When workplace injuries are discussed or publicized, it is the serious ones that are front-and-center. They are the ones that cause the most pain in terms of injuries, cost, missed work time, employee morale, lost productivity, and more. If only we could predict what incidents are on the horizon.
In a recent Institute of WorkComp Professionals (IWCP) teleclass, OSHA Record Keeping The Ultimate Predictor of WorkComp Performance, Dustin Boss, a Certified Risk Architect with Ottawa Kent Insurance, explained all businesses have solid, but often overlooked, data that can help predict what is going to happen. This is the data in the OSHA logs and Work Comp forms that give a complete picture of the injuries that have occurred.
Historical studies document the way small injuries can be precursors to larger injuries. In 1969, building upon the work of Herbert William Heinrich, Frank E. Bird undertook a study of industrial accidents, which resulted in one of the most widely cited findings in the history of industrial safety. For every reported major injury, there were 9.8 reported minor injuries and 30.2 property damage accidents.
In 2003, a ConocoPhillips study further solidified these findings. The study showed that for every major accident, there must be a hidden bottom end of the pyramid of at risk behaviors and smaller recordable accidents. At-risk behaviors are defined as any activity that is not consistent with safety programs or with training on machinery, such as bypassing safety components on machinery, eliminating safety steps in the production process and so on. The study found that for every loss workday incident, there were 10 recordable workplace incidents and for every recordable incident, ten near misses.
While these concepts adapted to current workplace issues provide the foundation for many safety programs, small incidents are often ignored. Most are not costly, do not disrupt workflow, and often are considered part of doing business. There's a sense that major incidents "don't happen here." Boss gave three examples to illustrate the problem:
A pattern of frequent, minor, workplace injuries is a red flag that should alert employers to dangers ahead if no actions are taken to resolve the underlying causes. As Dustin Boss concludes, "Major injuries are rare events and many opportunities are afforded by the more frequent, less serious events to take action to prevent the major losses from occurring."