2022 Workplace Safety Index

Safety always and forever will be a concern in any occupation. It does seem unreasonable that individuals should have to put themselves in harm’s way simply to make a living. Fortunately, the majority of glaring workplace hazards are mitigated in order to adhere to a variety of organizational guidelines that have been implemented to ensure a standard of workplace safety. But in the industry of production, there are hazards that do not seem inherently dangerous in the short term, but long-term exposure can lead to costly, lifelong disorders.

Liberty Mutual Insurance™ produces an annual study that compiles and calculates the total cost and causes of the ten most common types of workplace incidents. This study is published every June and showcases the amount of money being spent on preventable injuries in the workplace. This information is based on disabling workplace injuries (any injury that causes an employee to miss work for more than five days) and the direct costs to employers based on medical bills and lost-wage expenses. The rankings of the top ten most common and most costly workplace accidents are as follows:

• Overexertion involving outside sources
  • 63 Billion

• Falls on the Same Level
  • 26 Billion

• Struck by objects or equipment
  • 66 Billion

• Falls to lower levels
  • 07 Billion

• Awkward postures
  • 01 Billion

• Roadway incidents
  • 59 Billion

• Slip without falls
  • 52 Billion

• Compressed by equipment or object
  • 19 Billion

• Struck against object or equipment
  • 87 Billion

• Non-roadway incidents with motorized land vehicles.
  • 39 Billion

After reviewing these statistics, we can see that there is an exorbitant amount of dollars flowing from companies’ pockets to pay for preventable injuries, almost 50 Billion dollars. Truthfully, the amount of dollars lost by companies is even larger since this figure only factors in dollars spent directly on workers’ compensation, and neglects to mention the dollars lost in productivity or days of absenteeism., etc. This is money that could have been allocated to innumerable places to better progress the individual businesses. Unfortunately, this money is absorbed by incidents that could have been prevented.

Simple preventable measures include workstation redesign, and utilizing other available ergonomic tools, methods and devices that have shown to reduce work related stress factors.

Because businesses make decisions based on the analysis of costs and benefits, it is important to understand how much proper shop floor design and utilization of proper equipment can benefit in the prevention of unnecessary costs. The list for benefits as a direct result from a focus on safety vastly outweighs the costs of being safety-centric.