As a business owner, it is your legal responsibility to maintain a safe working environment for your employees.
Beyond this, however, there are many benefits tied to maintaining high health and safety standards throughout your business. For example, maintaining a safe working environment can:
- Help with both employee retention and attrition, making it easier to grow and build a skilled, enthusiastic team.
- Improve employee satisfaction rates, as they feel as though they are being taken care of at work.
- Improve workplace efficiency and productivity.
- Reduce the chances of accidents/injuries occurring.
- Save you a considerable amount of money, especially when you take into account the fact that “the average cost of a workplace injury claim is $40,000.”
Protect your business from reputational damage, making it easier to grow your business.
With that in mind, here are some simple ways in which you can be sure to elevate your workplace safety game!
Conduct a risk assessment
When it comes to effective risk management, regular risk assessments are key.
To conduct a risk assessment, walk through your workplace and identify any hazards or potential hazards. For example, this could include trailing or tangled wires, which could lead to slips, trips, and falls. Once identified, put a plan in place for how to remedy this (and ensure that action is taken promptly).
According to the experts, you should carry out a risk assessment on an annual basis, even if you have not made any major changes to your workspace during this time. Outdated risk assessments not only put your team at risk but could also leave you vulnerable to legal trouble if it is proven that you weren’t making a concentrated effort to maintain a safe environment.
Check equipment for damage
A large proportion of workplace accidents are caused by the use of faulty or damaged equipment. To prevent this, you should regularly inspect any equipment for signs of damage and encourage your team to report any faults or issues they encounter in their day-to-day activities.
If you notice any issues during these routine inspections, try to find a cost-effective way to resolve them. For example, instead of buying new equipment outright, you may be able to buy new parts instead, such as
Stainless Steel Push In Fittings. This way, you’re addressing the issue without your finances taking too much of a hit.
Train your team
A recent study found that 90% of workplace accidents are caused by human error. This, by extension, means that 90% of workplace accidents are preventable. In order to combat this, employers should provide their teams with extensive health and safety training.
While this is often considered part of the onboarding process, ongoing training is also crucial, even when somebody has been working in a position for a number of years. This is because, over time, they are more likely to become complacent and may, therefore, be less stringent when it comes to upholding health and safety standards. Regular training, however, can make them recognize just how important it is to follow protocols 100% of the time.
During the training process, you should clearly outline your company’s health and safety procedures – tackling both preventive action and what to do when things go wrong. This means that in the event of an accident, your team is able to respond swiftly and appropriately, minimizing any injuries and providing help and assistance to those who may need it.
While this information should be covered at length during any training sessions, you should also make sure that your employees can access this information at any time. For example, they should be able to access a printed or digital copy at their leisure so that they can review information or refresh their knowledge as often as they’d like.
Hire a safety manager
On a similar note, you may also want to hire a safety manager. They will be able to review your current health and safety policy to ensure that it is up-to-date. If they notice any glaring omissions from this, they will also be able to rectify that quickly so that no stone is left unturned, and you can rest peacefully knowing that you are maintaining a safe working environment for your team.
While hiring a new member of staff does come at an additional expense, this is worthwhile when you consider the fact that you simply cannot put a price on the health and safety of others. Furthermore, hiring fees are nothing compared to the costs associated with a serious accident.
