How Giant Eagle Supermarkets Reduces Risk of Injury by 31% Using Smart Wearables
Using smart wearables as a tool to reduce workplace musculoskeletal injuries is fast becoming a regular pursuit and companies are adopting more than ever now due to the proven accumulative benefits, high engagement rates and data driven positive results.
Giant Eagle’s turn to wearables has seen a 31% reduction in their musculoskeletal injury risk, using the Soter Clip&Go solution developed by Soter Analytics.
Soter Analytics, a leading global technology company, developed the Clip&Go solution to be a fully autonomous smart wearable specifically designed for easy deployment and management in large organizations. The wearable provides real-time biofeedback to workers and measures and captures up to 10 different hazardous movements that lead to musculoskeletal injuries.
Mr. Shawn Rush, Sr. Director, Environmental, Health & Safety Giant Eagle says, “The solution accurately detects and provides warnings for hazardous movements that have high potential to cause injury. As a result, we’ve seen the number of at-risk postures and movements cut roughly in half for the Team Members involved in the process”.
Giant Eagle is one of the nation’s leading multi-format food, fuel and pharmacy retailers with 474 retail locations and approximately 34,000 Team Members, and is ranked among the top 40 largest privately held companies in the U.S. At Giant Eagle, the health and well-being of its Team Members and guests is a top priority and the company implements numerous safety measures across its varied work settings. In its retail support centers, Giant Eagle identified an opportunity to improve consistent manual handling training for musculoskeletal safety to all staff.
The results
31% Overall Reduction of Hazardous Movements
The Soter device measures and captures up to 10 different hazardous movements that lead to injury and Giant Eagle had an overall reduction of 31% after using the CIip&Go solution.
How it works
Worker takes a device from a communal hub at the start of a shift, scans it out and clips it on their shirt. At the end of the shift, the user returns the device to the hub, rescanning it with the option to view all their own personal data and collect medals to assist improvement.
Throughout the day the sensor provides real-time audible and vibration biofeedback alerting workers of any hazardous movements they make. The individualized notifications optimize training and health, preventing injury and overuse issues, creating sustainable change.
This innovative idea of focusing on early intervention and prevention by minimising the hazardous movements that lead to injury, instead of injury recovery, has produced a very proactive and comprehensive approach to Team Member musculoskeletal safety at Giant Eagle.
Online Management Dashboard
The management dashboard gave insight to all areas of the business allowing Giant Eagle to spotlight areas within its retail support centers that were at most risk and provide any necessary controls to limit exposure.
The management analytics dashboard is the link between the workers and the organization allowing both parties to actively be involved in finding injury prevention solutions. The objective data provides valuable insight for simple re-design of workplaces or training to prevent employees experiencing high-risk movements. All data can be aggregated or individualized ensuring the privacy needs or requirements of any company.
Matthew Hart, Founder & CEO, Soter Analytics says, “Being able to enhance Giant Eagles’ already top-class safety program and focusing on early intervention and prevention by minimising the hazardous movements that lead to injury, instead of injury recovery sent out a great safety message to workers, producing great results”.
Using technology to assist injury prevention with the ability to deploy and scale with minimal invasion provided Giant Eagle with a solution that not only allowed in situ autonomous learning for its Team Members, but objective insight for management. After producing very positive results, the Soter Clip&Go solution is being rolled out across multiple Giant Eagle facilities with the focus on new Team Members using it to learn best-practice manual handling techniques when commencing their employment with Giant Eagle.
Connect with one of the experts at Soter Analytics to learn more about using wearables and data to empower your organization and merit the physical efforts your workers put in to get the job done.
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