Workplace health and safety should be at the forefront of any conscious business owners mind. Ensuring your staff and any potential visitors are safe is not only morally right but a legal requirement. Even some big businesses, who should know better, fall short in this respect.
As such, no matter what sector you specialize in, whether you have office space, restaurant, retail shop or even an industrial site, there are codes to which you must abide. If you fail to do so, there can be several negative ramifications for both your business and its employees. With that in mind, here are some ways to ensure a safer workplace…
Follow 5 Tips to Make Your Workplace Safer
1. Hire Smart
When your company is on the rise, the need for more staff becomes prevalent and the tendency to hire quickly rather than smart is all too real. Quick help over quality is one of the biggest mistakes you can make as an employer.
It can, on occasion, pay off, but it can also result in a bad hire. The recruitment process can be difficult, but it should never be bypassed as doing so can endanger your workplace safety. How? When hiring you need to ensure the person coming into your business is of sound mind and body, somebody who respect and adhere to the safety practices that your business strives to create. Primarily, you should ensure that they will put in the maximum effort to make your business both successful and a safe place to work.
Getting the hiring process wrong can lead to a sloppy and unsafe workspace, so be sure to get this key business element right from day one!
2. Install Safe Practices
Setting out a strict set of health and safety rules in your workspace may seem a waste of time. But, these rules can be the difference between a safe and unsafe work environment. These can be simple rules such as “don’t run with scissors”, “wear hair nets when handling food” or “protective goggles must be worn at all times.” Simple, but extremely important to the safety of your workplace.
Document all regulations well and make them completely accessible to your employees. You can do this by creating a health and safety handbook, placing posters across the work space or found on an online portal. Ensure that you make them as easy for your employees to find for refreshment as possible.
3. Train Staff to make your workplace safer
Every staff member, no matter how part time or short lived needs to be trained in the safety practices of your business. From fire safety to first aid, there should be no question in their minds what needs to be done in an emergency. Doing such training regularly can also help you to understand where your company might be lacking and where to improve.
Successful businesses are always on top of staff safety training to ensure they are always one step ahead of the competition. A safe business is a successful one.
4. Ensure Workplace Safety
Outside of your staff, ensuring the workplace environment itself is as safe as it can possibly be is also integral to ensure you meet all code requirements. No amount of training can help if the environment you work in is fundamentally dangerous, after all. From covering up exposed wires in offices to putting up signs for low beams, solutions can be simple but efficient.
However, one of the most overlooked aspects of workplace safety is the air quality of the space. Studies suggest that indoor air quality is a big factor in health problems than that of outside, meaning as a business owner it is imperative that you offer a clean air throughout your work space. The correct ventilation system is therefore needed to supply constantly fresh and clean air.
5. Provide Safety Equipment
When working on an industrial site or restaurant, provision of the right health and safety tools is paramount to your responsibility as a business owner. Protective head gear, gloves and aprons can help protect employees from the typical hazards of their everyday job. A first aid kit should also always be available in a workplace alongside a trained first aider in the case of emergencies.
Read Also: 7 Essential Things In Handy For Office Workers
These steps will ensure a safe working environment, but if you choose to ignore these simple, yet vital, issues than your business or your employees may eventually suffer the consequences. This can mean legal and financial strife for you, so take the necessary steps and protect your business with smart health and safety practices from the beginning.
Author Bio: Zack Halliwell is a fanatic dog walker by day, freelance writer by night. Find him on Twitter.
