Learn to Reduce Your Risk of Injuries at Work
Accidents and work-related injuries happen. As much as we try to avoid them, that isn’t always possible. It’s easy to break our toes on the side of a table or bed, or burn our fingers while cooking. We can’t avoid injury completely, but we can work to reduce our risk of getting injured. Always remember if you injured after calling 911, you should always call a personal injury attorney.
This is especially important when we’re in the workplace. Though some jobs are more dangerous than others, every job has an occupational hazard of some kind. And with workplace injuries being costly to both the employee and the employer, avoiding them is beneficial to both parties. Injury is unavoidable, but we can work to avoid them from happening at work. So here are some ways to help reduce risks of any injuries at work occuring.
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Tips for the Employer
As the employer, work safety and injury prevention starts with you. As the one in charge, it is your responsibility to ensure that each employee is properly trained, has the proper protective equipment needed for their position and that all machinery is working optimally. If just one of these components isn’t up to par, then the other components won’t function as well. As an employer, you should always hire an attorney if you have any doubt or questions.
So as the employer, here are some ways to help your employees minimize any injuries at work.
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- Proper training: Especially in jobs that require the use of heavy and dangerous machinery, it is important to ensure that each employee is properly trained in each machine. Knowing how to properly operate a piece of equipment could be the difference-maker in preventing machine-related injuries at work.
- Proper Equipment & Safety Gear: In dangerous jobs like construction, having the right tools and gear can help prevent workplace injuries. If you’re working in construction, make sure every employee has a hard hat, bright-colored vest, safety glasses, and any other protective equipment they need to stay safe. Keep extras of everything in sight for the client who comes through to inspect your work or for the employee who might have forgotten a piece of gear one day. Having extra gear on hand can potentially save you hundreds of dollars in workman’s compensation.
- Reinforce Safety Rules: It’s really easy to get lax with safety regulations if no injuries have occurred on the job. So if someone isn’t wearing their safety gear one day, you might overlook it. But by overlooking it that one time, it could become a common practice among your employees, which could then lead to them disregarding safety rules altogether. If that happens and a worker is injured on the job, they can file a claim against you for workplace negligence. This can lead to many repercussions, all of which could have been avoided had the rules been followed from the start!
- Hiring & Position Placement: There are times where you might be short-staffed and need to hire new employees as quickly as possible. During this frantic time, it’s easy to overlook a few details when hiring someone, but doing that could lead to injured workers. If the position requires a certain physique or the ability to lift at least 50lbs, hiring someone who doesn’t meet those requirements could lead to them eventually being injured. Not having enough employees is a difficult situation to be in, but you face that possibility again if you hire someone who is not right for the job.
- Refresher Courses: When an employee has been working at the company for a long time, they are likely to forget rules and regulations that aren’t an everyday concern. By having a refresher course covering everything, your employees will have everything fresh in their minds, preventing injury from occurring. Depending on how your work year is set up, you can try to do this course every quarter or every six months.
Tips for the Employee
As an employee, work safety should be a high priority for you. Your safety and the safety of your customers should be a task on your everyday to-do list for work. Though it is the responsibility of the employer to make sure you’re probably trained and properly equipped, it is your responsibility to report anything that isn’t working properly or up to code. It also your job to report if any other employees aren’t following procedure or are engaging in dangerous conduct to help reduce any injuries at work.
So as the employee, here are some ways to help your fellow co-workers and customers avoid injury. Let’s help both employees and employees learn how to reduce the risk of injuries while at work.
- Easily visible signs: When stores are having giant sales, they have bright signs with a bold font in easily visible places. They do this so potential customers will walk by, see the sign, and then come into the store to make a purchase. Doing the same thing for potential hazards such as remodeling construction, bare wires or a wet floor can help prevent injuries.
- Keep an Eye Out for Potential Hazards: If you work in a busy and fast-paced environment, it’s not easy to keep an eye on the entire store. This means you might potentially miss out on an apple juice spill from a tantrum-throwing toddler, a tethering stack of boxes, or another potential hazard. If you work in retail and you’re out on the floor helping customers, keep an eye out for those hazards and take care of them as quickly as possible. If need be, put up a temporary sign to block off an area until the issue is resolved.
- Keep Your Workspace in Order: Having a tidy workspace can make a huge difference. By having a clean workspace you avoid accidentally slicing your hand open on a sharp tool or knocking over something that might fall on your foot, arm, or someone else. By taking a few minutes to put things in order, you are preventing a bigger and potentially costly mess from happening.
- Be Mindful of Your Health: If you’re a hard worker or someone who really loves their job, it’s easy to overlook any small aches or pains you might experience, or ignore a runny nose and a cough. Coming to work with an injury or illness can cause bigger problems down the road. An injured or ill employee won’t be working at their optimal level, meaning details will get overlooked, rules won’t be followed as closely, and other issues will arise. So if you’re not feeling well, take a sick day. If you’re experiencing pain, make an appointment with your doctor to discover the cause. By taking a day or two to focus on your health, you avoid aggravating an injury to a point where you can’t work for a while and you avoid becoming sicker and making your co-workers sick as well.
- Be Mindful of Your Actions: As you get to know your co-workers, a friendly rapport will start to build. This will lead to conversation, a few inside jokes, and maybe even a practical joke or two. While having fun at work can help keep morale up, especially during stressful times, it all needs to be done thoughtfully. You can joke with your fellow co-workers, but keep it verbal and don’t start playfully pushing or punching either other, especially in dangerous and high traffic areas. If you see a puddle of water on the floor, don’t try to be clever and slide through it to make a coworker laugh. Always use your best judgment before acting.
Job injuries happen, there really is no way to fully avoid them. But by lowering the risks of serious injuries that result in needing to file a worker’s compensation claim and needing time to recover, you can make your job a safer place for everyone.No one wants to have to call a law firm, but we are here just in case. Our law firm focuses on personal injury auto accident cases, but check out some of the other services we off to our clients in South Florida
If you have been a victim of a work-related injury, you may want to contact a lawyer. If your injury was due to negligence or your employer asking you to engage in a dangerous task you are not trained for, you may also have a personal injury claim you can make. If you are in need of legal advice and representation, then contact Scott Senft today!
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