You may want to ask, what is ULD? ULD stands for Upper Limb Disorders. This is present in all workplaces; even in the office. One who is exposed with ULD doesn't necessarily mean that he/she should end up having this disease. In any way, as an employer; there are means in which this can be controlled and minimize the risk of your workers to this devastating disease which may affect not only your workers but also your business.

So what exactly are the business benefits of managing Upper Limb Disorders or ULDs?

1. Increased efficiency. When your employees are free from disease or injuries caused by MSD then they could perform much efficiently and effectively. Since physical discomfort could largely affect mental health; efficiency and productivity could well decline.

2. Working days lost to sick leaves. Individual sick leaves accumulated overtime can affect the total productivity of your employees. They might be insignificant when taken as single occurrences, but when taken as a whole, with all your employees' sick leaves taken into account, then the number of days lost to it would be minimized.

3. Fewer replacements and re-training costs can be cut. Let's admit it, for people to work efficiently first, they need training. Every year, millions of pounds go into employee training and seminars. Replacing employees or looking for temporary replacements can be a hassle when an employee gets sick. Thus, all the money on training would be lost if the employee hadn't given back the ample amount of time for him to actually give back. Protecting employees from MSDs and specially, ULD, would save the company money in the long run.

4. Reduced risk litigation

5. Lowers both insurance and compensation losses. If there are absences due to work-related injuries then your company should justly compensate your employees. Also, the company would have to pay for the cost of his incurance.

So in the long run, if you can't or would not manage ULD while it is still manageable, both your company and your employees would suffer. You can also risk possible legal action, and more financial losses through possible compensation costs. However as the employee; it is your responsibility to help manage the problem of ULD.

Here are two steps that you can do to protect yourself and your employees from ULD and other forms of MSDs:

1. Do risk assessment. Risk assessments can be of great help in identifying risks and activities that may cause harm or ULD in the workplace. Moreover, it helps to investigate and determine the past cases of ULD.

2. Formulate risk reduction. Of course, once you have found it out and identified all the risk factors that could contribute to ULD, then you should formulate a plan on how to prevent and or reduce them. You can introduce changes to the work area gradually, or else, add tools that can lessen possible interaction with ULD causes, you can also make sure that the work environment is conducive to work.