There’s nothing more frustrating than needing to get work done, but being unable to do so because of sickness or injury. And while you can’t always avoid every one of these situations, there are ways you can keep yourself (and your employees) safer by proactively addressing the most common causes.
Most Common Workplace Injuries
It doesn’t matter if you operate a tiny home business where you work out of a home office, or a growing business that has a warehouse, forklifts, and heavy machinery — injuries can happen. The risks you and your employees are exposed to will depend on the environments you’re in, but here are some of the most common workplace injuries as reported by the National Safety Council.
- Overexertion injuries account for 33 percent of all workplace injuries. They’re typically brought on by lifting or lowering and repetitive motions.
- Contact with objects and equipment account for 26 percent of all workplace injuries. They’re often related to incidents where an employee is struck by or against an object or equipment; caught in/compressed by equipment or objects; and/or struck, caught, or crushed in equipment or material.
- Slip, trips, and falls account for 25.8 percent of all workplace injuries. This includes falls to a lower level, as well as falls on the same level.
The National Safety Council reports that a worker is injured on the job every seven seconds. In total, 104 million production days are lost due to work-related injuries nationwide. And while the top five occupations with the largest number of workplace injuries include service, transportation/shipping, manufacturing and production, maintenance and repair, and construction, no industry or occupation is free of risk.
5 Tips for Reducing Injuries
Depending on the type of work you do, here are some tips you may find helpful in reducing the risk of injury:
1. Invest in Proper Training
Safety isn’t something you should talk about as an afterthought — something you only discuss to reduce your liability. Safety needs to be a standard; it’s part of your company’s DNA.
The best way to prioritize safety is to invest in the proper training. Do this both during onboarding as well as on an ongoing basis. You can never “over-train” people on safety. It’s always going to be a valuable, high-returning investment for your business.
2. Purchase the Right Equipment
So much of injury prevention is having the right equipment, tools, and resources in place. When you don’t have the right resources, people have a tendency to take shortcuts and/or put themselves in situations where they’re doing things they shouldn’t be.
If your team needs a safety device to reduce their risk of overexertion, buy it. If there’s a software that can ensure your team isn’t overworked on busy days, download it. These aren’t expenses; they’re investments.
3. Teach Smart Techniques
When it comes to repetitive tasks, teaching smart techniques will help reduce injuries. (These can be taught in formal training and/or casually on an ongoing basis.) Teaching employees how to properly lift heavy objects, for example, can dramatically reduce the risk of back strains.
4. Constantly Review Processes
Just because you’re doing something right now and it seems to be working, doesn’t mean it’s the best way of doing it. Make a habit out of constantly reviewing your processes so you can identify high-risk situations and replace them with safer alternatives. This is how you improve your business and avoid falling behind.
5. Purchase Disability Insurance
This final tip is less of an injury prevention tactic and more of a protection policy (should an injury still occur). As a business owner, you need adequate disability insurance to ensure you continue to earn money in spite of injuries. (This prevents the need to pull cash from the business, which can erode the company from the inside out.)
As long as you’re in decent health to begin with, disability insurance isn’t as expensive as you might think. Rather than looking at it as an optional cost, view it as a necessity for living (like car insurance or homeowners insurance).
Adding It All Up
Health and safety matter more than anything else. Everything, including profits, trickle down from these factors. So before you write injury prevention strategies off as unnecessary, give them some serious thought!
