Slips, trips, and falls are a common cause of liability claims affecting organizations. These occurrences can range from minor incidents to major claims that can involve multi-million dollar lawsuits. It’s unlikely to avoid these types of potential accidents completely, but it is possible to take precautions that will help in reducing the frequency and severity in case of an event.

Prevention

Prevention involves identifying the potential of an incident before it occurs. By determining the risk, a mitigation strategy can be implemented.

One simple strategy to mitigate slip, trip and fall incidents involves developing a checklist to be completed by employees throughout the day. This raises awareness of potential risk and creates accountability at the retail location. Making health and safety everyone’s priority creates awareness and helps maintain the 'safe' mindset.

Communication

Incorporating safety into your company culture means everyone needs to be involved. Communication between staff members is key to preventing injury.

For example, with adequate communication, all staff members are aware of how and when surfaces have to been cleaned so that appropriate signage can be put in place. By tracking incident data with particulars such as location, time of day, product in use and more, trends will start to form.

These trends will help identify sources and causes of incidents, thereby positively influencing mitigation strategies and control to aid in future prevention.

Preparation

It's important to prepare for incidents which are inevitable. Accidents are bound to happen.

For example, weather can have a massive influence over the safety of your employees and customers. If proper safety measures are in place, you can significantly reduce the chances of an injury and the severity of the event.

Small things such as spreading salt or sand on icy walkways can result in a considerable reduction in the frequency of incidents, thereby reducing the cost of claims and insurance premiums.

ClearRisk's Claims, Incident, and Risk Management System helps you track your claims, run trend analysis to identify problem areas, and implement mitigation strategies to reduce your losses. Want more information? Learn more below. 

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