How Prepared Is Your Organization?

Unfortunately, statistics will show, in most workplaces that an injury or potential injury of a worker will occur. According to the WCB Statistical Supplement Report from 2018, our industry has seen a total of 2167 reported injuries. Are you, as an organization, prepared to handle an injury or potential injury?  Does your Safety Management System have the support it needs for your team to handle the situation? An Incident Investigation is one of the foundational conversations that every organization should be having around health & safety.

The term Incident Investigation can be defined as an occurrence, condition, or situation arising in the course of work that resulted in or could have resulted in injuries, illnesses, damage to health or fatalities.

Think about the last incident that occurred, how prepared was your team? Have you discussed with your managers, supervisors and occupational health and safety committee about their individual responsibilities? Each workplace should have the proper measures in place should an incident occur. Ideally, an investigation would be conducted by individuals who are experienced in incident investigation. You should include employees with knowledge of the work, supervisor of that area, health and safety committee and the injured worker if possible.

In an incident investigation, the important questions to ask are the 5Ws -who, where, when, what and why. You also want to ask How?

Who – was involved or injured? Were there witnesses?

Where – did the incident happen?

When – did the incident occur?

What – were the direct, indirect and root causes?

Why – was the unsafe act or condition permitted?

How – can a similar incident be prevented in the future?

In answering these important questions, you will have a better understanding of what occurred in the situations leading up to the injury or potential injury. Are you aware of what the legal responsibilities are when it comes to training employees on health and safety? If you don’t know, you’ll want to contact one of our Safety Advisors today, our Incident Reporting & Investigation’s training will help better assist you with what you really need and to work on bringing your WCB injury/claims cost down!

For more information on training, contact Service Hospitality today.