There are dedicated workplace safety months throughout the year designed to shine a light on the health and wellbeing of employees, but you don’t need a month for that to be something you’re aware of in your business. No matter what you do in your day to day business, keeping your employees safe is more than just about their health; it’s about your reputation, too.
Not that you shouldn’t want to pay worker’s compensation where it’s needed, but you should be spending more time ensuring that your employees are happy and healthy than you should be paying out money to compensate them after an injury!
Not only are there advantages in loyalty from your employees, people will feel sure that they are working for the right employer. Your health and safety in the workplace policies could literally save a life, and as there are many common causes of industrial accidents, you need to be aware of them all. Keeping your employees from experiencing those common causes of accidents in the workplace is your job, and we’ve got plenty of options below to help you to keep your staff safe!
Set the Tone
When you bring new people into your workplace, you need to consider how they are trained. If you don’t provide adequate education on the rules and the safety standards for each area of the workplace, you’re going to end up with staff who don’t have enough information to work well. Health and safety is something that everyone needs to pay attention to. It starts with you ensuring that you are offering the right work conditioning and education programs and it moves into you ensuring that every single member of staff from top to bottom has the same training.
Aim for Best Practices
Not only do you need to ensure that you include regular updates to employee training, you need to think about offering the best practices. This means adding in things like chemical spills, fire drills, thefts in the workplace, self-defense and other training programs that are relevant to your particular business. If you are helping your employees to care for their physical well being, too, you’re going to ensure that they are safe in their mental health, too. Some employers like to employ on-site masseurs and therapists to visit and ensure that their employees are feeling physically and mentally well. This is a smart way of working if you want to keep your employees safe.
Informed Is Key
When was the last time you had available information for your staff to pick up? Communication is important for your employees, but more than this, you need to ensure that the information that they need is available no matter what. Engage people and allow them to ask as many questions as they need to be informed with everything that they do in their day to day safety. Engaging people and encouraging them to ask questions will enable them to contribute ideas and make suggestions about how they can continue to be safe in their business activities.
Spread Awareness
If you have new machinery and equipment coming, ensure that your employees are aware of this and spread awareness of the training that you plan to offer for each piece of machinery. If you want to do the very best you can with spreading awareness about safety, then designate safety leaders in the workplace. They will be your eyes and ears on the ground and they will be able to tell you whether there are issues happening that you’re not aware of. They can make you aware of those issues and take the time to talk you through any extra training necessary.
Maintain Environmental Safety
You want to drive your business toward a zero accident culture, but you can start this with ensuring the working environment is a safe one. Go around your business and take notes on what’s working and what isn’t, and make sure that you have the correct, appropriate signage and instructions visible for all to see. You must also call in the cleaners and stay on top of the housekeeping in your workplace. Once you have done this, you can start scheduling regular checks as well as spot checks.
Look at Your Workstations
If your workstations are cluttered, messy and not ergonomically safe, you will have a difficult time maintaining safety in the workplace. Make sure that you have height-appropriate workstations and offer standing desks, different chair types – asking what your employees need is the best place to start as they are the ones manning those workstations for you!
Promote a Healthy Lifestyle
As an employer, you should be promoting regular exercise and anything that works for your employee wellbeing. The best place to start is asking your employees what would work for them. For example, offering free fruit and smoothies, soups and salads as a way to promote healthy lunches and other meals in the workplace will give their health a boost. You can also consider paying for the gym as a perk of the job, and you can even launch a program for lunchtime walking groups to get out and stretch their legs. If you have the money to place a gym on site, go for it!
Talk Through Stress
Work-related stress is going to be a big deal if your staff are working long hours. You should do all that you can to reduce the stress related to the job, so whether you offer flexible working situations or you limit the working week, you can enhance their ability to relax and not stress. Talking will help, and offering workplace therapy is a good place to start. Hiring someone to come in and talk to your staff during stressful periods is a nice way to show your staff that you care.
Your employees and their safety are important and if you work together, every single month will be a workplace health and safety month. Keeping staff safe is vital for their career and your reputation as a business. Take a moment and look through your current policies – use these tips to improve them!
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