April is Injury Prevention Month, and our Safety Training Tips editors say that makes this the perfect time to do some serious awareness training and show employees exactly how to prevent injuries in your workplace.
Injuries are costly in both human and economic terms. Employees injured in accidents often pay a heavy price. Injuries can be painful, disabling, and even fatal. There’s also the economic cost, which results in workers’ comp claims, lost productivity, and lots more.
Every year employers lose millions of work hours and billions of dollars because of workplace injuries. Anything you can do to prevent job injuries is time and money well spent.
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Get to the Root Causes
Focus attention on the two causes of workplace injuries—unsafe acts and unsafe conditions. Safety experts say that more than 80 percent of all job accidents are caused by unsafe acts—things employees do, or fail to do. As we all know, failing to take precautions can be just as dangerous as actively taking risks. Unsafe acts may be committed for a variety of reasons:
- Lack of appreciation for the risks
- Lack of knowledge of proper safety procedures
- Rushing and working too fast
- Carelessness
- Complacency
- Fatigue
- Indifference to the safety rules
- Attitudes such as believing that accidents only happen to other people
The other factor behind workplace injuries is unsafe conditions. With workplace safety conditions constantly changing, what was safe yesterday might not still be safe today. That means management has to avoid complacency, too. You always have to be on the alert for new and different hazards that could arise anywhere, at any time.
You may also need to overcome some resistance to safety complaints among managers. Sure, there are a few chronic complainers in every workforce. But for the most part, employee complaints are a legitimate and vital channel of safety communication. So if employees are complaining about anything to do with safety, you need to check it out—quick!
What Your Employees Can Do
Explain how workers can prevent injuries on the job. It isn’t hard to avoid accidents and injuries. It just takes the right skills and the right mindset. Here are some training points to cover with your employees:
- Inspect your work area, materials, and equipment for safety every day before you start working.
- Plan jobs, identify hazards, and anticipate anything that could go wrong.
- Keep alert for anything that doesn’t look, smell, or “feel” right.
- Cooperate with co-workers to plan and coordinate jobs to ensure safety—yours and theirs.
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- Give your work your full attention.
- Avoid becoming complacent or taking shortcuts, no matter how many times you’ve done a job or how many years of experience you have.
- Ask your supervisor any time you’re unsure about a hazard or a precaution—or if you uncover a problem you’re not able to deal with alone.
Why It Matters …
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are more than 4 million recorded incidents involving of workplace injuries and illness annually.
- More than a quarter of those incidents involve lost workdays.
- Almost 5,500 workers were killed on the job in one recent year.
- Management can do a lot to prevent workplace injuries, but you can’t do the job alone.
- You need the cooperation and support of well-trained employees who are acutely aware of injury-prevention strategies and who can work effectively with you to eliminate workplace accidents and injuries.