How to Make an Accident Policy
Company policies are not made just to protect the company. They also aim to protect the employees that work within it from any potential risks. A good example would be an accident policy as it provides procedures and rules regarding how an employee is to report or find a solution to any accident that happens in the workplace.
The reason why a company would require an accident policy is that should any type of accident occur within the workplace, employees will know what to do in order to prevent the problem from escalating. This article is going to focus on how you are going to make an effective accident policy for your company. You may also see Construction Incident Report Templates.
Accident Policy Template
Sample Accident Policy Template
What should be reported under the accident policy?
No matter what kind of accidents occur in an office, the policy encourages all employees to report any that they are able to witness templates. If the accident is something as minor as someone getting a tiny cut or non-extensive bruises which does not require any kind of action on behalf of the company, then these do not necessarily have to be reported. On the other hand, accidents which involve severe injuries and require serious investigation from the company must be dutifully reported by every employee. So, if you are going to make a policy, you have to be specific about the types of accidents that you would like your employees to report. Point out that employees are obliged to report the following:
- Any damage to the head, skull, or face
- Any damage to one’s senses (i.e. sense of hearing, sense of smell, sense of taste, etc.)
- Dislocation or fracturing one’s limbs that will hinder functionality and movement
- Any blows or injuries to the spine, back, and ribs
- Poisoning of any kind
- Harm to an employee’s nervous system or loss of consciousness
- Fatalities
- Contamination from dangerous substances or transmission of diseases
- Any injury that requires an employee to be hospitalized or to be treated with medical care
Accidents such as the ones that require medical attention must immediately be reported as insurance benefits may have to be approved after the investigation template. Employees are also required to report occurrences that may not have involved injuries or victims but could be dangerous should they ever happen again. These include but are not limited to:
- Explosions within the workplace
- Water or gas leaks
- Breaking of windows or glass panes
- Slippery surfaces
- Collapses of walls or ceilings
- Circuit shortages or inadequate insulation of circuits
- Fires in the workplace
Procedure for accident reporting and investigation
If you are going to create an accident policy for your workplace, then it has to include how employees will file accident reports and the procedures of the investigation. So, here are the steps that you should place in the policy to ensure that employees will know what to do in the event that an accident occurs:
1. Record the names of those who are involved in the accident
This will not apply if the accident was nobody’s fault, but you have to record the following information of those who were either hurt or were the cause of the accident:
- Their complete name
- Their contact number
- Their complete address
- Their email address
- The reason why they were there during the accident
- Their gender
- Their date of birth
- Their job title
- Their employee number
- The department that they work for
2. Record your information
If you are the person in charge of the accident investigation, then you also have to include the following information in your accident report:
- Your complete name
- Your job position
- Your contact number
- Your email address
- Your employee number
3. Record the details of the accident
Now comes the time when you have to gather as much information as you can regarding the accident that took place. You will need to record the following information to ensure that your accident report will hold ground should it be used as evidence:
- The date when accident occurred
- The time when accident occurred
- The location where the accident took place
4. Record the details of the injury
If there were any employees that were injured when the accident occurred, then you have to record the following information:
- The type of injury that the employee/employees sustained
- The part of the body where the employee/employees were injured
- Whether the employee/employees require hospitalization
- Whether the employee/employees were unconscious during or after the accident took place
- Whether the employee/employees lost days of work due to the accident and the number of days that the employee missed work
5. Collect details from the witnesses
If there were any people that were able to witness how the accident took place, then be sure that you have information on the following:
- The complete name of the witness/witnesses
- The contact details of the witness/witnesses
- The witness/witnesses’ job title
- The witness/witnesses’ complete address
Once you have them, you may proceed to ask the necessary questions that will allow you to gain information regarding the incident. Witnesses may offer you some new insight on how the accident occurred, and whatever information that you are able to acquire may be helpful when you need to present it as evidence. You can even have these witnesses provide you with witness statements and have them sign the documents to ensure that these people are giving you truthful information and to guarantee that you are able to use it as evidence in the event that you are required to provide the statements in court.
6. Gather supporting evidence
As mentioned earlier, it is best that you have witnesses provide you with statements that have their signatures on it to guarantee that you are able to use it as evidence. Other examples of evidence include the following:
- Photographs of before, during, and after the accident has occurred
- Any camera footage of the accident
- Health and safety check records
- Training records
7. Record how the accident occurred
If you are going to create an accident policy, then you have to point out that the investigator will have to record the details of the accident that were given by those who were involved in it.
Example questions to ask yourself and the information to record at this stage include:
- How did the injury occur?
- How did the accident take place?
- What were you able to observe before, during, and after the accident took place?
- Was there anything unusual or different about the working conditions?
- Was there equipment being worn by those involved in the accident? If so, then what were they?
- Was there any work-related activity that was taking place when the accident occurred?
- What were the events that led up to the accident?
- How many people were involved in the accident?
- How many of them were injured during the incident?
8. Record what was done to deal with the accident
The details that you have to place in your accident report when talking about how the accident was handled should be the following:
- If first aid or medical attention was required after the accident took place
- If the people that were injured had to be hospitalized after the accident occurred
- How the area was made safe after the accident
- All of the immediate actions that took place after the accident occurred
9. Record the precautions that were taken after the accident took place
If there were no actions taken to prevent similar actions from happening in the future, then you definitely have to put that in the accident report. But, if actions were taken, then here are some example questions to ask yourself and the information to record at this stage:
- Was there any employee training conducted to remind people what to do to prevent a similar accident from happening in the future?
- Has any plan been put in place for corrective action?
- How will the preventive measures prevent any similar accidents from occurring again in the future?
10. Review risk assessments
Review and update any relevant risk assessments to reduce the risk of re-occurrence. Go through the accident report to see which of the risk assessments have been reviewed. The point of doing this is to ensure that those within the company have followed all of the necessary risk assessments to prevent the accident from happening again and to ensure that the employees understand what needs to be done in order to prevent these accidents. You may also see Accident Report Templates.
11. Submit the report
Once the investigator has finally been able to gather all of the necessary information that will allow him or her to submit the accident report, then he or she must know who to submit the report to. The accident policy should point out where the report should be sent to. These reports would usually be given to someone such as a Human Resources professional or those in upper management as they are the ones who are experienced in dealing with these types of issues. You may also see Policy Gap Analysis Templates.
By instituting this type of policy, all employees in the company will learn what they need to do to make sure that accidents are properly reported, as well as ensure that all of the necessary precautions are taken in order to prevent any similar accidents from happening again. By gaining as much information as possible and by following the procedures set by the accident policy, then it can help easily determine how, when, and where an accident occurred. You may also see Policy Templates in Word and PDF.
More in Business
