Workplace incidents happen all the time, but are they always reported? To be sure incidents are reported on your job site or within your company, you should have a reporting program in place that every employee knows about. Through your incident reporting process, similar incidents can be prevented in the future.
To maintain a high level of safety throughout a company, incidents must be reported so that not only the people on site know what happened but your management team as well will know what processes need to be improved or what changes need to be made to protect everyone. Sometimes even though it may not seem that medical attention is required, but if the incident is reported, an infection can be caught which might have developed into a life-threatening situation.
Through incident reporting, a company is better to ensure the safety of its workers and also ensure the processes they have in place are working to maximum efficiency and not putting employees in more harm than necessary. Tracking these incidents allows management to know when the incident was caused by processes, so they begin to see a pattern in incidents, or whether it was caused by an employee not following all safety guidelines.
Through the tracking and improvement of these processes, it can translate to not only fewer incidents, but production improvements as well. An incident report will allow employees and employers to have a full record of what actually happened, this will decrease the chances of a lawsuit and will provide each party with physical proof of the events. Having a fully operational incident reporting program in place will be cheaper in the long run than dealing with the fallback from major injuries, or complete failure of processes.
Incidents should be reported immediately, no matter what your program is or who is over collecting or creating reports. This person, whether it be HR or a supervisor, will be able to determine which steps to take from there and if medical attention or a follow up is required. Incident reporting should be a required part of the onboarding for each employee so that there is no confusion when it comes to how, when, or where to report an incident.
Midsouth Mechanical has been doing business for over 25 years. We offer our industrial clients efficient and cost-effective fabrication, modification, and repair of industrial equipment. From preventive plant maintenance, designing, installing and aligning machines, our exceptional skill and craftsmanship set us apart from the competition. Our number one priority day to day is safety. To see our published weekly Toolbox Talks, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.