Every seven seconds, a worker is injured while on the job. That is a staggering statistic. Many work injuries are 100% preventable. With so many injuries, there is a considerable loss of production that can hurt many businesses.
That is why smart companies, especially those that are of a higher risk for a workplace injury, are investing in new technology to help keep their employees safe. If you are one of the almost five million people that find themselves injured on the job, the first thing you should do is hire a workers comp lawyer. This will help protect you financially from any hardship and making sure that you and your family are taken care of while you are not able to work.
With new technology emerging daily, we should begin to see a decline in those numbers as more and more employers start to adopt safer technology. Let’s check out some of the impressive options below.
3D Visualization Technology
This technology records surroundings from different angles to produce a lifelike image of the environment you will be working in. This is an excellent tool for training new employees and showing them what they should expect.
It can also be used to point out potential hazards both to new recruits and seasoned pros. By utilizing this technology, supervisors are better equipped to make decisions regarding safety equipment and protocols. This should reduce the unknown factor of a new job site and help prevent avoidable injuries.
Virtual Reality
You can take this a step further with virtual reality technology. This will allow the user to train in a safe environment that will expose the trainee to similar situations they would face in the field. These can be hazardous scenarios that play out in the virtual world. Because the scenes mimic real life, this should give the employee hands-on training in a very safe setting. Choosing their own path in real life scenarios will help build their confidence and is more impactful than hearing it or reading about it in your handbook.
Safety Apps
There are plenty of apps that you can adopt as a company that promotes workplace safety. These apps can be tailored to your office’s needs and can even have custom checklists and data points populated for company-wide use. If an issue happens to arise, you can take a picture of what happened and record any necessary data that will be helpful in your workers’ comp claim. It also can alert management and provide invaluable data to them about what went wrong so they can form a plan to prevent it from happening in the future.
Drones
Drones are so easily accessible now it is crazy not to use them. Many companies that must enter high-risk areas can send in a drone to collect data before submitting a worker in. Some business, like the roofing industry, has been transformed with the use of drones. Before this technology, when a homeowner or business owner called for an estimate to repair their roof, the employee had to climb up and check it out, which can be a hazard. Now, they can send up a drone to take images and video of the roof and use it in their quotes and estimates, saving time and money in addition to being the safer option.
Hard Hats
There are new smart, hard hats that look like a traditional hard hat but are fitted with extra shock protection. These hard hats have a unique fall technology that will give you a heads up for falling objects with their sensors. They can also let you know if there is a moving object such as a vehicle or equipment coming in your vicinity. What’s more, is they can even detect if you are in a hazardous environment so you can take the precautions necessary to ensure your safety. These hats will revolutionize the construction business and help make sure it is a safer working environment for everybody.
Conclusion
Almost all workplace injuries are preventable. By adopting new technologies, we can begin to reduce the number of injuries taking place. With so many options to have a safer environment, it is only a matter of time before all companies begin to put new protocols into place that help protect their most significant asset, their employees. Whenever you take measures to protect your employees, happiness in the workplace goes up as well as productivity. That’s a win-win situation.
