How to Combat Injury Risk in an Ageing Workforce
We’ve got an ageing workforce that are more prone to injury. It’s a common line, or some version of it, that I hear from safety leaders all the time. It’s…
Most businesses I speak to have invested in manual handling training but haven’t realized lasting results.
When I tell them that Provention works with businesses that are consistently reducing manual handling injuries by 60 percent and above, the first question is always the same:
What are they doing differently?
Here’s what I’ve noticed after working across New Zealand since 2000:
The businesses getting real reductions aren’t doing traditional manual handling training; they’re running a fundamentally different programme. They’ve stopped treating manual handling as an information problem and started treating it as a physical skill problem.
That’s a small shift in thinking. But it changes everything in practice.
When you treat it as an information problem, you run a session, explain the rules, and send people back to work. When you treat it as a physical skill problem, you coach the movement, build in practice, and keep reinforcing it until safe movement becomes automatic. The same way a sports coach builds technique – little and often – until it holds under pressure.
The businesses getting results have also built simple processes to keep those habits front of mind; long after the initial programme ends. Nothing complicated, just small reminders woven into what they’re already doing day to day.
How does your approach compare?
I’ve put together a quick self-assessment based on the key things those businesses consistently do. It shows you instantly how your current approach compares and gives you some quick wins to focus on, based on where you sit.
Three minutes. Free. Only you see the results.
Take the self-assessment here: manualhandling.scoreapp.com