How accident investigations strengthen workplace safety
Accidents happen, but in the business world, they seem to be happening less often. According to a report by NCCI, the frequency of lost-time claims dropped by 5% in 2024, which is faster than the long-term average.
“This reflects the progress organizations are making in creating safer work environments,” says Molly Flanagan, AVP Workers’ Compensation Claims, Nationwide.
This is good news, but there’s a critical trend to watch: While accidents are occurring less often, they are becoming more serious. NCCI reports a 6% rise in both medical claim and indemnity claim severity.
Savvy businesses treat every accident as an opportunity to learn and improve their risk management programs.
From investigation to lessons learned
Historically, accident investigations have focused on figuring out what went wrong. Today, though, it’s beneficial to take things one step further to understand why they happened.
“When there is an injury, we want to know what went wrong and why so we can take measures to mitigate that risk going forward,” says Flanagan. “It is important to understand how the system allowed the event to happen and how we can make it harder for that same error to lead to harm again in the future.”
Because of this, it’s important to scrutinize minor and non-injury events. With this in mind, all minor and non-injury events with severity potential should be evaluated.
Top priority: Caring for injured employees
The first step after any incident is to ensure the employee receives appropriate care.
“When an injury occurs, our priority is the well-being of the individual,” says Flanagan.
Nationwide offers the Nurse Triage program that employees can call immediately after an accident.
“They can speak with a registered nurse and describe the event,” notes Flanagan. “The nurse can help them determine if they can take care of the situation on their own or if they need to see a medical professional.”
After this, management should notify their workers’ compensation provider and begin the accident investigation, so they can understand factors that contributed to the incident and identify opportunities to improve safety practices.
Engaging employees in the evaluation process
Because employees closest to the work often have the best insights, involving them in the accident evaluation and related discussions can help build trust and drive meaningful improvements.
In an ideal scenario, the accident investigation team should validate the time and place of the accident and the manner or mechanism of the injury. This helps provide valuable context and is a first step in determining what the contributing factors were.
For example, if an employee falls from a ladder, the team looks at the events before the accident and also looks safety protocols:
- Was the ladder inspected and maintained?
- Was the task designed to minimize risk?
- Were time pressures or environmental conditions influencing choices?
“It’s critical to understand what was going on immediately before the accident,” explains Flanagan. “We also need to know what occurred after the accident to gain a full understanding of events.”
Turning investigation findings into action
The goal of the accident investigation is to make improvements to the system to help prevent a similar incident from happening in the future. The results can also help employers optimize operations through improved processes. This may include engineering controls and process redesign and enhanced training for real-world challenges.
A collaborative approach strengthens safety culture and reduces repeat events. It can also help insurers determine if the accident triggers a compensable claim.
“If so, the injured worker is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits,” says Flanagan.
The investigation can also reveal if there was any negligence on behalf of another party and if the injured worker may be eligible for additional compensation.
Beyond prevention: Building resilience
A progressive safety strategy does more than reduce claims—it helps create an environment where employees feel empowered to voice their concerns and contribute to solutions. In turn, this helps create a safety culture that focuses on continuous improvement, which can increase employee morale, reduce accident-related expenses and help correct hazardous conditions before an accident occurs.
The Bottom Line
Accidents can be viewed as signals rather than failures. Adopting a growth mindset to the traditional accident investigation approach can help organizations lower their risk through system improvements, partner with employees on safety, and enhance resilience and adaptability in their operations.
Ultimately, though, the most important benefit of a comprehensive approach is taking care of the worker.
“When we handle claims at Nationwide, empathy is at the core,” says Flanagan. “We want to support recovery for the injured worker and the family that is impacted, and we want to help organizations learn so they can protect their people better.”