Member Article

Men are more at risk of being injured at work than women

Almost two-thirds of men are being put in danger at work by poor health and safety procedures, compared to a quarter of women, according to new research.

A survey of 1,000 male and 1,000 female employees, which was conducted by award-winning data capture app provider, WorkMobile, found that 61% of male employees have not received any information on their company’s health and safety policies, despite the majority of these workers confirming they work in more hazardous working environments.

Over half (54%) of male respondents said they worked in a hazardous role, such as construction or manual labour, compared to just 19% of women.

Of those male employees who said they received safety guidance, worryingly 13% said the health and safety information hadn’t been updated since they’ve received it, so is likely to be out-of-date and even ineffective.

A quarter (25%) also admit they didn’t feel like the risks of their role were explained thoroughly enough when the information was given to them.

Although it is the duty of the employer to keep staff members safe, male workers are also more likely to neglect their own welfare and break the rules that have been put in place. A quarter of men (23%) said they have failed to follow the correct safety procedures, putting themselves in danger, compared to just 4% of women.

Reassuringly though, if an incident was to occur fourth fifths (83%) of men would know how to report it. But, a third (31%) of women would not know what to do if faced with a hazardous situation, which suggests that they might not be adequately trained on how to keep themselves and others around them safe.

The survey forms part of Workmobile’s ‘Work Safe’ report, which looks at the current state of health and safety in the UK and where improvements need to be made to protect workers.

Colin Yates, chief support officer at WorkMobile, said: “From the research, we can see that men tend to work in more dangerous roles than women. While this may not be surprising to some, it was surprising to find out that in this day and age employers are still putting these employees at risk, with a lack of even the most basic health and safety procedures to protect workers most at risk of injury.

“Companies need to make sure they’re putting the safety and wellbeing of their staff first – it’s their legal responsibility. When staff are not trained on how to work safely, or are not given the correct information to operate compliantly, there is a greater risk of accidents happening – especially in these more hazardous industries. With working practices constantly being improved, there is no excuse for not obeying the law and fulfilling their business obligations.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.workmobileforms.com/research-and-whitepapers/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ursula Hutchinson .