Luckily for workers in 2016, we have come a long way from the days of seeing construction workers having their break 95 meters from the ground with no harness. Most people would agree there isn’t anything more important than safety in the workplace, but unfortunately we are still seeing fatalities and serious injuries occurring in the workplace.

Why is this still happening? That is the golden question, as invariably an accident will have a number of root causes associated with the incident.

Due to human nature being what it is, we can’t protect workers from every possible scenario that may occur in your workplace. As a business, we can however put some safety nets in place and hopefully avoid or minimise the impact in the unfortunate event that an incident occurs.

The Safety Crystal Ball

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and would most certainly be helpful in avoiding incidents. None of us have a crystal safety ball, but there are things that you can implement into your business to help protect your workers from the physical conditions and the psychosocial risks that may start appearing if the culture of the organisation is unhealthy. Conducting risk assessments, incident investigations, near misses, illness records and even safety surveys will all give you valuable clues.

For example, we don’t need our safety crystal ball to know that young workers are more likely than older workers to incur a Cut/open wound (24% of injuries) or Burns (17% of injuries) . This is known information based on data from previous injury claims, so we can use this to ensure young workers are given the appropriate training and that adequate supervision is in place. A young person is less likely to speak up if they are unsure about something, so it your responsibility as an employer to create a work environment and culture that supports questions and answers.

Naturally some working environments are higher risk but we tend to find that after working in the same place every day, it is easy to overlook different risks. The starting point in any workplace is to do a walk through risk assessment. Have a look at what activities people are doing. Stop and speak to them and ask them why they are doing something a particular way.

What are your Gaps?

Conducting a Work Health and Safety (WHS) Gap Analysis is a great way to make sure your system meets the needs of the people and processes within your organisation. It identifies strengths and opportunities for improvement in program components, development, implementation, performance, reporting, tracking, communication, and if any corrective action is required. A Gap Analysis would typically cover areas such as:

• A walkthrough of the workplace facilities and equipment;
• Evaluation of existing documentation and controls;
• Interviews and discussions with workers;
• What safety training is being conducted and how regularly; and
• Management philosophy and practices.

After assessing the potential risks in your workplace, creating a good strategy to prevent injuries is the next essential step. You must decide how likely it is an injury will occur, as well as how serious the injury could be. Evaluating the risk is essential to see if you can get rid of the hazard altogether, or simply make precautions to lower the chance of injury.

Practical solutions are sometimes all you need to do. Consulting workers on a regular basis might seem simple, but it is essential. Finding out opinions on safety matters can be a big help and can give you an insight which you might have missed, or inform you how often safety protocol is followed.

Safety Australia Group is working with companies to improve their systems and culture on a daily basis. Managing Director Robert Keft says, “We all want our family and friends to come home from work safely, and this is the main motivation behind what we do to save lives and prevent injuries from occurring in the workplace”.