Self-reported injuries at work are on the rise, but is this a sign of a developing trend or simply a blip? Here, Spencers Solicitors looks at the reasons why things might not be as bad as they look.
For the first time since 2001/2002, the number of estimated self-reported workplace non-fatal injury per 100,000 workers has significantly increased.
According to data from the HSE’s Health and Safety Statistics Report 2020, 693,000 workers sustained a non-fatal injury in 2019/20 – an increase of 122,000 from the previous year - resulting in an estimated 6.3 million working days lost (according to self-reports from the Labour Force).
Whilst this may be the first significant increase in near enough two decades, there was also a slight increase of 26,000 incidences from 2017/18 to 2018/19 suggesting that the general downward trend may be changing. Here are five reasons why the trend might not be a one-off:
Health and safety processes have been refined and communicated better
No doubt about it, health and safety teams and processes have been of paramount importance to all organisations this year.
To keep everyone as safe as possible through the pandemic, health and safety processes up and down the country have been reviewed, improved and communicated to the point that employees should know them by heart!
Making employees aware of how to report injuries at work and making that process as smooth as possible is naturally likely to see an increase in reported incidences.
Renewed focus on reporting smaller injuries
The importance of reporting injuries at work, no matter how small, is a message being shared far and wide.
Employers are on red alert for any sort of injury or illness in the workplace, and encouraging employees to report even the smallest of incidence.
As the definition of what constitutes an injury widens and the messaging resonates with employees, so will the number of injuries being reported.
Employees taking more responsibility for their actions
In a year where we’re actively being encouraged not to soldier even if we think we’re alright, there’s an expectation for all employees to take more care and responsibility for health and safety in the workplace – regardless their occupation.
Just as we are in our day to day lives, we expect to see employees exercise more caution and report injuries at work that they would have previously ignored as we continue to get back to some kind of normality.
Mental fatigue
Keeping up with the constant changes to rules and regulations, inside and outside of work, is undeniably tough.
It’s so far removed from what we’re used to, the pressures to remember what you should or shouldn’t is going to be mentally draining. As employees suffer from mental fatigue, the risk of lapses in concentration increases which could lead to more injuries at work.
Increased PPE getting in the way
We all know the importance of PPE against Coronavirus, but when you’re not used to wearing it for long periods at work you can’t be blamed for finding it irritating or a little uncomfortable.
If you’re getting distracted by your PPE, you’re not fully concentrating on your job and therefore are more likely to be putting yourself at risk of injury than usual.
