A report by The National Safety Council reveals that one worker gets injured at the workplace every seven seconds, which is equivalent to 12,600 workers every day. These injuries are costing companies 104, 000, 000 lost production days which altogether paints a sobering picture of the modern workplace.
Across multiple industries, workplace safety is now a substantial on-the-job priority for companies. Various organizations are practicing a proactive approach for preventing injury and provides a treatment that showcases a strong commitment to employee well-being. Let’s look into three key trends of workplace safety we can forecast that will impact many industries and business sectors.
More Personalization
Today, personalization is the buzzword. Employees are concerned about personalized health and well-being experiences across the world. Technology plays an essential role in that conversation, as many tools can aid in that process. However, when it comes to personalizing injury prevention and treatment programs, human interaction should not be under-emphasized.
For instance, a leading manufacturing company witnessed challenges with its workers suffering from sprains and strain injuries among recruits. A third shift has been added at one of their production sites to reduce the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders. Onsite safety workers conducted work conditioning programs, lineside coaching, and First Aid and early intervention. Such a personalized approach yielded significant results, decreasing strains and sprains and positively boosted production.
Broader View of Well-Being and Health
A shift towards a more comprehensive approach to well-being that goes beyond physical health is among the few trends we’ve seen in the wellness world. It’s a multi-dimensional method that includes emotional, social, environmental, and financial dimensions of health. This concept can be considered to integrate more with workplace safety initiatives and programs in 2020. For instance, the services of safety course companies can be used to enhance the skills of employees to reduce mishaps at the workplace, or to instill best practices to avoid injuries while working.
Many companies have adopted the “Total Worker Health” concept under The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) guidelines. As discussed earlier, it takes a broader view of worker well-being and encourages a more proactive approach to overall health and well-being. It can be predicted that this standard will be increasingly adopted by employers seeking ways to better care for their employees in 2020 and beyond.
Specialized Safety Workers
Almost a decade ago, most of the safety workers had one or two areas of focus or accountability. For instance, they worked in security, environmental, or fire categories. However, over the past few years, we have seen more consolidation of safety roles, with more companies streamlining roles and downsizing departments.
Safety workers bear multiple responsibilities with more generalized approaches which undoubtedly leads to more work for safety workers and teams. Hence, internal support from other teams and departments will be critical, as will the potential to drive safety workers towards resources and tools they can integrate into the workplace and enable the workers to improve their lives.
In Conclusion
With the workplace safety trends of 2020 listed here, business leaders can educate themselves. They can set the building blocks in place for optimal safety and well-being success for its employees.