Tips For Dealing With An Accident At Work

You’d be surprised at the colossal number of working days that businesses lose due to employee accidents in the workplace that result in injury. These losses translate to reduced productivity which follows a path all the way to reduced revenues and profits. That, along with the fact that they have a legal responsibility to protect the health and safety of their workers, is why so many businesses are intently focused on preventing accidents from happening at work in the first place. Despite an employer’s best efforts, workplace accidents still happen from time to time. That is why it’s important to deal with these accidents in the right way.

Pay attention to our expert advice for dealing with an accident in the workplace:

Be Vigilant and Respond Quickly

As a business owner, or manager, you must always have the health and safety of your employees in mind. It is crucial that you stay vigilant and watch for situations that can lead to an injury and address them before injuries can happen. If you realize that an employee has been injured on the job, you need to everything you can (as quickly as possible) in order to address the situation and keep them safe. If the injury is not life-threatening, then make sure that someone on site with a standard first aid certification treats the employees injuries with the first-aid equipment on site. If an accident has caused a life-threatening injury, then the person who is responsible for first aid treatment will need an emergency first aid certification to be able to effectively stabilize the injured employee while you wait for first responders to arrive on the scene to take over.

Document and Report the Incident

As an employer, there are legal requirements to document an accident in an incident report. If any of the following happens in the workplace, you are also required to report the incident to the Chief Prevention Officer, your Joint Health and Safety Committee, your worker’s union (if there is one), and WSIB (if the employee has to miss work due to their injury):

• Someone is killed or critically injured.
• A worker has an occupational illness
• There is an accident or incident where someone is injured and needs medical attention
• Your Joint Health & Safety Committee identifies structural problems in the building (even if you don’t own it) that could be hazardous to workers inside.

Use The Details of the Incident for Risk Assessment

Once the incident has been dealt with, documented and reported, it is crucial to carry out a risk assessment. That way you can be prepared to prevent similar accidents from happening again. Pay close attention to the hazard which caused the injury in the first place, but remember to also consider other potential hazards that could be present. Your best option to ensure that future accidents can be avoided would be to conduct a full workplace safety audit. That way you can get a more complete picture of the hazards in your workplace and formulate a better plan to handle them. You will also be able to compare your current health and safety practices and policies with best practices in your industry to identify where changes and improvements should be made.

Make Workplace Health & Safety Everyone’s Business

Occupational health and safety is meant to keep everyone safe in potentially dangerous environments. While employers have ultimate responsibility for ensuring their workplace is safe for their employees, it is the employee’s responsibility to follow policies and procedures to keep themselves and those around them safe. They also see things within their workspace differently than a manager who only periodically checks in does, meaning they have valuable input that should be taken advantage of. Make safety at the workplace a regular topic of conversation for you and your employees. That way, you’ll be able to get their valuable feedback and you’ll be able to improve the workplace environment and the safety issues that may have previously been overlooked. Part of including employees in workplace health and safety conversations is keeping yourself and them up to date with the latest occupational health and safety regulations so that the business can remain compliant and control their liabilities.

Trust Advanced Consulting & Training to Make Your Workplace Safer

There are many ways that an employer can make their workplaces safer for their employees, and they should be doing everything in their power to make it so. Despite that, workplace accidents can and still do happen. Employers need to stay vigilant with their response to workplace incidents, their reporting of incidents, and addressing the workplace hazards which can lead to employee injuries. Luckily, Advanced Training and Consulting is here to provide expert safety consulting and certification training that will ensure that your workplace is as safe as possible and fully compliant with occupational health and safety legislation. Contact us today to see how we can help keep your employees safe!