company. However, ChevronTexaco came to realize that each organization needed to develop its own imple-mentation plan that fit its local infrastructure and culturaldifferences. The RSIP Plan, therefore, has come to function as a resource and a guide, rather than a policy.

Manager commitment: Active participation from senior management down through the supervisor level hasbeen essential for success to date and will be needed for ongoing success. Management has demonstrated thiscommitment through visible and vocal support of theprocess as well as by allocating personnel and funding todevelop and sustain this program.

For More Information:www.ergosolutionsmag.com/sandalwood

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Kelly Doughty, is Senior Safety Specialist at ChevronTexaco www.chevrontex-aco.com; and Kim Lopez, is a health care strategist and CEO of RemedyInteractive www.remedyint.com.