While office settings are not often thought of as high-risk job sites, employees working in corporate offices, clerical offices, and office parks may still face a variety of hazards.
By taking steps to prevent injuries on the job, you’re helping to safeguard your employees from things like slips and falls, ergonomic injuries, and eye strain. For every dollar spent on a workers’ comp claim, $5 is spent on indirect costs, like lost productivity, hiring and retraining staff, and replacing or repairing damaged equipment.
The most common injuries experienced by office-based employees are:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs provides general guidance for implementing a health and safety program.
General safety guidelines include:
By implementing proper safety techniques, you can help reduce the number of workers’ comp claims made by your employees—and even reduce your overall costs. Be sure that all employees, even part-time help and trainees, are well trained in safety procedures.
Slips, trips, and falls are the most common injuries that occur in offices. In fact, people are two-and-half times more likely to have a disabling fall in an office setting than in any other part of the workplace, according to the National Safety Council.
To help prevent injuries from slips, falls, and trips, employers should make sure:
Soft-tissue injuries like muscle sprains and strains also are prevalent in office settings.
To help prevent sprains and strains employers should:
Some office jobs involve eight hours in front of a computer screen (with little movement other than clicking a mouse). Workers who spend too much time seated at their desks in an uncomfortable position can experience pain, numbness, fatigue, and weakness as a result of non-ergonomic workstation setups. These types of injuries worsen slowly over time and can be somewhat difficult to detect.
“Workplace ergonomics” is the science of designing the workplace to account for the physical capabilities and limitations of the worker. To help prevent injuries, invest in supportive chairs, adjustable desks, and adjustable computers to help provide the proper ergonomics. Be sure to also train employees how to use them properly (OSHA’s Computer Workstation eTool may be a useful resource).
Employees should:
It’s important to remember that office chairs and desks can wear out just like other equipment. Broken or missing casters and other parts can make a chair or desk unstable, so be sure to inspect and repair office furniture regularly.
One of the most common types of office stress injuries is eye strain.
To help prevent eye strain injuries:
At many office complexes, windows can’t be opened and some offices also have a limited number of open doors for security reasons. Employees may be sensitive to common toxins in office environments like cleaning products, toner, mold growth, and outgassing from rugs and furniture. Without fresh air, this sensitivity can be more severe.
To improve air quality:
Surprising but true: office fires account for hundreds of millions of dollars in damage every year.
To help prevent fires:
Noise levels in excess of 85 decibels—similar to the sound of heavy traffic—can cause hearing damage. While the noise levels in an office aren’t typically loud enough to cause hearing loss, they can still be a nuisance.
To help reduce noise pollution:
While you can’t plan for every type of emergency, every office workplace should have a plan for dealing with a variety of scenarios, including medical emergencies, fires, floods, and chemical spills. All workers should be trained on what’s in the safety plan and what they should do specifically in the case of an emergency.
Accidents can happen anywhere. Remind employees why safety training is important and provide continual reminders and retraining.
To help encourage your employees to make safety a priority at work, consider offering prizes or awards for those who follow the safety program or hit time milestones while remaining injury-free. Prizes like scratch-off lottery tickets, coffee gift cards, or 30 minutes of extra paid-time-off can help motivate your team.
Thanks for reading! Please note that this content is intended for educational purposes only. As best practices change regularly, you should refer to your trusted advisor for specific counsel. If you’re a small business owner, learn more about workplace safety or check your workers’ comp rate in 3 minutes.
