Slips, trips and falls related accidents can be prevented in 3 straightforward ways by addressing the most common issues and resolving them.

Design a Safe Work Area

Many of the causes stated above can be mitigated by designing a safe work area. This means when the work area has a lot of traffic, good lighting should be part of the design.

While it is important to practice extreme caution, falling from ladders, steps and stairs are usually due to its set-up or design. Designing a safe work area is a preemptive way in preventing slips and falls - using well designed materials, marking designated paths to avoid collision and preparing the space by reviewing potential hazards.

Proper Housekeeping

Implementing proper housekeeping is a proven way to mitigate the causes of slips, trips and falls that are especially due to clutters and greasy floors. Utilising the “5S” methodology to promote proper housekeeping is an effective 5-step process. 5S stands for  Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise and Sustain. To prevent slips, trips and falls you can use 5S in this way:

Sort – Rid of clutters and unnecessary items in the workplace that potentially cause the obstruction and sort the needed tools and materials

Set In Order – After sorting, organise your tools and cables orderly by implementing a good storage solution with appropriate labels.

Shine - Immediately clean up liquid and dry spills to avoid having someone slide on it accidentally.

Standardise – Make standard procedure for workers to follow with respect to housekeeping to avoid slips, trips and falls.

Sustain – 5th and final step to make sure that the rest of 5S is sustained, this is by conducting 5S audit and checking if the standard procedures were followed.

Correct Unsafe Behavior by creating a safety mindset

Correct worker’s unsafe behavior by conducting a safety training regularly. Safety trainings should be consistent and frequent to create a safety mindset in relation to slip, trip and falls.

Creating safety mindset in the workplace ensures that workers make incident reports during near miss scenarios, call out hazards like housekeeping issues and sustain the 5S principle in the workplace. Provide opportunities for open communication and involve employees in the safety efforts of the company.

An effective way to foster safety mindset in the workplace is to conduct Toolbox Talks for Slips, Trips and Fall. Toolbox talks are brief informal safety meetings or pre-start lead by a team leader or supervisor that can be conducted ideally daily in the work area before starting the work. Toolbox talks for slips, trips and falls should cover topics that are relevant and related to it that could be openly discuss with the team in an organized format to make the flow easy to follow by the workers.

To communicate effectively, utilise this digital toolbox talk form for slips, trip and fall like the one below.