In a typical year, falls in snowy or icy conditions account for more than 20,000 workplace injuries. As we all know, 2020 was anything but a typical year. Less foot traffic last winter meant fewer slips and falls, but in the coming months experts predict that slip-and-fall incidents will be on the rise once again.

“With employees returning to their routines of entering and exiting the workplace every day, we’re expecting to see a resurgence in winter slips and falls,” said SFM Loss Prevention Technical Leader Lee Wendel. “These incidents can cause some of the most severe injuries we see, and they’re largely avoidable.”

Winter slips and falls are among the most common causes of workplace injuries. These incidents put employees at risk for serious injuries like concussions, broken bones and herniated discs. As an employer, there’s a great deal you can do to prevent these injuries at your workplace.

Parking lots pose greatest hazard

Winter slips and falls are most common in parking lots.

“Many employees aren’t thinking about the risks when they’re moving between their car and the building,” Wendel said. “Alerting workers to the dangers of slippery surfaces goes a long way to prevent serious injuries.”

Employees are especially at risk of injuries when:

• Getting into or out of their vehicles
• Stepping onto or off of curbs
• Carrying too much in their arms

Encourage employees to use the “step down, not out” method when stepping out of their cars and off of curbs. For cars, swing both legs out to the side, step down flat footed with both feet, and maintain three points of contact with either the car or the ground while getting up. For curbs, step down flat footed, not heel first.

You can order or download winter slip-and fall resources including “step down, not out” and “carry only what you can” posters from the resource catalog.

Free resources to build awareness

SFM provides many resources to keep your employees aware of winter slip-and-fall risks throughout the season including posters, handouts, safety talk outlines and videos.

“As conditions change during the season, it’s important to keep reminding employees of the risks of winter slips and falls, and how to avoid them,” Wendel said.

You can find links to these resources and more information at sfmic.com/penguin.

SFM’s loss prevention representatives can put away their protractors.

They’re now measuring ergonomics with help from an artificial intelligence-powered app that can deliver assessment results in minutes.

The technology can most benefit employers with job tasks that involve material handling or repetition — the types of tasks that can lead to serious musculoskeletal disorders if done improperly.

Using the tool, loss prevention representatives can quickly identify any high-risk body positions during the course of a job task.

“It’s an exciting advancement in our ability to efficiently evaluate workplace ergonomics,” said SFM Loss Prevention Technical Leader Lee Wendel. “Policyholders appreciate that we can identify risks and recommend ways to make the work safer all within one day.”

How it works

To use the tool, loss prevention representatives simply take a short video of an employee working, and upload it.

That’s when the AI kicks in to evaluate the risk level of the worker’s body position using longtime, proven tools such as the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA).

It then returns back the video with the worker’s skeletal position highlighted in red, yellow or green, based on risk.

The technology was designed with privacy in mind — employee faces can be blacked out and backgrounds blurred.

The software can do in minutes, what would have taken a safety professional hours to do by hand.

Once the results are back, the loss prevention representative can report the areas of concern to the policyholder and suggest ways to make the job safer. Sometimes simple adjustments to the workstation can solve the issues, and sometimes bigger changes, such as automation, are recommended.

Preventing injuries before they start

For certain employers, the AI tool will be a big help in taking injury prevention efforts to the next level.

“We’re excited that this technology will help prevent more employees from ever having to experience the pain of a musculoskeletal injury,” Wendel said. “We’ll be continuing to keep an eye out for more ways technology can help us better serve our customers in the future.”