Prioritize SIFs, Save Lives

SIF stands for serious incidents and fatalities. SIFs aren’t just another category of workplace incidents; they’re the ones that matter most. For example, both a paper cut and a near miss involving a forklift may be logged as an “incident,” but only one could be fatal. Given this reality, even if your workplace hasn’t had a near miss or SIF recently, your organization could still be at high risk for a tragedy.

Here’s the good news: Every SIF is preventable. That’s why companies with the most advanced safety programs are changing how they approach risk to prioritize SIF prevention.

The Power of Potential SIFs

Potential SIFs, or pSIFs, are near misses or lower-severity incidents that could have resulted in a SIF if one or two factors were different. They help organizations:

● Expose where critical safeguards and controls are weak or missing
● Show how a critical safeguard can prevent the worst outcome
● Provide the opportunity to learn and improve safety efforts

A Plan of Action: The NSC SIF Prevention Model

The NSC SIF Prevention model was created to be a free, adaptable tool than can fit existing safety systems or be used by organizations who are just getting started. The guidebook and tools leverage the Plan, Do, Check, Act framework to assess risk and prevent future incidents.

SIF Prevention Webinar

Connecting the Dots: The Relationship Between SIFs and MSDs
1 p.m. (ET) May 26

SIFs and Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are often addressed through separate safety strategies, yet both frequently stem from the same underlying work design and system failures. As Part 2 of the NSC SIF Prevention Series, this webinar – co-hosted by the MSD Solutions Lab and the Applied Ergonomics Society –  examines how ergonomic risk and high-severity injury potentially intersect in real-world work environments. This session pairs survey findings of nearly 200 safety leaders with perspectives and experiences from a panel of industry experts to explore the relationship between cumulative ergonomic strain and serious injury risk, and why integrating MSD and SIF prevention can lead to more effective and sustainable outcomes.