Dashpivot article page – how to prevent slips trips and falls in the workplace
How to Prevent Slips, Trips and Falls in the Workplace
Slips, trips and falls are one of the most common workplace safety issue. In fact, it accounts for over 700 work fatalities and over 243,000 injuries according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Whether you are a new employee or an experienced worker, you are still prone to slips, trips and falls. Knowing how to prevent slips, trips and falls in the workplace is a critical part of ensuring worker safety.
What is a slip, what is a trip, and what is a fall?
Slip means sliding accidentally because the floor or the surface you are standing on has less friction. Trip is when you accidentally hit an object causing you to fall, or move downward rapidly without control. These scenarios are easy to imagine because it can happen anywhere and anytime but in a workplace setting, this must be taken with careful review and consideration in order to reduce the hazards in the workplace. After all, workplace accidents does not only impact the people involved in the incident but also the business and its reputation in the market.
This article will be a how-to guide on how to prevent slips, trips and falls in the workplace, but before that we will go over the hazards that commonly cause slips, trips and falls, the 3 ways to prevent slips trips and falls in every workplace and what can dealing with slips, trips and falls include.
Hazards in the Workplace that causes Slips, Trips and Falls
Prior to addressing the practical steps on preventing slips, trips and falls let us walk through the different hazards in the workplace that would lead to this accident. A hazard in this case is any situation caused by man or nature that would lead to a person slip, trip and fall. We need to identify what are the most common hazards and specific examples.
Slippery Floors
Floors become slippery due to various reasons: it could be because of a liquid or dry spill, or due to intentionally flowing water on the floor. A liquid spill hazard coming from water, grease and oils does not only cause slip, trip and fall accidents but if the liquid is flammable it could be more fatal. A "dry spill" will only cause a slip if the spill is from a large amount of tiny granule ingredients in the production, like flour or coffee power and carpentry works that involve sawing wood or breaking materials that can have saw fragments that reduces the friction of the floor especially if the floor is already really smooth.
On the other hand, intentional flow of water is because of reducing exposure to dust like in concrete works or during general clean up. Concrete work often sets up a continuous flow of water especially when handling cement or when silica is being cut and ground as silica exposure is harmful especially when inhaled - this is why continuous flow of water is used to reduce the dust and this is used in the machineries or the floor itself causing it to be slippery and wet.
Rough and uneven surfaces
A trip is when a person's body usually the foot, strikes with an object. When do these commonly happen? The collision of the foot and the object happens not only when there’s a big obstruction, but also when there’s even just a slight difference in height that means the surface is rough, a sudden rise with stairs or the surface is uneven.
Uneven surfaces examples are from grounds that has cracks in pavements, uneven sidewalks, and rocky terrains can be found in any industry or workplace. Tripping from sudden rise difference is also a common tripping hazard like a height difference of the stair or step. There are irregular steps as well wherein there are steps that are longer or shorter than other flight of steps.
How to Prevent Slips, Trips and Falls in the Workplace from Poor Housekeeping and Maintenance
Poor housekeeping can lead to many hazards in the workplace especially slips, trips and falls. The following are poor housekeeping examples to look out for:
- Wet floors - Addressing liquid or dry spills daily ensures good floor condition and eliminates slipping hazard. Reporting uneventful oil spills when it happens are a sign of good risk management including good housekeeping.
- Clutters in the area - Housekeeping includes assessing whether there are adequate office equipment so as not to overkeep tools and machines in the area or if it's already too much clutter. Clutter can cause trips. Boxes, tools and debris in the walkways are clutters that could cause trips and falls.
- Cable mismanagement - This not only an electrical hazard but tangled electrical cords, around desks and equipment and walkways are also an indication of poor housekeeping in the workplace.
- Worn out floor mats - Ordinarily, there are mats in the entrance of establishments or facilities. When it’s not kept clean of debris, or not replaced when worn out, edges can be curled and cause a person to trip. Shabby mats can also loose its non-slip traction and starts to slide and move when people walk over it.
- Poor Lighting - Walking through and identifying if there are areas that has poor lighting and especially full of obstacles is a preemptive course of safety measure.
Unsafe Behaviour in the workplace
Human behaviour is considerably a major hazard causing slips, trips and fall that despite the safety measures in the system it could still fail because of the complacency of the worker or an error in judgement by the worker.
When there are instances that the hazards cannot be eliminated in the workplace, it will fall on the responsibility of the person to make sure they and others are safe. Examples of this are: failing to wear personal protective equipment, ignoring safety signs and warnings, not walking on designated paths as applicable, not attending or paying attention to safety trainings and not reporting incidents that can cause more harm.
3 ways to prevent slips trips and falls in every workplace
Slips, trips and falls (STF) are one of the major cause of workplace injuries especially musculoskeletal disorders, these are injuries affecting the person’s muscles, joints and bones. Depending on the severity of the injury and the length of recovery, it would cause emotional stress to the worker and can decrease employee morale. This effect on the side of the worker is on top of the backfire the company will face shouldering the cost of the accident and the reputation of the company.
Given this, here’s a direct to the point - 3 ways to prevent slips, trips and falls in every workplace.
First way to prevent slips trips and falls in the workplace - Design a safe work area
The hazard causing slips which are the slippery floors can be completely avoided if the floor has more friction. Adding a carpet, if applicable, in the work area can reduce friction on already smooth and polished surfaces that are prone to slipping. Areas where there are usually a lot of worker traffic should have good and proper lighting from the very beginning.
Utilising machines that has proper enclosure to avoid dusts on the floor making it unnecessary to do a wet cleaning. And, according to study from University of Florida, a 3/8” rise in a walkway can cause a person to “stub” his toe resulting in a trip and fall - steps or ladders should be designed with uniform height difference.
Correct Unsafe Behaviour
Unsafe behaviour causing slip, trip and fall can be mitigated by safety trainings, consistent reminders and call outs ensuring that the worker understands the gravity of their actions. Rushing like walking too fast or running on an environment already prone to slipping is a major issue.
Implement strict protocols to ensure the worker is wearing the correct personal protective equipment(PPE). Workers may be prohibited to enter the work area without wearing the appropriate safety boots for example. There must be regular audits to confirm if the worker is consistently attending safety trainings applicable, reviews if the PPEs are not damaged or worn out and sanctions must be done if safety measures are not followed.
Improve housekeeping and maintenance
Considering the accidents of slips, trips and falls due to poor housekeeping and maintenance mentioned above, the straightforward solution is to make sure these issues are resolved. Proper workplace housekeeping must be part of the culture of safety of any company or industry. There is a proven 5-STEP workplace methodology called “5S” – which stands for 5 methods that starts with an “S” to remember it easily: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise and Sustain. In application to this, here’s how to use the 5S:
Sort – remove clutter and confirm if the tools and equipment in the workplace are redundant and only keep the tools that are necessary.
Set In Order – Organise cables and wires and make good cable management with appropriate labels. Implement also a storage solution for items that are redundant and lying around in the area that could be an obstruction and cause a person to trip.
Shine - Immediately clean up liquid and dry spills. Inspect the workplace and maintain cleanliness to avoid slip and fall hazards due to slippery floors.
Standardise – Make a standard guidelines and procedure for worker to follow with respect to housekeeping to avoid slips, trips and falls. One specific example to this is holding a toolbox talk which is a brief safety discussion before work starts and making a housekeeping checklist for workers to walk through at the beginning and end of their workday.
Sustain – this is the final step and it is making sure that the rest of 5S is sustained. This is when the company ensures good housekeeping is a culture to promote safety in the workplace.
It would be worthy to utilise a software to create these checklists. Adopting a digital checklist also means, it removes the clutter of paper documents and easily accessible for daily use consistent with adopting 5S method to improve the housekeeping of the workplace.
Take a look at this sample 5S Audit Checklist, it is sectioned per step of 5S and has a table field to rate according to a check item. You can conveniently note comments and add photos/videos within the table i.e. when the score is low and there is an obvious obstruction in the walkway that shouldn’t be there. Sections here would vary in every workplace, but the good news is that this is completely customisable as well.
What can dealing with slips, trips and falls include?
The different hazards mentioned above are a good overview of different situations in the workplace that could cause a person to slip, trip and fall and now it’s time to deal with it and look at possible control measures to consider, improve and review in your safety management system .
Describing existing Preventive Measures for improvement
Generally, any workplace or industry already have existing preventive measures. These measures are by design and usually for compliance relating to prevent slips, trips and falls. Dealing with these incidents include revisiting and assess if it’s effective or if it needs improvement. Preventive measures for Slips, Trips and Falls are usually: housekeeping and organization, having proper personal protective equipment like footwear and fall protective devices, signages and warnings and trainings.
The 3 ways to prevent slips trips and falls in the workplace stated above may not be the best methods for the safety issues relating to slips, trips and falls because it will depend on what specific situation took place in your company or organization.
Dealing with slips trips and falls include evaluating records and incidents and what preventive measure was done prior to its occurrence, does it need updating? Or, was it difficult to follow? Generally these information are included in the incident reports for traceability.
Review previous STF injury data
The whole point of reviewing previous injuries is to analyze the common cause, asking the questions, why did it happen in the first place and why did it happen again? The considerations of this analysis should cover:
- Location of the incident – it can lead you to identify where does it usually happen, if there’s a trend leading to a specific area where slip, trip and fall are recurrent. If there’s indeed a prevalence, assess whether there’s are controls in place or if issue is truly because of the location or only due to a specific process -an example to this is if the STF kept happening in the chemical mixing area, then it could not be due to the location but the process is prone to slippage due to the high tendency of chemical spill causing the floor to be greasy.
- Time of the day – look at patterns on general time of day or shift on a 24/7 operation company that the Slip, Trip and Fall incidents occur. Time of the day is not directly related to the hazards, and there’s no study yet directly correlating this but it can be because of certain times of the day there’s a tendency for the workers to rush thereby overlooking safety signs or when working on night shifts, workers are sleepy, slower and unable to follow safety protocols because of fatigue. Assessing this, will be able to identify if more safety measures are needed to be added.
- Category and severity of Injury – this will identify the impact of the incident, and in which area should be focused on depending on its severity. This can also be used to highlight during safety training as real life incidents are more effective in emphasizing the dangers of not following a safety protocol.
Conduct Training and Awareness Programs
After gathering the data from the review of previous injuries, reviewing the existing preventive measures and considering the three ways to prevent slips trips and falls in every workplace, make sure that everyone understands the efforts to reduce the slip, trip and fall hazards. This can be done by adding the findings and updated procedures and guidelines to the induction or refresher safety training and reiterating this during Toolbox Talks.
Toolbox Talks are brief safety meetings done in the beginning of work to have a discussion on safety reminders to encourage the team to talk about safety issues. In relation to slips, trips and falls the supervisor can begin with an overview of the regulations, instructing them about what are slips, trips and falls and what causes them or specifically what are hazardous areas in their own workplace that are prone to slipping and then end the meeting by discussing the recent incidents if any related to STF.
Toolbox Talks can vary in each workplace. You can consider using this Toolbox Talks for Slips, Trips and Fall below to educate your team which is made using the software Dashpivot. This form is digitalised and customisable and covers an overview of the slips, trips and falls injuries and what it pertains and a section that covers the discussion points the supervisor can walk through. The advantage of a digitalised Toolbox Talks for Slips, Trips and Falls is that it improves efficiency and will allow for a more focused discussion, easier tracing during incident audits, and reduce paper use which itself can be a slipping hazard when in contact on a smooth floor.
Prevent slips trips and falls through better safety awareness using this free form
A Summary
In this article we provided a practical guide on how to prevent slips, trips and falls in the workplace by going over the hazards that commonly cause slips, trips and falls, provided 3 ways to prevent slips trips and falls in every workplace designing a safe work area, correcting unsafe behaviours and improving housekeeping and maintenance in the workplace by using the 5-step method called “5S”.
By the end, there was a general overview of what can dealing with slips, trips and falls include which are: describing the existing preventive measures- what are they and why did it not work if it was followed? Reviewing previous STF data specifying which aspects need to be check and lastly making sure there is training and awareness program conducted to ensure that everyone understands the efforts to reduce the slip, trip and fall hazards which includes induction or safety safety training and utilising a digital Toolbox Talk form.
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