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Category: Workers Compensation

A Guide to Preventing Slips and Falls Around Your Business

Posted on by Jenna Cole

Whether you actually hurt yourself or just suffer from a bruised ego, slipping and falling is always a nasty shock. At home, you can usually just dust yourself off and forget about it, but if you own a business, slips and falls suddenly become much more serious. Maintaining a safe business property for your employees and customers becomes paramount, both to give them a great experience, and to prevent any big insurance claims from knocking at your door.

Reduce your business’s potential for hazardous slips and falls by implementing these safety tips:

Secure Stairways and Ramps

Stay up to date with your city’s local building codes, and install the proper handrails along every stairway and ramp. Even tiny platforms comprised of 1 or 2 steps should have some kind of banister in place. This gives stability to your pedestrians and helps protect you if someone falls in those areas and decides to pursue legal action against you. Also consider lining your stairs and ramps with a non-slip material.

Maintain Walkways and Lawn Areas

Remove obstructions from any walking paths that your employees or customers have to use. It is also important to repair uneven, broken, or bumpy surfaces in the parking lot or on the sidewalk. In the winter, make sure your sprinkler systems are turned off and drained to prevent leaks and icy patches around your establishment.

Keep Safety in Mind All the Time

Aside from covering the basics to keep your business up to code, just make it a habit to look for potential slipping/falling hazards located all around your business.

  • Maintain adequate lighting in all areas where pedestrians will be walking.
  • Keep “Wet Floor” signs in areas where your employees can conveniently access them to warn people away from spills.
  • Repair torn carpet, loose or missing floor tiles, and other flooring materials as soon as you can after they are damaged.
  • If you live in an area with heavy snowfall, establish a snow removal plan for parking lots, sidewalks, and dumpster areas.
  • Keep emergency phone numbers posted in areas where people can see them easily.
  • Stay stocked up on first-aid kits and keep them in plain site. These emergency resources help you and your staff minimize the damage of a bad fall.

When an employee or a customer takes a fall at your business, the consequences have the potential to be dire. Prevent them as much as you can by keeping the area clean and maintained. People will be safer and your business will look better for your efforts! Overall, make sure you are protected by a solid insurance policy that will cover your company if someone gets hurt anyway. You can never be too secure!

How to Create a Culture of Safety in Your Business

Posted on by Jenna Cole

When you think of “workplace culture,” you probably picture casual Fridays or volunteering as a group. Having a positive workplace culture is certainly something that benefits businesses and helps with employee retention. But what some people forget about is that a “culture of safety” is an equally important type of workplace culture.

What Is a Culture of Safety?

Essentially what this phrase means is the attitude of all members of a company – from the bottom to the top – towards safety in the workplace. Cultures of safety can be positive or negative. In a negative culture of safety, workers, managers, and anyone in between do not respect the recommended safety measures. As a result, more accidents happen in a workplace with a negative safety culture. In a positive safety culture, everyone respects and obeys the safety rules and regulations without complaint, and less accidents and workers compensation claims happen. So how do you create a culture of safety in your business? Here are some helpful tips.

Engage in Continued Education

Safety meetings are a great occasion to maintain your employees’ safety education. It’s normal for people to forget what they learned the first week on the job in orientation safety training. If your employees’ work includes a significant physical aspect, the safety meetings are a great opportunity to review proper physical operations such as how to lift heavy objects or how to safely operate large machinery and equipment.

Look Into Near Misses

It may not have actually hurt anyone or resulted in a workers comp claim, but a near miss could be a full on accident next time. If an almost-accident occurs, put on an investigation to look into its cause and determine what could have prevented it. Then observe these new safety practices to reduce the possibility of that near miss becoming something more serious.

Reward Employee Reporting

In a positive safety culture, employees feel comfortable reporting safety concerns or hazards to management. Going along with this, the management must take the reports seriously and work to correct the situation. It can be important to reward employees who step forward about concerns they see on the ground, Often, these individuals are in the best position to notice safety hazards and as such should be listened to as a valuable safety resource.

Every business should work to create a positive safety culture, but accidents may still happen. Ensure your operation has the best insurance coverage to reduce losses in the event of an unfortunate accident or injury. Talk to your agent today to make sure your business is protected.