Lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling are so ordinary that they rarely feel like hazards. Yet the 2025 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index again ranks overexertion involving outside sources (lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying) as the leading cause of serious, non-fatal workplace injuries in the US. For employers and claims professionals, manual handling injuries are a familiar pattern: a back or shoulder strain, weeks of restricted duty or lost time, and a claim that is often harder to close than the original injury suggested.
The good news is that most of these claims are shaped long before anyone fills in a first report of injury. The controls that matter most are not exotic. They are decisions made about the task, the load and the workplace, and they are made by supervisors and planners, not only by the worker doing the lifting.
Why “lift with your legs” is not enough
Many organizations still treat manual handling as a technique problem: show people how to bend their knees, sign the training record, move on. Lifting technique matters, but it sits near the bottom of the hierarchy of controls. If the load is too heavy, too far from the body, lifted too often or handled in a cramped space, good technique only reduces the risk a little. The bigger gains come from changing the task itself.
That is why guidance from both sides of the Atlantic starts with the task. In the UK, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 require employers to avoid hazardous manual handling so far as is reasonably practicable, then assess and reduce the risk of what remains. In the US, OSHA’s ergonomics guidance and NIOSH’s Revised Lifting Equation point employers toward the same factors: weight, reach, height, frequency, twisting and grip.
The controls that change outcomes
1. Eliminate or reduce the lift
Ask first whether the load needs to be handled by a person at all. Deliveries can often be placed closer to the point of use. Conveyors, pallet trucks, lift tables, vacuum lifters and trolleys remove or shorten carries. Even simple changes, such as ordering materials in smaller bags or storing heavy items between knee and shoulder height, take a large share of risk out of a task.
2. Redesign the task, not just the worker
Where handling remains, look at how the job is laid out. Reaching across a bench, lifting from floor level, twisting to place a load or carrying it up stairs all raise the risk. Practical fixes include:
- Raising pick-up points so loads start at waist height instead of the floor.
- Removing obstacles so workers can turn their feet rather than their spine.
- Breaking long carries into shorter moves with a set-down point in between.
- Rotating repetitive handling tasks so the same muscles are not loaded all shift.
3. Use a simple, structured assessment
A written assessment does not need to be long to be useful. The UK Health and Safety Executive’s free Manual handling Assessment Charts (MAC) tool lets a supervisor score lifting, carrying and team-handling tasks with a traffic-light system and see which factor is driving the risk. The value is not the score itself; it is that the assessment points to a specific change, such as lowering a shelf or adding a trolley, that someone can own and complete.
4. Train for the job, not for the certificate
Training still has a place, but it works best when it is tied to the actual tasks people perform. A short session on the warehouse floor using the real loads, the real racking and the real trolleys is worth more than a generic slideshow. Supervisors should also be trained to recognize when a task has changed, such as a new product size, a new layout or extra volume at peak season, and to reassess before people get hurt.
5. Make early reporting easy
Musculoskeletal injuries often start as discomfort that workers ignore until it becomes a strain they cannot work through. Encouraging early reporting of aches and near misses, without blame, gives employers the chance to adjust the task, arrange early treatment or modify duties before a minor complaint becomes a lost-time claim. From a claims perspective, early, well-documented reporting also makes it easier to manage the case and support a safe return to work.
What supervisors can check this week
- Which three tasks involve the heaviest or most frequent lifts, and could any be mechanized or eliminated?
- Are heavy items stored between knee and shoulder height?
- Do workers have the trolleys, lift aids and clear routes they need, and are they actually used?
- When was each high-risk handling task last assessed, and has anything about it changed since?
- Do workers know how to report early discomfort, and do they see action when they do?
The workers’ comp connection
Manual handling claims are rarely caused by one bad lift. They are usually the result of a task that has been slightly too heavy, too awkward or too frequent for months. Employers who focus on eliminating and redesigning those tasks, use a simple assessment to find the worst ones, and make early reporting normal tend to see fewer of these injuries and shorter claims when they do occur. None of it requires a large budget. It requires supervisors who look at the work, not just the workers.
About the author
Talha Nasir is Senior Web Developer & SEO at BGMC Group, a NEBOSH learning partner in Lahore, Pakistan that trains safety officers, supervisors and managers. Disclosure: BGMC Group offers health and safety training, including the NEBOSH International General Certificate. He writes about practical ways to turn safety training into safer everyday work.
