Workplace Safety is one of the biggest priorities in any company as it does not only help keeps the employees healthy and safe but also content and happy while doing their job. This can be achieved by ensuring that all employees are aware of their rights and how to properly deal with issues that arise while at the workplace.
Employers as well, have the responsibility to put in place a system to deal with accidents and injuries, as well as have a watertight policy to address bullying or harassment between co-workers. It is imperative that companies install a good system to deal with accidents and injuries, for example first aid kits and fire extinguishers placed in nearby convenient locations at the workplace so any accidents can be dealt with immediately by present staff.
It cannot be understated that employers prepare an action plan for any and all accidents that may happen so if one does happen, everything will run smoothly if some unexpected thing happens!
So, what can we do to make our workplaces safer?
Table of Content:
Train Your Employees
As previously mentioned, it is important that employers prepare and put in place a health and safety plan at the workplace. This mentality applies to all workplaces big and small as every workplace has its hazards.Write down and make sure all your employees are aware, not only of the health and safety plan, but also include all the hazards that are present at the workplace. Think as a whole. What are the hazards? What is the worst case – scenario that could happen? How can this accident be mitigated? What steps need to be taken?
A Safe Workplace
In terms of safety, it is not only limited to our co-workers but anyone and everyone that might visit our workplace. If it’s not safe for your employees, chances are it won’t be safe for these people either.
It’s easy to forget about the dangers surrounding oneself, especially when we’re too focused on completing a difficult task or busy walking around ensuring everyone is doing a proper job. This is why it’s important to regularly check your workplace for hazards.
One way to go around this is after each inspection, keep a record of the results of the inspection. This will allow the next inspector to check up on safety hazards found during the last inspection, and pinpoint whether they are still a threat.
Explore past incidents
When an accident happens at the workplace, employers have to probe into the cause of the accident. This action will allow these types of accidents to ever happen again at the workplace. The more information that is collected on the incident, the better chance to identifying the cause and the ways to prevent it from happening again. Its important to have this type of mindset in place to ensure a safer and accident-free workplace.
Usually, the one who reported the incident should be responsible for investigating the cause, as they were the ones directly involved, but in some cases, it is better for experienced and more qualified investigators to investigate the incident.
Maintain Records
While trainings and plans are crucial to keep the workplace safer, it will be useless unless it can’t be tracked. Prepare a dedicated folder or google drive to store the acquired safety documentations.
This step is imperative as if anything goes wrong, employers have to pull up inspection reports or proof of certifications, it would be troublesome to look through mountains of paperwork the single sheet of paper that is needed. It is recommended to use both, online and physical means to store their documentation.
Equipment Inspection
Create a checklist of all the safety equipment that is available at your workplace. Assign each safety equipment a “buddy” aka one of the employees. Tasked these buddies to inspect each safety equipment regularly to make sure they are still in good condition, and then report their results into a system.
Even if employees are filled in on what to do, and provided top quality training on how to use the equipment, faulty equipment may just cause an employee to lose their lives and a huge loss of property.
Health and Safety Plan in Place
An effective HSE training will also assist to enhance productivity by reducing work-related accidents and illnesses that cause absences. Absences may have a detrimental impact on a company's productivity and negatively impact performance.
HSE Training will help in promoting safety practices may save your company a lot of money by keeping productivity high.
All important questions that have to be asked whilst preparing the health and safety plan.
