Prevent Staff Injuries With This 8 Point Checklist

Friday June 29, 2018 09:11

Even if you are confident that your organisation is compliant in terms of Health & Safety, remember that being compliant is measuring just a moment in time.

Use the following checklist to reconsider some of the ways that your staff could be injured in your workplace.

See if you can score all 8 points.

1. Does Your Workplace Have An Accident Register?

Q: Does your workplace have an Accident Register? [1 point]

Q: Do you encourage the reporting of staff injuries? [1 point]

Remember a basic rule of health and safety is that all accidents and incidents need to reported and recorded.

2. Does Your Workplace Have a Risk / Hazard Register?

Q: Does your workplace have a Risk/Hazard Register? [1 point]

Q: The Risk/Hazard Register should be available for all staff to read and access. Is yours? [1 point]

In most businesses, slips, trips and falls, carrying heavy loads, lifting and standing for long periods of times can all lead to injury.

Q: Do you have an item in your Risk/Hazard Register that deals with slips and trips? [1 point]

Controls may be cleaning up slips promptly or buffing the floors so that they are not over slippery.

Diseases, such as mumps, chicken pox, or the flu, are spread through the air when infected people cough, sneeze or speak and is a common risk for people working in a close proximity environment.

Q: If your workers work closely together, for example in retail or in an open office area, have you checked your Risk/Hazard Register to see if the above items are mentioned? [1 point]

If they are, then that is good.

If not, ensure that they are added to the Register with an action or control to help minimise the possibility of catching the flu – especially at this time of the year.

In the case of the flu an action would be that all staff wash their hands regularly.

Q: You can put signs on the mirrors in the washroom to remind staff about the need to wash their hands – a simple action to prevent spread. Do you have these signs in place? [1 point]

3. Are You Protecting Lone Workers?

Remember that lone workers can sometimes be prone to confrontation, especially in retail, in construction and the service industries. 

Controls may be that such workers report the reason for the visit, destination and perhaps advise a third party prior to undertaking it.

Record the timeframe from start to end that someone is likely to be alone, ensuring they report back in upon return.

Just as important is that all the risks and hazards should be rated to record the likelihood of an occurrence and the consequence of an event.

This becomes the review point to follow up on minimising or eliminating identified hazards going forward.

Q: Are you protecting lone workers? [1 point]

Need Help?

How did you go? Did you score all 8 points?

If so, great!

If not, don't worry, we can help.

Did you know that Securo clients have access to 205 common risks and hazards, listed behind their login to our online system? This makes it easy to prepare a Risk/Hazard Register.

Need further information or assistance? 

Please contact your Securo Safety Consultant or phone 0800 55 33 44.