Every person deserves to work in a safe and secure environment. In fact, the U.S. government requires such through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA.

While a typical office may not seem to pose as many dangers as other job environments such as a construction site, there are still many potential workplace health risks that any business should be on the lookout for.

Below are some of the most common office workplace health risks, and what you can do to mitigate them.

General Injury

A “general injury” serves as a catchall term for common injuries that can happen around an office workplace. While some of these might be minor, others can actually result in significant injury.

Examples include tripping on wires or cables that run on the floor, spilling hot coffee on yourself or someone else, slipping on a floor that is wet, having a box of files fall from a shelf onto you or tripping on a carpet that’s lifted in the corner.

Employers can mitigate these risks by constantly analyzing the office for potential hazards and addressing them as soon as they’re identified. You should also ask employees to report such incidents to their supervisor if they observe one.

Illness

Perhaps the biggest office workplace health risk is illness. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, illnesses such as the flu and common cold had the potential to wreak havoc at a workplace.

Since the pandemic, many people have started to take illnesses and virus more seriously than they did in the past. They might stay home from work if they don’t feel good, for instance, rather than power through it and show up for work so as to not burn a PTO day.

Even still, any office workplace is bound to deal with illness in some way. Employers can help mitigate these risks by encouraging employees to stay home if they don’t feel well, offering remote working opportunities or even unlimited PTO options, and providing disinfecting products for people to use at their desk and in high-traffic areas throughout the day.

General Pain

Sitting at a desk for eight hours may not sound physically demanding, but it can certainly take a physical toll on your body. In fact, one of the most common health issues that people who work in an office deal with is shoulder and/or back pain.

That’s because sitting down all day typing on a computer without taking breaks is not great for your upper body. This is especially true if you don’t practice good posture at your desk and if you don’t have the right equipment to help you.

Employers can help mitigate these risks by providing workers with good ergonomic desk chairs, the option for standing desks and by encouraging people to get up and walk around to take a break.

Toxic Exposure

You don’t have to work in a chemical plant or a lab to be exposed to potentially harmful chemicals. Many people who work in office environments are at risk of being exposed to toxins from chemicals.

This can include cleaning products and detergents that are used in the bathrooms, tile floors in the hallways and kitchens. It can include other chemicals from HVAC equipment leaking. And it can even include smoke from tobacco products.

Employees can mitigate this exposure by requiring cleaning crews to use non-toxic products with low fumes, by staying up on maintenance of equipment (if possible) and by requiring smokers to stand far away from entrances or windows to the building.

Mishandling Objects

A very common office workplace health risk is when people mishandle objects. Even in an office environment, there can be heavy or dangerous things that people try to pick up and hurt themselves in the process.

For example, someone might try to lift up or bring down a heavy file box from a shelf and drop it on themselves or someone, or strain their back in the process. This can also happen with big water jugs, reams of printer paper and other items.

Employers can try to mitigate these risks by training people properly on how to lift moderately-heavy items, by putting policies in place on where things should be stored and/or by designating certain trained staff members to handle those tasks, whenever possible.

Help Mitigate Office Workplace Health Risks with Beckham Ellis Insurance Group

Even in an office environment, there are workplace health risks that people will likely face every day. There may be nothing you can do as an employer to completely eliminate these risks, but there are certainly steps you can take to mitigate them as much as possible.

With the help of Beckham Ellis Insurance Group, employers can create employee handbooks, manuals and other documentation that set policies for standard operating procedures, which will help to mitigate health risks as much as possible.

Our insurance experts also help employers in the Georgia and South Carolina region create outstanding employee benefits plans that include health insurance and PTO to help them address, and prevent, personal health risks.

For more information, please contact us today.