In a year of otherwise encouraging safety injury data, the retail sector was called out for being the nation’s only industry to see an increase in the number of injuries in 2018.
“Retail trade was the only private industry sector where the total recordable cases rate increased in 2018, rising from 3.3 cases to 3.5 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers,” according the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in its release of the data on November 7, 2019.
Some increases were eye-popping. For example, injuries to first-line supervisors of retail sales workers increased by 25 percent in 2018. The number of nonfatal cases in the private retail trade sector increased as well, according to the BLS—up 4 percent to 409,900 cases.
General merchandise stores reported the greatest number of injuries and illnesses (96,000) followed by food and beverage stores (92,600 cases); motor vehicle and parts dealers (61,500 cases); and building material and garden supply stores (53,800 cases).
Because retail was a notable weak spot, it was subject to additional scrutiny in the BLS data release. It noted the following trends:
- Injuries and illnesses in retail trade most often resulted from sprains, strains, and tears, which accounted for 45,340, or 36 percent, of the days-away-from-work (DAFW) cases in 2018.
- The DAFW incidence rate for sprains, strains, and tears was 38.4 cases per 10,000 FTE workers.
- Injuries to the back comprised 17 percent (21,320) of DAFW cases injuries in retail.
What Might Help Retail Regain Its Safety Momentum?
We asked safety consultants about jumpstarting injury reduction, and they offered the following ideas:
1. Calculate safety costs per supervisor. A retailer should be sure that it’s not punishing supervisors who try to strike a balance between work, safety, and quality, but that is what they do if they don’t examine the costs from injuries by department and shift, according to one California safety consultant. Without allocating injury costs, supervisors have little motivation to spend time on safety activities. Supervisors whose teams’ have superior safety records need to receive positive reinforcement rather than being outshined by supervisors who allow their workers to get hurt.
2. Focus on influencing work processes rather than safety rules. One safety professional noted that when given a work task, workers typically hear and receive one directive: get it done. And, at that point, it’s not the wording of a policy or procedure that matters but the mindset of the worker. Does the workers take “get it done” to mean the “quickest way possible no matter how you do it?” Or, is there is an inherent understanding that a supervisor wants the worker to complete the task safely? It is unreasonable to expect supervisors will reinforce the safety message each time they make a directive, but store associates should think it is implicit in every job task they’re asked to perform.
3. Establish safety expectations as soon as new employees arrive. Especially when a tight labor market may cause a retailer to loosen hiring standards, “you’ve got to get them as soon as they get in the door to establish your expectations for safety,” said one consultant. “You can’t do it three months later.” Timing is critical because a workplace already has expectations for behavior that exceed what an individual would ordinarily do, such as when they need to wear gloves or goggles. Because safety expectations for stores and warehouses are likely to go beyond what workers typically do, it’s important to emphasize that you take them seriously as soon as a worker arrives. If not, you only compound your difficulty in getting workers to see the seriousness of following safety procedures, he said.
