Why should my organization sign the MSD Pledge?
Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are the most common workplace injury worldwide. They cost employers billions of dollars a year in workers’ compensation, disability, absenteeism and lost productivity. By committing to MSD risk reduction, your organization can prevent many of these injuries from occurring, detect and treat others at an early stage before costly advanced treatments are necessary, and ultimately improve productivity.
By signing the MSD Pledge your organization is joining a movement of like-minded employers that will grant you insider access to shared expertise, the latest research-backed insights and collaboration with industry leaders to support your organization in meeting its safety goals.
What questions should my organization consider before signing the pledge?
Before announcing your commitment to the MSD Pledge, we recommend company and organization leaders consider a few key questions:
- What are the specific steps my organization is taking to understand the sources of risk? Who is involved in the process, and what feedback loops are in place to ensure the voices of workers most impacted are heard?
- How is my organization leveraging innovations in science and technology to reduce sources of risk?
- What actions or policies will my organization establish to prioritize risk reduction in its workplace culture? How will these expectations be communicated to staff at all levels?
Will my organization be rated on its performance?
To achieve meaningful progress, the MSD Pledge is backed by an MSD Index. The index is a survey that will evaluate your organization’s performance against your pledge commitments. Index metrics will include (1) your risk reduction strategies, (2) your workplace safety culture and (3) your participation and innovation-sharing efforts, including NSC research and events. NSC results will account for factors like company or organization size, and industry.
All companies and organizations that sign the pledge agree to complete a brief onboarding questionnaire upon signing, an index baseline within the first 2-3 months of their pledge and annually after that.
How will the MSD Index help my company achieve its goals?
After you complete the index, NSC will let you know how well your organization is performing against its pledge goals. You will be able to assess at a glance where you stand on risk reduction, innovation and collaboration, and safety culture. This will provide you with more targeted areas for action. In the meantime, we have provided resources to get you started creating an environment and workplace policies to reduce MSD risks.
Will I need to share my organization's injury reports?
Companies and organizations are encouraged to share their injury data and other risk reduction metrics to demonstrate the efficacy of the pledge commitments to create safer work environments and reduce MSD injuries over time. All information collected through NSC research will be aggregated, de-identified and confidential. NSC reports or publications will not identify an individual company’s injury metrics.
How will my organization benefit from research participation?
Companies and organizations who participate in NSC research will receive individualized feedback on your organization’s MSD risk reduction metrics and the effectiveness of these efforts. Your individualized results will help you drill down on areas for improvement for your organization’s MSD risk reduction goals and can be used to communicate your organization’s areas of success.
The information your organization provides through research engagement will also contribute to NSC’s understanding of effective strategies for MSDs and produce data that better capture the experience of diverse workforces. These insights will expand the knowledge base for all pledge signers and lead to safer workplaces.
Does my organization have to sign the MSD Pledge to use NSC resources?
NSC believes in open-access resource sharing and innovation. Our mission is to support employers to make people safer at work. So, the vast majority of our research and science-backed resources will be freely available for any organization to use, whether they have signed the pledge or not.
Companies and organizations who sign the pledge will be invited to attend a new member orientation, exclusive MSD member briefings and will have access to monthly newsletters that feature best practices and case studies, early previews for new resources and promotions for upcoming events.
Frequently Asked Questions 