Is Your Culture an Injury Risk?
Do your staff “Just push through”?
If your workforce (or industry at large) are prone to “just get on with it” conversations, this can directly contribute to workplace injuries and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). This isn’t just a problem for an unlucky few, MSDs are one of most common reasons for employee sick days, with 473,000 workers suffering from an MSD in 2022-23. That includes an increase of 3,000 on 2021-22 - so this isn’t something we can “just push through”.
While the physical nature of your job will change your individual injury risk, there are a series of psychosocial factors that contribute in a big way.
Psychosocial risk factors are associated with the link between an individuals mind and behaviour, and the social circumstances around them.
Workplace Culture
If a new employee is berated for raising a concern or struggling with a task, they aren’t likely to raise an issue again.
Workplaces that prioritise health and safety can reduce the impact of injuries and MSDs by just hearing their staff out. Being able to raise a concern early will facilitate early intervention, resulting in more positive outcomes, fewer near misses, and a less-achy and sore workforce. This all starts with comprehensive policies and procedures and providing training, and peaks with open communication about health and safety worries.
VALUE PEOPLE WHO RAISE CONCERNS
As an employer, you set the tone for managing physical health and wellbeing in the workplace. Supporting your people in maintaining their physical wellbeing can include:
Valuing people who raise concerns and collaborate on solutions
Enabling managers to be supportive of people suffering from an MSD or injury
Encouraging or facilitating conversations about health and wellbeing
Valuing nutrition, hydration and sleep for your employees
Modelling what you want to see - that means taking care of your physical wellbeing!
Providing training that really meets the needs of your employees.
By implementing these practices, you can create an environment where employees feel valued and supported in maintaining their physical health, and feel safe raising concerns with you.
Let your employees know how they can help
Your employees also have a duty to support measures to maintain safety of themselves and others. By communicating their role, they can take ownership of and be involved in conversations around:
Safe working practices
Equipment use or updates
Reporting of hazards or concerns
Raising pain or other symptoms with their manager or occupational health as early as possible
Adapting work to reduce issues - even if that means a big change!
When your employees are actively engaged in the conversation, you’ll increase their feelings of safety and increase their engagement at work!
Make it easy to help
Prevention and early intervention are crucial aspects of injury prevention. By implementing easy pathways to raise concerns, regular reviews of H&S policies, and by taking employee concerns seriously, you have turned your workforce into a H&S scanner - they will bring issues to you before there is a crisis or injury to deal with!
Go the extra Mile
While you have clear duties as set out by HSE, there are a number of ways you can go the extra mile in supporting your workforce…
Create partnerships or relationships with health care providers in your area - a local physiotherapist for example.
Engage with occupational health specialists to adapt tasks or roles as needed.
Be aware of changes in your workforce as they go through their lives and offer support at key life stages.
Create time in their diaries for recovery and body-maintenance.
Raise awareness around the additional support you are offering.
take the first step today
Workplace culture is far from static. By consistently prioritising the wellbeing of your staff you can change the conversation. Providing resources, fostering open communication, and showing compassion to your team will pay dividends in reduced injuries, improved staff satisfaction and increased engagement in their work.
If you’d like our help to reduce injury risk for your workforce, you can get started today with a free consultation with our founder.
If you’re worried about your team adopting new practices, we’ve got you. We are specialists in behaviour change and have supported hundreds of people as they change their relationship with movement, exercise, and physical wellbeing. So much so, our founder even wrote a book about it!
