Your employees are the lifeblood of your business. Without them, your business would collapse. That’s part of why it’s important to keep them as safe and healthy as possible. In certain industries such as construction and warehousing, it’s particularly important to put in place proper safety protocols to minimise workplace injuries.
To help you keep a safe workplace and a healthy workforce, we’ve outlined several tips to help you minimise accidents below.
The first step to achieving a safer workplace is to create a comprehensive plan to reduce accidents and injuries. To do so, you need to first identify where you could improve. Where and how are your workers currently being injured? Are people being injured by machinery, or experiencing slip-and-fall accidents? Do you need to improve your warning signs or provide protective gear?
When you ask these questions and begin to document workplace accidents, you can put in place measures to create a safer workspace.
If your workers don’t properly understand the hazards they work with, the odds of them getting in an accident will increase. Make sure you educate your workers on what hazards exist around them and inform them about the proper techniques required to do their job.
For example, if one of your workers doesn’t understand how to properly lift a heavy load, it could result in a back injury. If your worker doesn’t know how to properly operate heavy machinery, it could result in disaster. That’s why it’s important to be diligent about providing proper training to your employees.
Additionally, by providing the proper training, your workforce will become more confident and efficient. Your investment in training procedures shows them you care about your team and transforming your business for the better.
Some jobs are more physically demanding than others. If that’s the case, you may want to require a pre-employment physical for prospective employees. Depending on the job, a physical may measure your employees strength, lung capacity, seeing ability, hearing ability and more.
For some jobs, physicals are required every year. This is a good rule of thumb if your job is particularly demanding either mentally or physically. Optimising your hiring process in this way ensures you get the right worker for the job.
In some cases, workplaces may need protective gear to prevent serious injuries. Personal protective equipment, also known as “PPE,” can minimise injuries and illnesses caused by workplace hazards. Depending on your workplace, you may need to provide your employees with:
Make sure that you train each of your workers to know how their equipment should fit and why they are wearing it. That said, PPE isn’t always enough to prevent serious injury. You still want your workers to be careful, even if they’re wearing the proper protective gear.
It’s often overlooked how important lighting is to workplace safety. If your environment isn’t properly lit, it can easily lead to accidents in the workplace. However, when a workplace is well-lit, it not only prevents accidents, but also encourages productivity overall.
Certain industries can be inherently dangerous. When your employees are working with heavy machinery or have a physically demanding job, it’s common that accidents will occur. To minimise such accidents and keep your workplace safe, make sure to educate your employees, provide them with proper safety gear and ensure they’re working in a properly lit environment.
There’s always more you can do to optimise safety in the workplace. The most important thing is that you never cut corners as the cost of employee safety. Document all of your workplace accidents and regularly review your safety procedures to make sure your employees are safe.
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