Author, Megan Lockhart, Client Communications Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
As we hit the halfway mark on the 2024 year, we’ve explored plenty of important topics related to health and safety each month. The month of June is National Safety Month by the National Safety Council (NSC), in partnership with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This month brings attention to safety issues as a whole and highlights important topics each week. So whether our clients are construction leaders or human services professionals, June is an opportunity to evaluate the safety practices of yourself and your workers.
Week 1: Safety Engagement
One of the foundational aspects of cultivating a safe workplace is through intentional participation in safety practices.
“Both employers and employees must be engaged in safety. Working together, employers and employees can develop policies and procedures to identify, monitor, mitigate, and eliminate work-related hazards,” NSC states.
One way Rancho Mesa encourages clients to engage in safety is by offering tools to help best equip them for the task. The SafetyOne™ platform offers weekly toolbox talks that employers can administer to workers on the job. SafetyOne also offers a library of online training courses to encourage safety engagement. The videos and quizzes are taken individually via a web browser.
The more relevant the employer’s lessons are to the current safety hazards and job tasks, the more valuable the training will be to employees.
Week 2: Roadway Safety
The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the leading cause of work-related deaths in the nation are motor vehicle crashes and either the first or second leading cause of death in each major industry. That’s why the NSC has dedicated this week to driving safety.
Rancho Mesa offers a library of driver trainings, both in the form of toolbox talks and online trainings:
Toolbox Talks
Defensive Driving
Driving in Wet Conditions
Like Oil and Water, Drinking And Driving Do Not Mix
Do Cellular Phones Cause More Vehicle Accidents?
Motor Vehicles – A Form of Locking Out
Motor Vehicles – Seat Belts
No Vehicle Accidents on This Site
Safety While Refueling Vehicles and Equipment
Vehicle and Equipment Parking Safety for Landscape Contractors
Online Training
Driver Safety: The Basics
Driving Safety
Driving Defensively
Distracted Driving
Commercial Drivers License (CDL) Defensive Driver Training
Rancho Mesa also recently hosted its Fleet Safety Workshop, presented by Travelers Insurance. The recording is now available.
Week 3: Risk Reduction
The best ways to keep employees safe and prevent workplace incidents is by identifying the environmental hazards and addressing them immediately.
According to NSC’s Injury Facts, there were a total of 4,695 preventable workplace deaths and 4.53 million medically consulted injuries in 2022.
Foreseeing potential injuries before they happen mitigates risk. A pivotal part of this process for companies is through observing their work environment. The SafetyOne app offers the Observation tool clients can use to perform safety observations or inspections via a phone or tablet. An issue identified in an observation can be assigned to other employees or emailed to third parties. Once completed, they are automatically documented in the platform.
Additionally, employers create and maintain a written Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) and a copy must be made available in the workplace. This week is a good opportunity to revisit your company’s IIPP and make sure it is up to date and covers all job hazards. The Cal/OSHA website offers a model IIPP for both high hazard and non-high hazard industries.
Week 4: Slips, Trips and Falls
As the final topic of the month, slips, trips, and falls are a prevalent hazard across most industries. Whether missing a step down a slippery ladder, losing balance on an aerial lift, or slipping on wet flooring, falls can happen anywhere in the workplace. The best way to prevent these common incidents is to eliminate the hazard initially and make sure employees are trained in the correct safety procedures.
Rancho Mesa offers toolbox talks and online training that covers slip, trip, and fall prevention:
Toolbox Talks
Slips, Trips and Falls
Fall Prevention and Guardrails
Slip and Fall Prevention for Landscape Contractors
Watch Your Step! Don't Slip & Fall
Fall Protection
Avoiding Falls
Let's Prevent Slips, Trips and Falls
Online Training
Slips, Trips, and Falls
Slips, Trips and Falls in Construction Environments
Slips, Trips, and Falls in Food Processing and Food Handling Environments
Slips, Trips, and Falls in Healthcare Environments
Slips, Trips, and Falls in Office Environments
Fall Protection in Industrial and Construction Environments
As we continue to make our way through National Safety Month, it's a good idea for clients to evaluate any holes in their safety practices. The opportunities employers take to keep workers trained will impact their hazard prevention, and ultimately their incident rate, the rest of the year.
Rancho Mesa is committed to offering the necessary tools to help.
For questions about accessing resources in SafetyOne, clients can reach out to their client technology coordinator.