Preventing workplace injuries requires vigilance for safety

A workplace or job site can be a dangerous place filled with potential hazards.

Overexertion, slips, trips and falls and being struck by an object are just some of the most common causes of injuries fueling costly claims and absences, according to Travelers, which recently released a report analyzing more than 1.5 million workers' compensation claims.

Among top findings is that 35% of workplace injuries occurred during a worker’s first year on a job, highlighting the importance of having proper safety protocols and training in place, experts say.

“The goal of this report is to help businesses become better informed about the types of risks in the workplace,” says Chris Hayes, assistant vice president in risk control for workers' compensation and transportation at Hartford, Connecticut-based Travelers.

The injury report, which analyzed claims submitted from 2015 through 2019, found first-year injuries resulted in more than 6 million missed workdays.

There are a variety of reasons injuries may be prevalent among first-year workers including “new stressors” in their life and workplace, Hayes says. At a new company, there are new processes to learn and a new safety culture to understand. A new job could even mean changes in sleeping and commuter habits, Hayes says.

To assess the severity of injuries, Travelers looked at data from at least two years prior to include the costlier claims and those with payouts extending for months or years post-injury, says Rich Ives, vice president, business insurance claim at Travelers. This reflects the fact that some claims remain open for quite some time after the accident date.

COVID's impact

Even with COVID's effects on the workplace, Ives anticipates “the injuries we saw in this analysis are likely to remain the top workers' compensation claims.” COVID may have slowed the frequency of claims, but that’s likely to change as the economy and workplaces continue to open up, construction work is increasing and “we’re seeing increases in hiring and less available skilled labor,” Ives says.

Stefan Borovina, a partner at Goldberg Segalla in Garden City, whose practice focuses on OSHA and worksite safety, says some of the injuries highlighted in the report are indicative generally speaking of what he sees in OSHA’s citations and/or potential legal claims.

“I see a lot of falls and being struck by an object,” he says, particularly working with the construction industry.

He said having a safe environment not only results in fewer workers' compensation claims, but also avoids potential OSHA fines and citations.

“In the past year, especially with the change in administration" — under more pro-labor officials named under President Joe Biden — "I feel there’s a much stronger emphasis on inspections and OSHA activity,” Borovina says.

He recommends to companies that they have established safety rules, which includes addressing the hazards specific to their workplace and then training employees on these hazards, taking steps to discover safety rule violations and having some enforcement system to address violations once discovered.

Most companies have to keep injury and illness logs for OSHA purposes, so they should try to analyze injury trends and take responsive safety measures, says Lisa Aiken, president of Fast Line Safety Training in Melville.

If the glove doesn't fit

For example, if there are a large amount of cuts and punctures it could be a simple fix — like perhaps workers needing new or different gloves, she says.

There’s a multitude of safety hazards, and many center around complacency or ill-advised shortcuts such as someone taking the safety guards off the machine because they didn’t like the angle or cut they were getting, says Aiken.

Also, companies have to make all levels of their organization accountable, says Jack Walsh, owner of Center Moriches-based SafeTech Consulting Services Inc. 

Many companies do employee reviews, but base them solely on productivity, Walsh says. 

“If they realize they’re being held accountable for the safety of employees under their charge they’d work harder on safety," he says. 

Walsh also says training can’t just focus on PowerPoint presentations in a classroom. There should be a hands-on “demonstration of skill.”

By Jamie Herzlich

jherzlich@aol.com

Herzlich writes the Small Business column in Newsday.