It's no surprise that one of the major ongoing concerns for companies is to improve the safety of their employees by evaluating best practices and their surrounding workspaces. We all know how quickly accidents in the workplace can occur and just how devastating they can be; unfortunately, several employers have even witnessed the horrific effects associated with not being prepared.
As workplaces grow and evolve, fall prevention methods are evolving and improving with the continual focus of providing employees with the safest working environment. With 2017 in full swing, we're seeing growth throughout the entire industrial sector. With that, there's no better time to be one step ahead, looking forward to progress and the innovative ways you can prevent employees from workplace falls. Workplace safety is vital for the health and efficiency of your organization.
Safety starts with an educated staff, an interest in the latest industry standards and a confident understanding of OSHA's regulations. You want your employees to be safe and confident in their workplaces. This guide will show you how to boost your employees' confidence level and maintain and improve your company's safety measures for the coming year and beyond.
Why do we need fall prevention? Is it necessary? These are questions we often hear. Even with all the past warnings and OSHA statistics, falls are still the most common cause of accidents in the workplace. For example, OSHA reports that the industrial industry alone has seen over 110 million on-site accidents, with most of those accidents and injuries pertaining directly to falls.
Fall protection and prevention both play a critical role in ensuring employee safety. Oftentimes employees assume that they have "cat-like" reflexes that will save them from accidental falls. Some even believe that their experience alone protects them from experiencing a fall. Gravity does not take into consideration an employee's experience and reflexive abilities. Even the most experienced or agile operator can slip, trip, and lose his or her balance and/or grip. When your workplace includes elevated platforms, heightened loading and unloading situations, scaffolding or any number of other fall risks, simple mistakes can develop quickly, becoming serious and even fatal.
To protect your employees from the dangers associated with harmful or fatal falls, safe access, fall protection and fall prevention systems must be implemented and updated to meet OSHA standards. They should include training on how to properly handle and use devices like gangways, guardrails, safety gates, harnesses and lanyards, rigid fall protection systems, loading platforms and more. Ensuring your workplace is safe means taking a critical look at your current fall prevention systems or your nonexistent systems and making improvements where necessary.
Even with fall prevention already being a priority of yours, you must still familiarize yourself with all the changing regulations and the constant risks; don't be content with the measures you already have in place. Fall prevention also requires a companywide culture focused around safety as well as OSHA-certified fall prevention measures. Fall prevention is a well-rounded program that must be implemented across the entire organization. An ideal program should include the below measures:
⢠Carefully examine workplace fall hazards on a regular basis.
⢠Understand OSHA's rules on fall protection. Make sure you're also aware of any additional rules you have in place.
⢠Educate your workforce about the remaining fall hazards and proper workplace safety protocol.
⢠Eliminate possible hazards immediately.
⢠Educate your staff about possible fall hazards and workplace safety.
⢠Install and maintain an updated fall prevention system.
For more information, visit www.hemcoind.com or call (713) 681-2426.
