How to Increase Safety in the Workplace

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Safety in the workplace is critically important to ensure the well-being of employees while at work and can also increase productivity and help build a positive working environment. Making sure a workplace is safe isn’t just a legal obligation for firms, it’s a moral responsibility.

Failing to ensure the safety of staff in their work environment can lead to significant consequences, including legal liabilities, financial punishments, harm to employees, and potential damage to a company’s reputation.

Tips to Make Your Workplace Safer

Keeping on top of safety measures and fostering a healthy culture of safety at work is crucial for both employers and employees. Below are just a few tips you should consider implementing on your premises:

Offer regular safety training: It’s not simply enough to train your staff once on your safety procedures. Aside from possible new policy updates, people can (and often do) forget how to act in an emergency or the particular procedures they’re supposed to follow. For this reason, you should offer regular training to your team, and keep a comprehensive record of any courses, lessons, or qualifications they’ve passed. Remember, training should encompass everything that makes your staff safer at work, so anything from safety protocols to the proper use of equipment and emergency procedures.

Your workplace should be clean and organized: Slips, trips, and accidents caused by a dirty or disorganized workplace are surprisingly common, so you should make sure that spaces are cleaned regularly. For example, by organizing in-house staff or hiring a company to do the industrial cleaning for your warehouse.

Carry out regular Risk Assessments: By holding regular risk assessments, you could potentially remove the risk of accidents before they even happen. All workspaces will have areas and processes of lessened or heightened risk, so you should try to identify these problems and take appropriate action.

Foster a culture of open communication: Very often, there’s a disconnect between managers in the boardroom and those actually on the shop floor doing the work. Rather than blinkering yourself to the concerns of your team, you should try to foster a culture of openness in the workplace and let your team know you’re there and listening to any problems or issues they might have. Remember, staff on the ground almost always have a much better understanding of their jobs and any possible danger areas than managers have.

Insist employees are given adequate PPE (and wear it): Your staff should be given access to appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the role they’re performing and – perhaps more importantly – should be made to wear it. PPE can take a variety of forms depending on the task at hand – anything from helmets and goggles to gloves and protective overalls.

Formulate emergency responses and make sure everyone knows them: At a bare minimum, you should have plans in place for emergency evacuation, fire, and medical accidents. Staff should also be trained in first aid. Remember, when an accident happens, panic can often set in, so it’s vitally important that employees know these procedures by heart.

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Milo Senalle

Milo Senalle

Managing Editor at Chispa Magazine
As one of the managing editors of Chispa Magazine, Milo Senalle is the go-to man for all things technology, ethical, and financial concerns. Providing laughs with his style of writing and problem-solving techniques, Milo is a voice of reason among the girly staff at Chispa. Married with children, living in Atlanta, he works 24/7 on becoming a man of courage and believes honor begins at home.

Milo Senalle

As one of the managing editors of Chispa Magazine, Milo Senalle is the go-to man for all things technology, ethical, and financial concerns. Providing laughs with his style of writing and problem-solving techniques, Milo is a voice of reason among the girly staff at Chispa. Married with children, living in Atlanta, he works 24/7 on becoming a man of courage and believes honor begins at home.