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clock January 25, 2020

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Five Ways Businesses Can Prevent Workers’ Compensation Claims

As a business owner, you’re already working hard enough to maintain and surpass your business’ current success rate. You strive towards bringing in as much money as possible and using those earnings wisely. As much work as you put in to keep your business successful, all it takes is one workers’ compensation claim to set you back.

Don’t let comp claims tear down your business. Keep yourself, your business, and your employees safe by preventing workers’ comp claims. Continue reading below for 5 ways how to do just that!

1. Analyze Your Workplace

Always conduct analyzes of the workplace. This isn’t something that should be done just once a year or even once a month. This is something that should be done regularly. 

When analyzing your workplace, be sure to inspect all equipment and workplace activities and routines. Does the equipment seem to be working properly? Are all employees following safety protocols?

Take the time to visit both your management and staff to ask them about any safety concerns that they may have. One safety protocol that might have seemed to work in the past might not work as well now. Or, there might be a way to improve on it. 

See what all of your employees have to say, not only the management team. When new equipment is added into the workplace, be sure to analyze all safety risks involved with it.  

2. Implement Proper Training

Whether it’s new equipment coming in or new employees coming in, always implement proper training for all staff. Safety training should be a component of each staff member’s onboarding process. Once on the team, all employees should also be refreshed on these safety procedures whether they’re in management or not. 

When new equipment comes in, again, be sure to conduct proper training for safe use of the equipment. Although the main goal is to prevent any injuries from happening, you also want to train everyone in your workplace for proper first aid care. Everyone should know what to react when an injury takes place. 

This is the best way to ensure that any injury is handled properly and quickly to prevent it from becoming any worse than it already is. Who should they call when injured or when they see someone injured? What are the dos and don’ts or certain injuries? 

Your employees should know these answers so they can respond as quickly as possible. 

3. Remove or Control Hazards

If you conduct regular inspections and train your employees correctly, then you should know right away when there’s a possible hazard. Not only do you want to be aware of these hazards as soon as possible, but you want to remove or control them right away as well. To do so, consider what the actual hazard is.

Can the hazard be fixed? Does something need replacement rather than repair? Is it something that simply needs cleaning up such as a spill?

Depending on what the hazard is, you may need to change workplace procedures, add to your current safety measures, or repair and replace equipment. Do so as soon as possible to prevent any injuries happening in the workplace.

4. Hold Everyone Responsible

Be sure to let everyone know that they’re responsible for keeping themselves, others, and the workplace safe. The most successful and safe business are those that have employees and management working together. Everyone should work together to implement safety strategies, maintain these strategies, and improve on them when needed.

Every employee should have an understanding that it’s their responsibility too. For example, don’t let employees think it’s okay to see a spill and walk past it just because they weren’t the one responsible for it. If any sees a spill of any kind, they should report it immediately and wait by it until a cleaning crew comes so that no one slips.

If a tripping hazard is spotted and takes an easy fix to correct it, then your employees need to understand that it’s their responsibility to make sure the hazard is corrected. If employees see where there’s room for improvement, then they should also feel welcomed to bring suggestions to management or to you.

Everyone’s input should be taken seriously to provide the safest workplace possible.

5. Improve When Needed

Implementing safety procedures is an on-going task. This isn’t something that’s spoken of one time and then forgotten about, because it will be forgotten about if not address frequently. There’s always room for improvement.

Constantly be seeking ways to improve on your safety procedures whether it be listening to employee suggestions or discovering new solutions yourself. If an incident was to occur, this is the perfect time to see what went wrong, why, and how it can be improved upon to keep it from happening again.

Even if an injury doesn’t occur but came close to happening, you should seek ways to improve the system. This prevents actual injuries from occurring because near misses are just as dangerous as injuries themselves, especially when ignored rather than resolved. 

Don’t Let Comp Claims Ruin Your Business

Your business takes a lot of work and the last thing you need is comp claims bringing you down. Don’t let comp claims ruin your business. Follow these 5 simple steps above to prevent workers’ compensation claims in your workplace.

Have questions about workers’ comp for your business? Need a fast quote? Contact us today to learn why your business needs workers’ compensation!

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