You’re always thinking about how to improve the safety of your employees and the environment they work in. That’s because you understand how quickly accidents in the workplace can happen and how devastating their effects can be.
As workplaces advance and evolve, fall protection methods must as well. Advancements in the fall protection industry make your life easier, but more importantly, they keep your employees safer. As year-end approaches, you’ll want to be one step ahead, looking forward to 2020 and the new ways you can protect employees from workplace falls and accidents.
Workplace safety is essential for an efficient, healthy company. Safety in the workplace requires an educated workforce, a confident understanding of OSHA regulations, and an interest in the latest industry updates. You want your employees to be safe and confident in their workplace. This guide shows you how to boost your employees’ confidence level, maintain your company’s safety measures, and improve them for the coming year and beyond.
Why is fall protection a priority?
Believe it or not, falls are far more common in the workplace than the average employer might realize. In fact, OSHA names falling as one of the most common causes of workplace fatalities. The risks are even greater when the fall is to a lower level, which has been named by theU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as the most deadly type of workplace fall. Fall protection and prevention is a vital part of your employees’ safety.
Many employees wrongly assume that their reflexes will save them from the damages of falling, or that their years of experience protect them from a damaging fall. Falling, however, is an inescapable part of work-life in many industries, and it can happen to anyone at any time. Even the most experienced or nimble worker can easily slip, lose their grip or balance, or simply miss a beat. When your workplace includes elevated platforms, manholes, scaffolding, roofs, or other fall risks, a simple mistake can become serious in an instant.
In order to protect your labor force form the danger of injurious or fatal falls, a system of fall protection and prevention must be implemented and regularly updated to the newest OSHA standards. For thorough protection, prevention efforts should range from company-wide training to the increased use of OSHA-compliant devices like:
- Guardrails
- Mezzanine fall protection gates
- Harness
- Equipment guarding
- Access control gates
- Skylight protection
- Lifelines
Preparing your workplace for 2020 means taking a critical look at your current fall protection system and making improvements where necessary.
Read more on how to prevent falls in your workplace in 2020.
