Five Important Safety Tips for Workplace Incident Prevention

How to Prevent Incidents in the Workplace

No one wants a workplace accident or injury. The good news is that many incidents in the workplace are preventable. Here are five important safety tips to keep in mind when it comes to incident prevention.

Check Around Before Using Machinery

Always be aware of who is around you before you use any heavy machinery. This often requires doing a walk around the machine before you begin, checking your blind spot before you start moving, and potentially even having a spotter located at a safe distance to provide guidance. It’s also important to make sure no one approaches machinery during operation.

Have Proper Communication

Don’t act without letting those nearby know what you are doing. This is critical when using machines and tools, but it is also important when carrying heavy loads or dangerous materials, as well as in many other situations. In loud areas, hand signals may be an option, but it’s important that any signals used are universally understood throughout the organization.

Use Safety Equipment

Helmets, work gloves, visibility vests, seatbelts, and other safety equipment should always be used in the workplace. Failing to use proper equipment – or failing to use it correctly – can lead to a serious workplace incident or injury.

Work on Level Ground

Whether you are loading or unloading, climbing a ladder, or stacking heavy tools or boxes, always try to work on level ground. If there is any debris nearby, remove it before starting. Often, while attempting to complete a task quickly, people will ignore their surroundings. This can lead to significant issues and possible injuries. Slips, falls, rollovers, and other incidents can easily happen when the ground is not level.

Be Aware of Hazards

Be aware of spills, cracks in the pavement, poor lighting, overhead and underground hazards, and any other conditions that could make your work more difficult or dangerous. Any obstructions should be noted and flagged to ensure they don’t cause injury. If there are any holes or other hazards that could lead to injury, they should be clearly marked and have appropriate barriers in place so that they do not cause an injury.

Tips for Workplace Incident Prevention

If you want to know how to prevent incident in the workplace, there are several important points to follow. One is that monitoring is crucial. No matter how well you teach your company’s policies and how well your team learns these safety procedures, there could always be slip ups. Catching these slip ups is crucial.

Noticing a potentially dangerous situation before it occurs can help avoid injury. Keeping an eye on your site can also help you see where your team may need a safety refresher or where your current policies may need improvement.

An excellent way to prevent incident in the workplace is by using live video monitoring. Live video monitoring works by installing surveillance cameras, speakers, lights, and other sensors and tools around a property. These devices are then watched by a trained professional team, 24/7. The result is a system that keeps an eye on your workplace at all times, checking for compliance and providing warnings in unsafe situations.

It isn’t possible for a person physically located on the site to know exactly what’s going on at all times. By using live video monitoring, you are aware of everything that happens. The monitoring team won’t just view the scenes, they can interact with those on site through two-way speakers. If the agents notice a potentially dangerous situation, they can react immediately to prevent the workplace incident.

The monitoring system also keeps track of “near misses.” These are situations where an incident did not occur, but where the circumstances resulted in a potential issue or a high risk scenario. This information can be used to identify areas where additional staff training is required, or to highlight situations where protocols and policies should be modified. Remote monitoring cameras are layered with artificial intelligence, which means possible issues can easily be identified and reports generated.

For more information on live remote video monitoring and how to prevent incidents in the workplace, please contact us today. Our incident prevention team will be more than happy to speak with you.