Regardless of the industry in California, all workers face unique risks each day when they go to work. While some face a higher number of risks than others, each person must understand the hazards of their job and how to effectively mitigate them to stay safe at work and perform their job effectively.
According to Chron, there are many common reasons why workplace accidents happen in the first place. Some of the top reasons why people get hurt include the following:
- Fatigue
- Violence
- Overexertion
- Slips, trips and falls
- Transportation accidents
- Repetition of the same tasks
One of the best ways that employers can protect their workers is by circumventing accidents before they ever happen. This is best accomplished by recognizing hazards before they turn into an immediate danger. According to the United States Department of Labor, a hazard control plan is a process that identifies hazards and then defines how to handle them to protect workers from unnecessary injuries. Once hazards are recognized, a timely effort will be made to implement controls that will eliminate the hazard or effectively control its presence. With these controls in place, efforts will then be made to maintain those controls and frequently gauge how effective they are at keeping hazards from becoming dangers.
In recognizing and addressing hazards, they should always be listed in order of priority based off of how dangerous each one is. Hazards that are more likely to cause injuries should be dealt with before the ones that are less evasive and dangerous.