Employee safety shouldn’t be an afterthought; it should be a top priority for businesses of all sizes. Taking steps to ensure that members of staff are safe while on-site is, primarily, simply the right thing to do, though there are other advantages too. For instance, studies have shown that implementing thorough safety measures can lead to an increase in productivity. Plus, employees are more likely to look for another job if they don’t believe that the company they’re working for is taking sufficient steps to keep them safe onsite.
In this post, we’ll outline some essential steps that businesses can take to keep their employees safe while they’re at work.
Conduct Regular Safety Reviews
You don’t prevent a problem until you know what the problem is. Your worksite will have safety vulnerabilities, so it’s important to establish what exactly those vulnerabilities are, and then take steps to address them. Keep in mind that your safety risks won’t stay static forever; they’ll develop and change over time, which means it’s vital that you conduct safety reviews regularly. It’s not a one-time thing, but rather an ongoing process.
Train Employees — And Make Sessions Engaging
A business could have the best safety procedures in the world, but if the team of employees doesn’t know what they are, then they’ll have no opportunity to be effective. Training employees is a vital component of ensuring that the workplace is safe, because not only does it teach staff members the importance of personal safety, but it can also help create an all-around safe working environment.
Keep in mind that unengaging training sessions will likely be forgotten as soon as they’re finished, so work on putting together training exercises that are genuinely interesting. In most cases, businesses will find that it’s best to outsource the task to a training company.
Don’t Cut Corners With Equipment
Staff safety is important for all businesses, but it’s especially paramount for those in the industrial sectors. Those types of working environments have more safety risks than others. Businesses can go above and beyond to ensure that their teams are kept safe by investing in equipment with in-build safety parameters. For example, investing in a bulk bag filler that has a dust collection vent, which will prevent dust from becoming airborne. Also, remember that only well-looked-after equipment has high safety credentials, so be sure to commit to routine maintenance.
Mandatory Breaks
Human error is the number one cause of workplace incidents. While you can’t always prevent human error, you can certainly reduce the likelihood of it occurring. One way to do that is to enforce mandatory breaks among employees. The longer someone has been working, the more likely it is that they’ll make a mistake that could result in an injury. By insisting on mandatory breaks, you’ll be ensuring that your team members get the time they need to rest their minds and bodies. Some employees prefer to work through their breaks, but it’s best to take this option off the table.