We recently released our free guide on re-thinking back injuries. It covers all the traditional areas of back safety, like proper lifting techniques, the consequences of hurting your back, and weight thresholds for safe lifting. It also outlines human factors issues and an under-discussed problem with back belts.

And it provides a few other practical benefits for safety professionals too.

Support for your existing back safety efforts

It’s important to keep your safety material fresh by using up-to-date images and ideas. The guide provides a number of visuals and concepts that can be incorporated into presentations and training, including:

• stats on the prevalence and cost of back injuries (e.g., did you know they make up 20% of missed time away from work?
• an easy-to-understand diagram that illustrates why the distance of a load from your body matters
• ideas to support better lifting habits.

Beat the biggest threats to proper lifting techniques

Lifting techniques aren’t complicated—but somehow people still regularly forgo proper lifting posture. Why? Because certain human factors directly compromise their ability to properly use the techniques that you’ve taught them.

The back guide outlines what these factors are and some of the problems they can lead to, from lifting too much or too quickly to a skewed perception of risk. The guide also discusses what can be done about these issues.

Getting employees to buy into your back program

Employee engagement is a constant challenge. The guide presents the story of a major home renovation company that conducted an in-depth study of how to motivate its nearly 400,000 employees. As the guide says:

Unsurprisingly, it was found that employees care little for the corporate health and safety agenda.

What they care about is their own agenda—taking the kids camping on the weekend, coaching a little league team after work or doing renos around the house. For all these activities, employees need a healthy back. And they know it.

There are a number of ways to appeal to their agenda, including what to incorporate in training collateral and how to directly motivate workers.

Check out the free back safety guide for a full list of ways to remind employees of what they have at stake when it comes to back health—and for some other great insights into back safety.