Protecting Your Most Valuable Asset: Best Practices for Reducing Worker Injuries and Illnesses

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Training is one thing employers can do to protect their most valuable asset – their workers – and ensure these individuals return home every day just as healthy as when they arrived.

When researchers in Ireland set out to document the experiences of workers across a variety of industries who had suffered on-the-job injuries, they ended up with 20 different stories. Their final report included first-person descriptions of what happened before, during, and after their subjects’ individual incidents.

Each is a fascinating case study of not only their personal traumas, but also the overall financial toll the incidents took on themselves and their employers.

One manufacturing plant worker, for instance, was clearing a blockage in a machine when another employee switched it on, causing two large blades to activate. The affected worker, Hugh O’Carroll, lost the tops of his index and middle finger on his left hand as a result.… Read more...

6 Tips to Help Avoid Workplace Injuries

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If you want to decrease workplace injuries, ensure everyone has the proper safety training relating to the hazards of the job.

Accidents are unplanned occurrences that result in injuries, illness, death and loss of property and/or production. By managing risk and implementing a safety management system, injuries, illnesses and workplace incidents can be reduced and even eliminated.

  1. Know the Hazards
  • Be aware of surroundings.  Look around and identify workplace hazards that could cause harm.
  • Implement strategies to reduce or eliminate hazards.
  • Report unsafe areas or practices.
  • Dress for the weather.
  • Use the EHS job hazard analysis tools to identify hazards associated with job types.

2. Create a Safe Work Area

  • Keep an orderly workplace.  Poor housekeeping can cause serious health and safety hazards. The layout of the workplace should have adequate egress routes and be free of debris. 
  • Inspect vehicles before and after use. DRIVE SAFELY.
  • Continually cultivate a
… Read more...

10 Tips to Prevent Workplace Injuries

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Each day, millions of workers head to manufacturing facilities, oil and gas refineries, mines, shipyards, airlines, food distribution hubs, farms, stores and more. Thousands of workers won’t return home from work.

Over 1 million work-related deaths occur annually, according to estimates from the International Labour Organisation and hundreds of millions of workers suffer from workplace injuries and occupational exposure to hazardous substances worldwide.

These fatal injuries and illnesses are emotionally and financially devastating for the workers and their families. For employers, the loss of an employee in a workplace incident results in the loss of a coworker and friend, in many cases, as well as possible citations and fines for violations of workplace safety and health standards, the cost of medical bills, lost productivity, workers’ compensation insurance increases and low morale among the workforce.

The best way to avoid these disruptions and costs is to eliminate workplace hazards. Read our … Read more...

The Top 7 Tips to Fight Workplace Fatigue

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While there is no one solution to fit everyone’s needs, here are some general strategies that workers and employers can use to manage workplace fatigue and work safely.

Long work hours and irregular work shifts are common in our society. Many workers around the world spend over 40 hours a week at work and hundreds of millions of people work full time on evening, night, rotating or other irregular shifts. Work schedules like these may cause workplace fatigue.

Shift workers may be scheduled to work days, evenings, nights and/or on a rotating or on-call basis. They may work extended shifts (more than 8 hours long), rotating or irregular shifts or consecutive shifts resulting in far more hours than what is considered a typical 40-hour work week. Long work hours and the fatigue associated with them can increase the risk of injuries and accidents and can contribute to poor overall health. … Read more...

The 10 Signs of Worker Fatigue

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Worker fatigue increases the risk for injury and deteriorating health (infections, illnesses and mental health disorders).

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has touched all aspects of society, including how we work and it is leaving many of us suffereing from or battling worker fatigue in the workplace. Emergency responders, health care workers, manufacturing workers, supply chain workers and others providing essential services to the community have been especially stretched thin, working longer hours than usual, working more shifts or even over-night and leaving less time to sleep and recharge.

Under regular circumstances, adults need 7–9 hours of sleep per night, along with opportunities for rest while awake to ensure optimal health and well-being. Long work hours and shift work, combined with stressful or physically demanding work or a change in work routines, can lead to poor sleep and extreme fatigue. Fatigue increases the risk for injury and deteriorating health (infections, illnesses and … Read more...

Is Your Workplace Safety Culture Lagging, Leading or Transformational?

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When a workforce buys into safety, good things happen. When everyone from the CEO to the rookie shipper/receiver comes to work each day recognizing how important safety is to them and their colleagues, the number of fatalities, injuries and near misses invariably starts to plummet.

As any EHS professional will tell you, increasing engagement in safety is easier said than done. Competing priorities, such as rigid product ship dates, unforgiving supply chain schedules and other factors tied directly to the bottom line, can have a negative impact on safety practices and the safety culture. It’s only when buy-in occurs at all levels – from the C-suite to the newest employee – that culture can be transformed. 

Fortunately, robust new technologies and modern workplace health and safety approaches like Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) are providing companies with a greater ability than ever before to increase engagement levels across the enterprise. … Read more...

The 5 Basic Principles of HOP (Human and Organizational Performance)

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Conversation is imperative for HOP and most critical to success. Active listening and learning (worker-to-worker and worker-to-management) is necessary to understand where failure and loss is possible.

Human and Organizational Performance systems, better known as HOP, have garnered much recent discussion and interest by many organizations, who see it as a better approach to improving safety performance. The premise of HOP is the idea that human error is inevitable so perhaps through better process systems management and analysis, organizations might lessen the effect of human error through the promotion of defenses that reduce risk.  

It is with this thinking that organizations can build management system robustness by understanding how workers perform their daily work tasks and then understanding what the gaps or errors are within the management system and close the gaps through what is commonly referred to as defenses. 

Conversation is imperative for HOP and most critical to success. Active listening and learning (worker-to-worker and worker-to-management) is necessary to understand where failure and loss is possible. It requires looking back at past events where loss was experienced, reviewing the present where errors are armed and ready to strike, and it’s an eye into the future to identify certain job tasks that promote the chance … Read more...

Expert Connect: Planning for Long-Term ESG Management Success

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Don’t miss our next Expert Connect session on August 4 about ESG management: “How To Position Your Business For Long-Term ESG Success.”

ESG – Environment, Social, and Governance – is an extremely hot topic among the financial community, business leaders, investors, governments and even the general public. For the capital-focused stakeholders, ESG metrics present a robust, non-financial way to assess risk exposure. For morality-focused stakeholders, ESG metrics help demonstrate how much a company concerns itself with being a force for net-positive change.  

“Whatever the reason, ESG management, reporting and performance needs to be top of mind for businesses around the globe. But where do you start? How do prepare for elevated investor scrutiny, potential new regulation, or elevated social pressure? How do you get a handle on your carbon footprint and report it to customers? How do you ensure a strong ESG posture versus your direct competitors and peers?” asked … Read more...

142 Workers Were Killed at Work in Great Britain in 2020/21

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Provisional data released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) shows that a total of 142 workers were killed at work in Great Britain in 2020/21, an increase of 29 from the previous year, though the number of deaths in 2019/20 (113) was low compared to recent years.

In statistical terms, the number of fatalities has remained broadly level in recent years – the average annual number of workers killed at work over the five years 2016/17-2020/21 is 136. The fatality numbers released by HSE relate to workplace incidents. They do not include deaths arising from occupational exposure to disease, including Covid-19.

Over the past 20 years there has been a long-term reduction in the number of workplace fatalities, demonstrating that Great Britain is one of the safest places to work in the world.

“Whilst the working world in which we now live has created new health challenges for workers … Read more...

Amusement Park Safety: Fun Is Serious Business

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Roller coasters, ferris wheels, dodge ‘em cars, scramblers and rotors: Some of our greatest childhood (and adult) memories revolve around amusement parks and carnivals. However, it’s important to remember that fun can be serious business.

I realized that at a young age, when my father and I became stuck at the top of the double ferris wheel at the Ohio State Fair when I was five. The ride jammed for what seemed like hours; at this point, I don’t know if it actually was hours or 15 minutes. The event left an indelible mark on my brain and to this day, my palms start to sweat and itch when I think about riding on a ferris wheel.

As amusement parks and carnivals have reopened this year following universal shutdowns during most of 2020 and early 2021, many families rushed to take advantage of the summer fun that was denied them … Read more...