The Key Steps to Accident Prevention in the Workplace

Accidents can happen anywhere at any given time, and studies have shown that one person dies every hour due to accidents. With the complexities of the workplace, it is definitely better to be safe than sorry with accident prevention.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 makes it employers’ legal obligation to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all employees. Illness and injury caused by unsafe working practices or an unsafe environment can also lead to economically draining sick days and compensation cases, and a lower level of staff welfare.

Health and safety training can decrease the risk of accidents in the workplace for both employees and employers. Click here for more information about safety training programmes.

There are three steps to accident prevention, each of which will be covered in more detail in health and safety training:

1. Identify Hazards

This step involves assessing the possible hazards in your place of work. A health and safety training course such as slips, trips and falls training will give an insight into how accidents can happen, allowing dangers to be identified by yourself and your employees. You should openly discuss the dangers in your specific workplace with staff, and fill in risk assessment forms to note the hazards which need further preventative action.

Hazards can be as simple as a slip on wet flooring, muscular pain from sitting incorrectly for long periods or a trip caused by loose wires, or they could be posed by specialist tools and equipment you use. The key to accident prevention is awareness of the dangers in the workplace.

2. Assess Risk

Once you have awareness of the dangers in your environment, you will need to assess the likelihood of each accident happening and how bad the consequences would be. This allows you to take logical steps towards accident prevention.

It is worth bearing in mind that the most common workplace accidents are slips and trips, which can happen in any place of work. Over 10,000 workers in the UK suffered serious injury as a result of slips and trips last year, costing employers £512 million.

These statistics highlight the severity of accidents in any workplace; slips and trips can happen anywhere, even if you consider yours a reasonably ‘safe’ place of work.

3. Control Risk

Once you have assessed which hazards pose likely – or serious – dangers, it is important to control the risk by taking tailored prevention measures. A simple wet floor sign can prevent accidents, as can display screen equipment training, so staff understand how to sit correctly.

Your health and safety training programme will offer further insight into the steps you can take into controlling risk in the workplace; whether your tasks involve manual handling, specialist tools or equipment, using IT equipment, walking or navigating stairs or steps, or simply sitting for long periods. For more information regarding safety training in the workplace, visit www.ihasco.co.uk.