Key Tips for Preventing Workplace Injury

Workplace injuries are tragic events, no matter their severity. Large, preventable incidents highlight gaps in any business’ safety systems, whether regarding staff training or unsafe conditions. In the worst case, they lead to fatality; in 2021-22, over 120 workers died in a work-related incident, a majority of which died in construction environments.

The figures alone illustrate the importance of workplace safety well, but enacting workplace safety measures can be difficult without guidance. What might you do in order to improve health and safety in your workplace to prevent workplace injuries where possible?

Key Tips for Preventing Workplace Injury

Risk Assessment

Before any changes are made regarding health and safety policy or workplace protocol, you should conduct a risk assessment. This is a legal business requirement of a certain size; it is an effective means of identifying risks and allocating solutions to those risks, to be conducted with executive staff and any designated HSOs on site.

A risk assessment is a tabulated form, that outlines various specific hazards in a given work and the associated risks they bring. These would range in severity and complexity from potential slip hazards in the form of standing water to infrastructural deficiencies such as missing guard rails. As well as identifying hazards and their potential impact, the responsibility for supervising the handling of each hazard is designated to an individual – creating key accountability for safety on-site.

Personal Protective Equipment

The risk assessment will likely draw up some risks that cannot be managed directly. For example, workers working outdoors on a part-time job site may have to contend with low light conditions, whether through night working or overcast and foggy conditions. Where working only in good weather or under spotlights might be impractical, the provision of hi-vis articles of clothing would be more practical route to safe work.

Likewise, shifting weather conditions might make the safe undertaking of tool use or lifting tasks difficult. Gloves would be an effective route to safe lifting and tool use, mitigating the risk of cold hands failing to control dangerous objects.

Preventive Maintenance

In manufacturing and engineering environments, equipment accounts for a key majority of dangers faced by workers. When equipment fails, the results can be unpredictable and catastrophic. Rather than responding reactively to equipment servicing and maintenance, a proactive approach can have a greater impact on safety overall. This might involve keeping a maintenance log and arranging regular services across a given period.

Training

Finally, and maybe most crucially of all, employees need training. Safety training can dramatically impact workplace safety, whether refreshing staff on the law surrounding health and safety at work or introducing new systems and frameworks (such as a buddy system for particularly dangerous tasks).