All businesses should have an occupational health and safety programme in place. This programme is a process for managing the prevention of work-related injuries in the workplace. As a business owner, you have a responsibility to your employees to ensure their health and safety in the workplace. And while you won’t be able to prevent their personal health issues, there are measures you can put in place to help reduce the occurrence of workplace-related injuries.
Every workplace should follow certain health and safety regulations. It’s widely accepted that a health and safety programme plays an instrumental role in reducing workplace accidents. As you face cutbacks in productivity and staff, you should try to do more with less and work to remain solvent. So having a sound, up-to-date health and safety programme in place becomes even more important.
Whether you need to put in place a health and safety programme or just want to update your current system to meet today’s needs, here are seven steps to improve health and safety in the workplace.
Come up with a plan to control workplace hazards
As the employer, you should make it a priority to identify danger in the workplace and take steps to cut or minimise them. It’s best to develop a safety plan. Tell your employees what you’ll do to ensure their safety and what you expect from them. It’s important that you have a first aid kit in your workplace. And make sure employees have access to it. Examples of possible hazards include a cleaner working with powerful chemically-laden cleaning products, a mechanic operating big machinery or a warehouse manager stacking heavy boxes. It’s important to inform employees of the steps you’re taking to boost health and safety levels.
Inspect your workplace
You should check all the equipment and tools to ensure they’re well maintained and safe to use. Check storage areas and review safe work procedures. Make sure the boxes in the storage area are stacked in a safe manner. Your employees should be instructed how to lift heavy goods without injuring themselves. Workers should also know where the fire exit is and where they should gather if there’s a fire. You could call in a registered health and safety officer to help you with this. They’ll be better placed to identify any potential hazards or pitfalls in your workplace layout. You could do it yourself but you might miss a crucial element that could lead to one of your employees getting injured.
Look for ways to improve safety
Just as it’s desirable to find work methods to achieve faster results at less cost, you should look for ways to eliminate risk. It’s best to spend time with employees to brainstorm about their safety ideas. Ask for their concerns about safety in the workplace and act on their suggestions.
Train your employees
Proper training is important for all employees, especially if there’s a risk for potential injury associated with a job. You should provide written instructions and safe work procedures. That way employees can check for themselves if they’re unsure of a task or forgot part of their training. Supervise your employees to ensure they’re using their training to perform their job properly and safely. If you don’t provide the correct training for workers, you’re not only endangering the safety of your employees but you’ll be held liable for any incidents which could have serious consequences.
Make safety a key part of your business
Health and safety in the workplace shouldn’t be an afterthought. A commitment to health and safety makes good business sense because it’s one way to protect your greatest resource, your employees. If you want to secure the work premises, you could consider installing turnstiles. This way you’ll ensure no unwanted guests enter and that your employees are safe. Turnstar is one of the largest manufacturers of secure physical access control products. So be sure to check them out when considering installing turnstiles.
Keep records
It’s important that you keep records of all first aid treatment products, regular inspections, incident investigations and training activities. It can help you identify trends in unsafe conditions or work procedures at a later stage. You should keep hold of any records by making a note of the dates and the outcomes.
Have regular meetings on workplace safety
It’s always good to be over-prepared. You should have regular meetings about safety rules and talk about prevention to keep workplace safety top of mind. So when something happens, everyone knows what to do right away. If any concerns have been reported, you should decide how those issues will be addressed.
As an employer, start by taking these seven steps to help avoid workplace injuries and promote employee health.