The hazards you stop noticing are the ones that injure people
If a worker is injured in your workplace and the incident comes under scrutiny, one of the questions likely to be asked is whether the hazard was foreseeable. If it had been sitting in plain sight for weeks or months and nobody acted on it, you’re potentially looking at enforcement action, a civil claim or both.
Most workplace injuries happen because of simple things that could have been easily avoided. Slips, trips, falls and manual handling caused by everyday conditions that had been there long enough for everyone to stop noticing them.
A trailing cable across a walkway… A fire exit half-blocked by stock… A handrail that came loose and never got fixed.
These are the kinds of hazards that show up repeatedly in workplace injury reports. And, in most cases, people had been walking past them every day.
The everyday hazards can be the hardest to spot
When something has been in your workplace long enough, it stops registering as a problem. Staff don’t report it because it feels like it’s just how things are. Managers don’t act on it because nobody’s raised it.
Psychologists sometimes refer to this as normalisation of deviance. A workplace gradually accepts a risk because nothing bad has happened yet. Over time, the unsafe condition becomes the new normal.
Some examples of these types of hazards include:
• Slips, trips and falls: A curled corner of carpet, a loose floor tile, a single step with no contrasting edge, a cable running across a walkway, a box that always gets left in the same corridor.
• Storage: Heavy boxes stored just above shoulder height, items stacked slightly too high, materials leaning against a wall rather than being secured or shelves that have gradually become overloaded.
• Manual handling: Frequently lifting items from floor level, twisting because the workspace layout isn’t ideal or carrying things because it’s quicker than fetching a trolley.
• Electrical: An extension lead that’s become permanent, phone chargers plugged in all the time or overloaded multi-plug adaptors.
• Housekeeping: Fire exits partly blocked by deliveries “for five minutes”, cleaning products left on the floor, waste bins overflowing because collection is tomorrow.
• Equipment: A ladder with a slightly loose foot, a trolley with one stiff wheel or a hand tool with a cracked handle.
• Environment: Poor lighting in one corner, a room that’s consistently too hot or poor ventilation that people have simply got used to.
What a fresh pair of eyes finds
The things that your team have stopped noticing are usually the first things picked up by someone walking your premises for the first time.
That’s the value of a workplace inspection carried out by someone who doesn’t work in your building. They see the space without the filter that comes from being in it every day.
We carry out workplace inspections that focus on exactly these kinds of everyday hazards.
We walk your premises with a fresh pair of eyes, identify what needs attention and give you a clear, practical list of what to address and how.
Autumn is a good time to do it. Conditions are changing, daylight is shorter and anything that’s built up over the summer months is still there. Get in touch and we can arrange a walkthrough.
If a worker is injured in your workplace and the incident comes under scrutiny, one of the questions likely to be asked is whether the hazard was foreseeable. If it had been sitting in plain sight for weeks or months and nobody acted on it, you’re potentially looking at enforcement action, a civil claim or both.
Most workplace injuries happen because of simple things that could have been easily avoided. Slips, trips, falls and manual handling caused by everyday conditions that had been there long enough for everyone to stop noticing them.
A trailing cable across a walkway… A fire exit half-blocked by stock… A handrail that came loose and never got fixed.
These are the kinds of hazards that show up repeatedly in workplace injury reports. And, in most cases, people had been walking past them every day.
The everyday hazards can be the hardest to spot
When something has been in your workplace long enough, it stops registering as a problem. Staff don’t report it because it feels like it’s just how things are. Managers don’t act on it because nobody’s raised it.
Psychologists sometimes refer to this as normalisation of deviance. A workplace gradually accepts a risk because nothing bad has happened yet. Over time, the unsafe condition becomes the new normal.
Some examples of these types of hazards include:
• Slips, trips and falls: A curled corner of carpet, a loose floor tile, a single step with no contrasting edge, a cable running across a walkway, a box that always gets left in the same corridor.
• Storage: Heavy boxes stored just above shoulder height, items stacked slightly too high, materials leaning against a wall rather than being secured or shelves that have gradually become overloaded.
• Manual handling: Frequently lifting items from floor level, twisting because the workspace layout isn’t ideal or carrying things because it’s quicker than fetching a trolley.
• Electrical: An extension lead that’s become permanent, phone chargers plugged in all the time or overloaded multi-plug adaptors.
• Housekeeping: Fire exits partly blocked by deliveries “for five minutes”, cleaning products left on the floor, waste bins overflowing because collection is tomorrow.
• Equipment: A ladder with a slightly loose foot, a trolley with one stiff wheel or a hand tool with a cracked handle.
• Environment: Poor lighting in one corner, a room that’s consistently too hot or poor ventilation that people have simply got used to.
What a fresh pair of eyes finds
The things that your team have stopped noticing are usually the first things picked up by someone walking your premises for the first time.
That’s the value of a workplace inspection carried out by someone who doesn’t work in your building. They see the space without the filter that comes from being in it every day.
We carry out workplace inspections that focus on exactly these kinds of everyday hazards.
We walk your premises with a fresh pair of eyes, identify what needs attention and give you a clear, practical list of what to address and how.
Autumn is a good time to do it. Conditions are changing, daylight is shorter and anything that’s built up over the summer months is still there. Get in touch and we can arrange a walkthrough.