According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, every 7 seconds a worker in the U.S. is injured on the job, and the bulk of these occur in specific industries such as retail, hospitality and leisure, warehousing, transportation, and construction. For businesses in high-risk industries, they face the dual challenge of both finding good workers and also keeping them safe while on the job. In today's Aegis blog post, we look at some of the ways businesses can keep workers safer in high-risk industries.

Thorough Training Methods

When companies hire new employees, training will often consist of the new hire observing an existing employee doing their job with some basic tips and advice along the way. Observational training can be helpful, but key safety rules and regulations can easily be missed. Instead, companies should create thorough training programs with written documentation or training modules that can clearly cover all safety regulations to ensure compliance and worker safety. This is especially important for higher risk industries such as restaurants, warehouses, and transportation, where accidents and injuries are more likely to occur.

Reward Safety

In order to make safety a priority, companies will often punish employees who disobey safety regulations or other OSHA rules. While punishments can sometimes be effective in keeping employees safe, companies may find more success in rewarding individuals or teams who maintain top safety marks and avoid any safety infractions during a set period of time. These rewards could be free lunches, extra PTO or even quarterly or annual bonuses for promoting safer work environments. A reward-based safety program can help ensure individual and group adherence to safety rules, which can minimize worker injuries, accidents, and potential liability claims.

Workers Compensation Insurance

Finally, workers can have an extra method of protection in the workplace through comprehensive Workers Compensation coverage. This commercial insurance policy benefits both companies and employees by covering lost wages and out of pocket medical expenses for workers injured on the job while also protecting companies from liability claims from those same injured workers. Employees have peace of mind knowing that they will still be paid and have their medical expenses covered if they are injured on a worksite, while employers can know their employees are getting the medical care and treatment they need, and also get critical liability protection as well.

At Aegis Insurance & Financial Services, we help companies in high-risk industries get better protection for their companies and their workers through comprehensive, top quality Workers Compensation coverage. We can create customized Commercial Insurance solutions tailored to your specific industry needs, all at competitive rates. For more information, contact Aegis today at 713-850-7622 or fill out our online form to request more information.