Onsite injuries are tragic, expensive, and in so many cases, preventable. They account for over $170 billion in worker’s compensation and wrongful death costs every year. Onsite injuries can also cause undue stress on families, your staff, and your business as a whole. Many onsite injuries are preventable when leadership takes them seriously. Below we will take a look at the top ten reasons for onsite injuries, and how to best avoid them:
- Overexertion injuries – Overexertion injuries include injury from pushing, lifting, throwing, or doing other activities that can cause excessive strain on the body. These typically happen over time, but can happen in one incident or one workday. Encourage your employees to speak up when they’re reaching their physical limits to prevent these injuries.
- Slip, trip, and fall injuries – These injuries occur when an employee or customer slips and injures themselves. These most commonly occur on wet floors or obstructed pathways. Prevent these injuries by ensuring that employees are well-aware of slip and trip hazards in the workforce.
- Bodily reaction injuries – Reaction injuries are similar to overexertion or slip and trip injuries. They happen when an external force causes an injury, whether internal or external. Again, you must ensure that employees feel comfortable speaking up when they believe they have reached their physical limits.
- Fall to lower level injuries – Unlike slip and trip injuries, these falling accidents happen when an employee falls off of a roof, ladder, stairs, forklift, or another heightened surface. To prevent these injuries, you must provide proper training for every member of your maintenance staff.
- Struck by object injuries – These are common injuries in retail and grocery stores, when an employee drops something off a shelf when stocking. These are some of the most common head injuries, and can cost you greatly. Proper training is also the best remedy for this common injury.
- Struck against object injuries – If someone walks into a protruding object and injures their leg or foot you could be dealing with one of these injuries. Prevent these in your workplace by removing safety hazards and ensuring proper signage is in place.
- Repetitive motion injuries – These are very common in office spaces, as years of typing can cause stress on the wrists and hands. They can also happen when loading trucks, driving long hours, or sitting in the same position for too long at a job site. Prevent these by encouraging employee health and ensuring that no one does the same tasks for more than a few hours at a time between breaks.
- Highway accidents – Any job that requires driving has an added risk that should be addressed by your company leadership. Ensure that your drivers have proper training and a solid driving record with the state. You can als reduce nighttime driving whenever possible to reduce the chance of accidents.
- Caught in/compressed by injuries – These injuries involve any crush or traumatic injury involving facility machinery. These are most common in mills and factories, so it is important that strict uniform and dress protocols are followed to avoid clothing getting caught in such equipment. Lifetime training is also important to ensure that your staff knows the risks and proper operation of such equipment.
- Assault/violent acts – Luckily, assault injuries are the least common of onsite accidents, but they still do happen. To prevent these, ensure that your HR department has an open-door policy for interpersonal employee problems. And, if you start to notice hostility between or among employees, address it right away.
At MaintenX, we know our technicians are at especially high risk for onsite injuries, which is why we prioritize these solutions at every job site. We put safety first every time because our employees are the cornerstone of our business.
To learn more about MaintenX safety procedures, or how you can create a safer work environment at your facility, contact us.
