The Importance of Wearing the Right Safety Gear and Protective Clothing

When you work in the construction, landscaping, or similar types of businesses, it’s important to protect yourself with high visibility workwear and other types of safety equipment. While this is necessary when you work daylight hours, it is even more critical when you and/or your crew are working during inclement weather or in the dark.

In addition to wearing the proper high visibility clothing, such as hi vis coats and jackets, it’s essential to follow other safety protocols. When new employees receive thorough training, it can significantly reduce the incidence of work-related accidents. Furthermore, when employees have been on the job for a while, they should review safety and other guidelines on a regular basis to ensure that they continue to follow proper procedures.

The Institute for Work and Health in Canada, for example, reported that new employees are more likely to become injured within their first month of work. In fact, they found that these employees are are three times more likely to sustain an injury that will require them to miss work. In 2013, approximately 33% of non-fatal work injuries that required employees to miss work had less than a year on the job.

When workers are younger, they are also more likely to miss work after being injured. In 2014, for instance, it was found that after sustaining a work injury, employees that ranged in age from 16 to 19 missed an average of four days of work to recuperate from their injuries.

Older workers, however, tend to experience fewer injuries. In 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employees 65 and older experienced fewer injuries than any other age group. These workers sustained only 94.2 injuries for every 10,000 full-time employees. While there are several reasons for this, common sense dictates that given their wealth of experience, older workers know the importance of wearing protective, high-visibility clothing and following safety procedures.

If you need hi vis coats and jackets or other types of high-visibility workwear for yourself or your employees, there are a variety of safety clothes available. It’s a good idea to to have an assortment of safety clothing to allow for different weather conditions and work sites. Furthermore, it’s also important to note that these can be custom-made.