Has your employer been talking about looking for new ways to save the company money? It might be time to start talking about workplace safety, as the National Safety Council (NSC) suggests for National Safety Month 2020. By increasing workplace safety, your employer can anticipate fewer workplace accidents that require workers’ compensation filings. Fewer filings mean lower insurance premiums.
What does the NSC suggest your employer do to boost workplace safety?
- Pay attention to mental health: In many workplaces, safety measures are centered on preventing physical injuries. Very rarely are mental health difficulties discussed in the average workplace. Not talking about mental health difficulties does not mean they are not a problem, though. Millions of Americans live with mental health difficulties like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many of these cases can be traced back to stresses and problems at work. The feeling of being overworked and underappreciated can lead to anxiety and depression, for example. Your employer should use this National Safety Month as an opportunity to consider how they can support employees with mental health difficulties.
- Provide ergonomic items: Repetitive stress injuries (RSI) like arthritis and chronic back pain are the banes of many office workers across the country. Doing the same action again and again, hour after hour, can trigger an RSI. For example, typing all day at work can eventually hurt your wrists, even though the act of typing seems pretty innocuous. Ergonomic office supplies are smartly designed to limit the stress and strains caused by repetitive actions in the workplace. Your employer should invest in ergonomic chairs, keyboards, mice, and so forth to prevent RSIs among employees, which helps protect their health and boost productivity.
- Create a safety culture: The National Safety Council also encourages all employers to create a safety culture in the workplace. The general idea of a safety culture is that everyone working there acts safe instinctively, rather than trying to consciously make decisions to be safe. Of course, it does not hurt to think about being safe, but it is beneficial to integrate safety into all of your habits. Your employer should incentivize people to act safer at work. For example, providing everyone in your office lunch each month there are no accidents or reported injuries is a simple way to show that they care while also promoting safety and comradery.