Identify Employees Who Are at High Risk for Injuries in Your Workplace
Creating an effective safety program requires knowing which employees face the highest risk of on-the-job accidents. Below are two basic strategies that can help safety managers and supervisors identify such workers.
- Assess job-related risk factors. Even in industries that are hazardous in general, there are some employees who operate at a greater risk than others or for whom site conditions, such as noise, heat or cold, make their work more hazardous. Therefore, assessing job-related risk factors is the first step toward identifying high-risk employees.
- Examine incidence rates of accidents and injuries, both company-wide and industry-wide. If employees in certain occupational categories are experiencing higher than average accident and injury rates, additional safety training may be necessary. Examining your company’s OSHA recordkeeping forms will assist you in determining rates in your facility. For industry-specific information, the BLS provides detailed information on occupational injuries, illnesses and fatalities broken down by industry, case circumstances and worker characteristics.
Variables to Consider that Can Impact Injury Risk
Research has also identified several variables that put employees at a higher risk of injury:
- Employee age (younger workers have higher incidence rates)
- Length of time on the job (new employees have higher incidence rates)
- Size of the firm (medium-size firms tend to have the highest incidence rates)
- Type of work performed
- The use of hazardous substance
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