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Think safe! Stay safe! Work safe!

These messages are all around us, but how do we put them into action?

 

If you’re looking for ideas to improve workplace safety, start with these 3 tips for injury prevention:

 

1. perform a Hazard Assessment

Grab your clipboard and take a detailed walk through each company facility and each off-site location where your employees are working. In safety lingo, this is called a hazard assessment.

  • What are the potential hazards that you see?
  • What hazards are specific to the type of work being done in each location?

Use the information you collect to update your company’s Accident Prevention Plan (aka Safety Plan). And, make sure to share this information with affected employees right away, perhaps at your next weekly safety meeting

 

2. Sprain, slip, and fall prevention

These are the top causes of workplace injury, affecting some 30,000 workers and costing more than $200 million in related expenses for one year in Washington state!

  • Make sure your employees understand fall prevention requirements and that restrain/arrest systems are in use at all times.
  • Maintain clean work areas to reduce the risk of slips and sprains.

 

3. Pay attention to ergonomics

Another way to prevent strains is to make sure that work areas are well-designed to prevent unnecessary reaching, lifting, or repetitive motion. As our vocational specialist puts it, ergonomics is all about “fitting work to people rather than the other way around.” Here are two quick tips:

  • Ask employees to assess their work areas today. Better to make adjustments now than when pain has already set in.
  • Keep work centered and in reach. Again, it’s crucial not to be reaching and twisting unnecessarily.

 

Approach clients receive a free annual safety visit at their office or jobsite, plus access to a variety of no-cost ergonomic resources. Use our Safety Visit Request form or contact us for more information.