Safety at work: The first 90 days

Advice for people starting a new job is often simple: “Make a good impression. Be a hard worker.”

Although helpful, this advice overlooks a crucial aspect for a newcomer in the workplace: safety.

In 2021 and 2022, nearly 278,000 employees experienced an incident that resulted in days away from work – in their first 90 days on the job. That’s according to Injury Facts, an online source of preventable death and injury statistics compiled by the National Safety Council.

“The data says that it’s among the most dangerous times in someone’s career,” said Larry Pearlman, president and founder of Safety and Consulting Associates Inc., an affiliate of SafeStart.

Chris Hayes, assistant vice president of transportation and workers’ compensation risk control at insurance provider The Travelers Cos., says many of these injuries can be prevented with proper precautions, training and onboarding.

“That first 90 days is critical,” Hayes said. “That’s when you’re cementing that employee’s access to the right safety tools, the right resources, getting them involved in corporate culture, and helping them work through any misconceptions or gaps in communication that might be arising.”

When and where to begin

So, when should the process of keeping new workers safe begin? At the very moment an applicant learns about your organization’s job opening, Pearlman says.

“Let’s start before they start,” he said. “Do the job descriptions, the job postings and the employment board talk about safety? Do they give a realistic preview of what the job is going to be like and some of the risks?”

The goal isn’t to scare off prospective employees, but instead to thoroughly explain job requirements (being able to lift a certain amount of weight, for example) and potential risks.

Pearlman said some employers use YouTube videos to show applicants “what people actually do and what the work environment is.”

Then comes the interview.

“Do we ask safety-related questions? It can’t be an afterthought,” Pearlman said, suggesting a question about a time the job candidate chose to follow – or not follow – a safety rule and why. “Introduce the concept of safety so that in the selection process, you’re thinking about safety and you’re evaluating people against safety.”

Pearlman, who also has worked in human resources, encourages employers to let current workers weigh in on potential new hires to build a “sense of shared responsibility.”

The role of a safety pro

During a typical onboarding process, new employees get lots of information thrown at them.

How can safety be an essential – and memorable – part of those conversations?

“If we knew the answer to that question, we’d have a lot less injuries,” said Peter Smith, president and senior scientist at the Toronto-based Institute for Work and Health.

While trying to learn the ropes of the job, new hires are also trying to remember the names of their supervisors and co-workers, adjust to the work environment, and choose the right employer-provided health insurance plan, among many other details. Taken together, all this information can be overwhelming.

“There’s stress and distraction,” said Rich Ives, senior vice president of business insurance claim at Travelers. “I’ve seen numerous examples over the years of severe injuries from new employees trying to do the right thing and trying to be a good employee, but not understanding exactly how the operation works.”

Ives recommends that safety pros and employers send clear messages about the importance of the organization’s safety culture, work to develop good relationships with all employees, establish best practices regarding safety and keep lines of communication open.

“The message that every worker’s safety is important has to come from Day 1 – not just in response to injuries,” Smith said. “That sets the tone from the very beginning that we value safety within this workplace.”

In its “2024 Injury Impact Report,” which used data from more than 1.2 million workers’ comp claims submitted from businesses and industries between 2017 and 2021, Travelers shows that employees in their first year on the job accounted for 35% of the claims. This group, however, made up only 24% of the workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Training plays a key role, especially when a strong safety plan is in place.

“Unless there’s a well-understood, well-documented and well-communicated safety plan already, you really don’t know what to train people on as they come in,” Hayes said.

That includes defining safe work practices for all critical tasks, examining prior injuries and highlighting “hot spots” on the jobsite.

“Spend the time building up the structures so you have those things well-defined,” Hayes said. “It absolutely helps.”

Strategies for success

Certain industries have high rates of worker turnover. That means getting new hires up to speed is a necessity. One technique Pearlman uses to help keep those new employees safe is to let others know who’s “green” on the jobsite.

“I may give them a green vest, a green shirt, a green hard hat,” Pearlman said. The clothing says, “‘Hey, this person is new and they’re not going to understand the risk.’ So, we together are going to help them.”

Pearlman urges employers and safety pros not to settle for PowerPoint presentations to drive home the importance of safety. “This is an interactive and iterative process,” he said, emphasizing that employers should go beyond ongoing training for new workers by verifying for certification and competency. “A lot of it comes down to: Training is not enough. It’s got to be training plus certification, and it’s got to be risk awareness rather than regulations.

“The safety professional has a huge role on what the competencies are that need to be embedded in that individual to prove they’re safe.”

When a new worker demonstrates competency, celebrate it as an achievement.

“I’m going to retire the green hard hat. I’m going to retire the green vest,” Pearlman said. “Let’s make a big deal of it. Here’s someone we know is safe. Congratulations!”

Job shadowing or mentoring also can pay dividends.

“That works in two ways,” Smith said. “One, if you’ve got a good role model, then you’ll follow those safety guidelines. Two, it demonstrates to workers that we’re prepared to pay you just to shadow someone, because we think safety is important.”

Showing the way

Seeing a demonstration of how a job is done safely can help new hires. A company Hayes worked with last year stocks grocery stores around the country and has a regular flow of new workers. The job entails a specific set of tasks that include traveling to a store, unloading the product, moving it into the facility and setting it up.

“They defined exactly the right way to do each of those steps,” Hayes said.

From there, the company got feedback from employees and managers. Whether it was lifting, carrying or moving the product, the employer worked to make “really tight definitions of the best ways to do it safely.” Using video, the steps were documented with narration to ensure uniformity and consistency throughout the company.

“It was a great tool,” Hayes said. “People appreciated having the understanding of what was expected of them and how to do it safely. The definitions took out that doubt and uncertainty that goes into those early days of a new job.”

Focusing on new workers performing tasks safely can make the process less stressful.

“It’s not that we don’t employ new people because they get injured,” Smith said. “When you do, ensure they’re safe. That’s the message we want to get across.

“We can’t change newness, but you can put systems in place to ensure those new workers aren’t exposed to hazards without protections.”