Get Our Email Newsletter

6 Best Practices for Your Workplace Injury Investigation

Retailers and loss prevention leaders bear the responsibility of keeping workers safe. Part of that responsibility is ensuring that changing retail operations (such as the addition of automated machinery) don’t cause a spike in the number of safety hazards. Injuries resulting from human-machine interactions are not always the fault of the worker; sometimes, they’re caused by mismanagement of the automated resources, for example. When injury events do happen, then, they can pose significant challenges to those tasked with conducting the subsequent investigation.

[text_ad use_post=’125303′]

LPM Senior Writer Garett Seivold probes into the specific challenges brought about by a workplace injury investigation, especially in the face of changing retail operations, in a feature article for the December 2018 issue of LPM Online. In the article, Seivold offers six best practices for these types of investigations:

1. Begin by adopting the “local rationality principle.” That is, start with a mindset that—at the time of the accident under investigation—workers were probably doing reasonable things given their point of view, their available knowledge, their objectives, and their available resources.

2. Identify “shiftmarkers.” There is often a point in events leading to an accident where a worker realizes that the situation is different from what they believed it to be previously. These shifts are markers that investigators should focus on to understand what was unfolding around workers that they may have been responding to.

- Digital Partner -

Check out the full article, “As Retail Operations Change, Injury Prevention Must Too,” for a deeper look at investigation challenges and four other helpful tips for conducting a workplace injury investigation.

If you’ve missed any of our previous LPM Online editions, go to the Archives page. Be sure to become an LPM digital subscriber, so you are the first to know when new issues are available. If you haven’t already, sign up on the SUBSCRIBE NOW page. If you would like a free subscription to our award‑winning print magazine, go to LPMsubscription.com.

Solutions Providers Supporting this Edition of LPM Online:

Loss Prevention Magazine updates delivered to your inbox

Get the free daily newsletter read by thousands of loss prevention professionals, security, and retail management from the store level to the c-suite.

What's New

Digital Partners

Become a Digital Partner

Violence in the Workplace

Download this 34-page special report from Loss Prevention Magazine about types and frequency of violent incidents, impacts on employees and customers, effectiveness of tools and training, and much more.

Webinars

View All | Sponsor a Webinar

Whitepapers

View All | Submit a Whitepaper

LP Solutions

View All | Submit Your Content

Loss Prevention Media Logo

Stay up-to-date with our free email newsletter

The trusted newsletter for loss prevention professionals, security and retail management. Get the latest news, best practices, technology updates, management tips, career opportunities and more.

No, thank you.

View our privacy policy.