Preventing Slips, Trips and Falls in the Workplace

Common causes of workplace slips and falls

Learning the common causes of slips, trips and falls at work can help prevent these incidents and associated injuries. Common fall hazards at work include: 

• Cluttered walkways, indoors or outdoors.
• Slippery flooring surfaces (e.g., glossy tile, polished stone, newly waxed floors).
• Loose surfaces (e.g., gravel or loose flooring).
• Wet/slippery floors, steps, ramps or walkways, inside or outside (from spills, leaks, rain, snow, ice or mud).
• Leaves or plant debris on walkways.
• Uneven walking surfaces (e.g., a broken sidewalk, a curled rug or a cord across a walkway).
• Steps or ramps that lack signage.
• Steps or stairways that are poorly lit, uneven or missing secure handrails.

Identifying fall hazards at work and putting in place prevention and response strategies are essential steps toward creating a safer workplace.

Slip, trip and fall prevention strategies

Every company can work toward preventing slips, trips and falls in the workplace. These measures range from footwear requirements to “slippery floor” or “step down” signage to employee training on trip-and-fall prevention.

10 ways to help create safer walking areas and prevent slips, trips and falls at work:

1. Start with entryways, installing nonslip mats and making sure they are properly secured.
2. Check all walkways inside and outside the building for issues that need repair, such as broken, slippery or uneven surfaces.
3. Make premises walk-throughs a regular part of your routine, using a slip-and-fall prevention checklist to identify potential hazards.
4. Check interior and exterior lighting, making upgrades if necessary for better visibility.
5. Make clutter prevention a priority, identifying any objects that obstruct pathways and putting training, policies and systems in place to keep walkways clear.
6. Take note of areas with slick flooring and employ slip-resistant floor treatments.
7. Create spill cleanup stations around the premises and make fast spill cleanup a priority.
8. Use signage to alert employees and customers to a wet floor, step-down and other hazards.
9. Require proper footwear in the workplace.
10. If a slip-and-fall incident occurs, document it, investigate and file a report as quickly as possible to determine the cause and prevent future accidents.

These prevention strategies can help reduce the risk of costly slips, trips and falls and decrease the number of workers compensation insurance claims and lost-time injuries at a company. 

Three ways to help prevent workplace slip, trip and fall injuries

Slip, trip and fall accidents are often the result of preventable hazards and unsafe conditions rather than random occurrences. By taking proactive steps to identify risks and maintain safe work environments, you can significantly reduce these incidents and protect employees from injury.

1. Eliminate common hazards.
2. Create safe passageways.
3. Report and analyze all incidents.

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Reporting and root cause analysis

Putting a system in place to report incidents and track hazards is key to preventing slips, trips and falls in the workplace. Meticulously documenting and reporting slip-and-fall incidents can help you avoid future occurrences and provide important evidence if a workers compensation claim is filed. Conducting a root cause analysis can help identify the underlying causes of fall incidents and support strategies to prevent future occurrences, as shown in healthcare settings.³ Hazard tracking and slip-and-fall prevention checklists also are important tools to support ongoing risk mitigation.

How to address slip-and-fall risks year-round

Slips, trips and falls can happen indoors and outdoors, in every season. While there are seasonal slip-and-fall risks, especially in winter, it’s helpful to address these as part of a year-round slip-and-fall prevention plan.

Winter-specific risks include slips on ice, safety hazards related to snow on walkways and wet entryways caused by rain, snow and slush tracked in by customers and employees.

Here's how to address slip-and-fall risks across outdoor areas, indoor entryways and winter-specific conditions as part of a cohesive safety strategy.

Outdoor areas: sidewalks, parking lots and entrances

Outdoor slip prevention is a key part of creating a safer workplace, in winter and throughout the year. A slips-on-ice safety strategy involves creating a plan for routine de-icing, snow removal and surface treatments, prioritizing parking lot safety and safe walkways. Consider upgrades to exterior lighting for better visibility, which is especially important during winter, when it gets dark outside earlier in the day. Finally, create a storm plan and review it yearly.⁴

Indoor areas: entryways and transitional spaces

Indoor slip prevention is an equally important factor in workplace safety. Focus on entryway safety, as moisture can collect near the entrance to a business during rainy or snowy weather. Creating a safe entryway includes the use of nonslip mats and drying stations. It’s also important to put in place proper cleaning protocols, including mopping up water that collects near doors in rainy, slushy or snowy weather and utilizing hazard signage while these areas are drying.

Winter-specific slip-and-fall risks

Winter slip, trip and fall prevention is another important element of workplace safety, especially for businesses in climates where winter storms occur regularly. Ice, snow and sleet commonly cause increased slips, trips and falls in the winter. It’s important to create and implement a written snow-and-ice removal plan that includes details on who is responsible for these tasks (e.g., in-house maintenance staff or a contractor), frequency of removal, use of salt or sand, and how logs will be used to document these activities. Logs should include detailed information such as dates, times, snow accumulation, temperature and action taken (e.g., plowing snow, applying salt).⁵

Build a safety culture: Train employees.

Creating a safety culture is key to preventing slips, trips and falls in the workplace. A workplace safety culture requires getting buy-in from everyone in the company, starting with top leadership. Training employees to identify and report fall hazards in the workplace to management is crucial for preventing incidents and avoiding injuries. For example, fatigue may impair awareness and contribute to preventable slips or missteps on the job.

Employees should understand and commit to the importance of reporting any incidents that occur, in accordance with the guidelines outlined in the company’s premises security and liability management plan. A robust safety culture that includes an engaged workforce is key to reducing workers compensation claims.⁶

Fall injury response preparedness

Even with the best prevention efforts, workplace fall injuries may still occur. It’s essential to have an injury response protocol that enables quick, appropriate responses and proper incident documentation and helps reduce workers compensation costs.

An effective injury response protocol may include the following⁷:

• Provide first aid to the injured employee immediately.⁸
• Document all details on a standard incident report form.
• Interview injured parties and witnesses to get their detailed accounts.
• Take photos of the location where the incident occurred. These can provide valuable clues to what went wrong and how similar incidents can be prevented.
• Have a post-incident meeting for management to review details and make any necessary changes to the premises or employee training to prevent similar incidents in the future.
• Have a recovery support protocol that includes return-to-work programs, which can reduce lost time and claim costs.

Consider using Travelers Risk Control slip, trip and fall prevention services. These services help assess risks, develop prevention strategies and provide training on building a safety culture to help prevent slip-and-fall accidents. Travelers risk professionals can help businesses create injury response protocols and strategies designed to reduce workers compensation claim costs.

A strong workplace safety culture and a solid prevention strategy are the keys to slip, trip and fall prevention. Travelers Risk Control can be a strategic advantage to businesses that value risk and workers compensation claim management.

To access Risk Control specialists who can help businesses build safer workplaces and reduce workers compensation claim costs, speak with a Travelers insurance agent today.

Sources
¹ https://www.bls.gov/iif/latest-numbers.htm
² https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/work/costs/workers-compensation-costs
³ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11211207/
^4,5 https://www.wsps.ca/resource-hub/articles/slips-trips-and-falls-6-ways-to-combat-winter-hazards
⁶ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092575352300351X
⁷ https://safetyculture.com/topics/incident-report/injury-reporting
⁸ https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/OSHA-RK-Forms-Package.pdf