Salary, benefits, timings, work culture, and so on. For an average employee, these are most basic requirements in any organisation. However, what most of us fail to work on, or focus upon, is employee safety. This is one of the most undermined aspects of a worker’s well-being in the office environment.
According to a recent survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 2.8 million non-fatal workplace injuries reported in a span of one year.
Now, companies across diverse sectors might be quick to dismiss this, as just another manual in their profile.
This is where a majority of firms fail to deliver. What must be kept in mind is that, safety is not a thereotical concept. Having pages and pages of security instructions, printed and pasted, does not make a workplace safe.
Ensuring that these are actually applied in practical life, is the need of the hour. So what can be done in this regard?
First, understand the various concepts of human error. This is by and large the most important point in this issue. As a report says, 90 percent of all industrial accidents indicate a failure on the part of the injured person or a co-worker.
Again, one must not be hasty enough to dismiss all mishaps to be resultants of manual error. There can be umpteen other reasons for the same. And it is here, that a comprehensive mechanism should be in place to determine the various factors of safety.
To be able to evaluate this mechanism, a self-analysis of sorts should be the first thing on the company’s to-do list. This can be done with the expertise and cooperation of the human resource team.
Some of the pointers to be focussed during the analysis include, how do the number of injuries compare between multiple sites, year over year, or what locations have the lowest and highest reported frequency of injuries.
The latter is particularly important, as it will help the management focus on the said areas, thus making it easier to evaluate safety measures or bring in newer ones.
Another area to be given importance is the calculation of the severity rate, which is the time lost through injuries as calculated in total days lost per 1000 hours worked. Once this is calculated, the next step is to work towards reducing this all-important number.
Next, evaluate the possible causes of accidents, that have occurred over a particular span of time. A crucial aspect would be to relate this with employees. In simpler terms, as put by visier.com, “examine the data for the top employee attributes linked with higher and lower frequency and severity of safety accidents- including those for near misses and lost time”.
Also, in this same category, assess the work profile of employees, who are the ‘most affected’ due to mishaps. Check if they are experienced, or trainees, or mid-level. An evaluation of this, would help in zeroing in on the section of those, who need changes, on an immediate basis. Also, find out if the accidents happen due to lack of adequate monitoring on the work place. These kind of causes, have ready to implement solutions, one of which is the deployment of on-site and on-floor supervisors.
It is common knowledge that several accidents can certainly be avoided, if there was adequate supervision at the workplace.
The next move is to identify which section of employees, have the highest risk. As it is said by visier, “To create the best injury prevention program, it’s important to focus your efforts on where it is most needed first”.
