Working Conditions Are Very Important

Working Conditions

In nearly every workplace, there is the opportunity for an employee to accidentally trip, slip, and fall. Slippery spots and items stacked in aisles and stairways that people can trip over can be found in offices, restaurants, and warehouses, as well as factories and a number of other businesses. Unfortunately, none of these things have to be present for an employee to get injured. A number of falls and other problems are the result of carelessness on the part of the employee. No matter how the employees get hurt, though, injuries are painful and debilitating. They can result in many hours of lost work, and can harm the reputation of the company, as well. In some cases, they can also result in lawsuits, which can damage the company's bottom line and even put it out of business. EDS, a British energy company, realized that it was seeing more injuries than would be expected for the environment and number of employees, so it decided to something about it (Leading, n.d.).

As a direct result of taking action, the injury rates from slips, trips, and falls declined significantly (Leading, n.d.). The program EDS created was a simple one, indicating that oftentimes the simplest ways of handling things are among the best ways to address those issues. For example, EDS put up posters warning employees about the dangers of things like not looking where they are going or not holding handrails when they go up and down staircases (Leading, n.d.). There were also references to stories of slips, trips, and falls in the employee newsletter, and the issue was brought up during company meetings and other announcements, so it remained in the minds of the employees on a more consistent basis (Leading, n.d.). If there were problems with lighting in the stairwells and other areas, that was fixed so employees were able to see more easily, and the janitors who work at the company were encouraged to always put out signage when they were cleaning floors and other surfaces (Leading, n.d.).

Another important issue that EDS considered was when the injuries seemed to be happening. They looked at both time of day and time of year, and determined that more injuries were taking place outside in the fall and winter months due to ice and leaves (Leading, n.d.). Additionally, they determined that the majority of injuries that occurred inside the building took place near the end of the day, when everyone was getting ready to leave, and at lunch hour (Leading, n.d.). While this makes perfect sense due to the volume of people moving around in a confined space, it can also be hard to correct because there is no realistic way to lessen the number of people milling around during those times of days. Still, by making employees more aware of the danger through the use of posters and newsletter information, EDS lowered the number of employee injuries. Being more mindful of one's surroundings can often be all it takes to improve safety. Because EDS realized this, they were able to lower the instances of injuries in some areas of the company by nearly 50% (Leading, n.d.).

Many would argue that EDS could have done more, but that does not really seem to be the case. Employees have to be free to move about, and extremely strict and rigid rules only lead to people looking for ways to break or get around them. Companies need to follow OSHA guidelines, but what they do beyond that is up to them (Business, n.d.). Most companies think about safety only when something goes wrong, and the same was really true for EDS. Rather than feeling helpless, though, EDS made sure the posters and company newsletter information were prominent, so that all employees were made aware of the issue. By doing that, and by looking at ways that lighting could be improved and janitorial work could be made safer for everyone who may enter the area where the cleaning was being done, EDS made great strides even though the choices they made were actually very simple. By getting back to basics, companies can do a lot to protect employees (Business, n.d.).

When a worker falls and gets injured, there are a number of stakeholders. Employees are always stakeholders in anything that affects the company for which they work, and what happens to one employee can have a strong affect on others (National, 2014). This is largely due to the closeness and interconnectivity that many companies have when it comes to their employees. The employees become important to one another in a work capacity, and everyone has a job to do. When an employee is injured and cannot do his or her job, it falls to other employees to make changes that pick up the slack and get the work done. Some companies will also hire a temporary worker to fill the spot of an injured employee, but it takes time for that employee to get up to speed and be an asset to the company (National, 2014). In some cases, that may never happen, and the company may simply have to do the best it can until the employee who was injured returns to work.

Customers of the company are also stakeholders when an employee is injured on the job. Depending on the type of company, the employees may or may not have direct contact with customers. Whether they do or do not, though, is not as relevant as what they may do behind the scenes to ensure that customers are kept happy and satisfied with the interaction they have with the company. Even employees who only interact with customers online can play a big role in the experience the customer has with the company and whether that customer returns for future business (Safety, n.d.). Something as seemingly simple as a slip and fall injury could potentially cost a company a large account, affecting its bottom line. Companies also have to consider that having a high rate of employee injury can make the company appear to be an unsafe place to work, which can impact its standing with the community (National, 2014). A reputation like that could affect the company's long-term prospects for hiring good workers and for succeeding in that community and bringing in customers.

Even though employee carelessness is the most common reason for employee injury, companies should still take steps to prevent slips, trips, and falls. EDS realized that early on, when they saw that very simple things like posters and newsletters could reduce the rate of injury and get employees thinking more about safety (Leading, n.d.). In a perfect world, employees would automatically understand that they had to be careful all the time, and there would be very few injuries because everyone would do their absolute best to be safe. Since this is not a perfect world, it is up to companies to focus on finding the right way to keep employees committed to safety. That is not always easy, and there will always be employees who disregard the rules no matter how much they are reminded. Those employees may end up injured due to their own carelessness, but those injuries will not end up on the ethical conscience of the company because the employees will have been reminded about safety many times.