If you are looking for information about what would comprise a safety and wellness plan, there is information on the OSHA website.
While it should be every employer’s goal to create the safest work environment possible for their employees, accidents in the workplace occur more frequently than they should. To help spread awareness on this issue, Ramsey Law Group published a study on workplace injuries, and identified key demographics about the places and professions most impacted.
Occupational Hazards
Each profession is unique and comes with its own set of workplace hazards, and it is important to research and learn about the hazards that accompany your specific job. If you would like to find out more about the specific risks for your industry, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration) created a poster that outlines the main types of hazards.
5 Tips for a Safer Workplace
In addition to industry-specific safety tips, here are 5 general tips that will help prevent workplace injuries and promote a safe space for both employer and employee. Likewise, if you are interviewing to work at a company, verifying that they follow safety guidelines can help protect you in the future.
- Adequate Staffing. Since many workplace injuries take place because of tired, overworked employees, be sure to keep each shift properly staffed. Having enough employees at work also ensures that everyone can take the proper paid and unpaid breaks throughout the day, keeping everyone more alert and safe.
- Provide All Necessary Protection Equipment. The type of equipment changes greatly with each job, but be sure that as an employer you are up to date on any changes in the safety protection for your industry. As an employee, if you see a coworker wearing a piece of protection that you have not been given, inquire about it. Additionally, by utilizing all proper equipment every time you perform a job, you can help protect yourself from injury.
Man Inserting Earplugs; image courtesy of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/
- Create and incorporate a safety and wellness plan. If you are looking for information about what would comprise a safety and wellness plan, there is information on the OSHA website. Essentially, creating one of these plans allows management and ownership of a business to anticipate possible injury risk factors, and have a plan to avoid them. As an employee, you can reach out to your superiors and ask about the existence of a safety and wellness plan.
- Keep a neat and tidy work environment. Whether this means management re-organizing a factory to make better use of the space, or employees cleaning up after themselves in the breakroom, a clean environment helps prevent injury.
- Promote safety awareness and education. Creating a thorough training process is an important safety step, because employees will understand the details of their job and how to perform it correctly each time. Additionally, using educational courses to refresh and implement new safety measures can make sure that every employee is up to date with the latest safety information.
Despite every effort, sometimes workplace injuries do occur, contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible to discuss your case. However, the steps listed above can help both employees and employers create a mutually safe workspace.
