Creating a safe workplace for your employees is an important responsibility for any employer or business owner. Not only is an unsafe work environment a fiscal liability waiting to happen, but it also affects the productivity levels of your workforce and, ultimately, the growth of the business. While creating a safe work environment seems like a basic and no-brainer task for employers, it actually necessitates a greater depth of planning and preparation in order to pull off successfully. Here are six steps on how to foster a safe work environment for your highly valued employees.
Provide Proper Uniforms
The proper uniform protects your employees from harsh workplace conditions, such as in the case of a manufacturing facility or a construction site. Even everyday semi-formal or formal attires at an office place should be enforced with consideration towards how it may affect the range of motions the uniform imposes on the employees wearing them. The proper uniform is especially crucial to businesses that involve extensive manual labor and operations that take place in extreme weather conditions, like firefighters and chemical handlers.
Accept Employee Input
No one is more qualified to give recommendations on what to change or add to the workplace to make it safer than your employees, who spend a third of their day at the workplace. Encourage employee engagement ideas every meeting. Prioritize ideas that hold merit and respectfully discard those that are far-fetched or irrelevant. Involving your employees in the planning and execution phases are important to enforce safety measures for the long term.
Mark Emergency Exits Visibly
Emergency exits are required by state regulators lest incur penalties or even the risk of getting your facility shut down. Have your exits properly designated through regular fire drills and maps of the building scattered across the workplace. As annoying as it is, fire drills should also be regularly practiced to speed up your workforce's reaction time during real-life emergencies, such as fires or earthquakes.
Enforce Health Codes
Having small reminders of what to do before, during, and after tasks improves workplace safety by avoiding potential dangers, such as food poisoning or floor slip and slides. Just like a restaurant business with visual indicators telling its employees to wash their hands before resuming work, an office or manufacturing company should also have these visual cues to remind their employees of doing this basic but crucial habit.
Perform Regular Business Inspections
Thorough inspection of the workplace and surroundings can substantially decrease the risk of employee injury. Early detection of the property's weak spots can also minimize expenses through immediate remedy of said weak spots, which if left untreated can develop into costlier issues. Small and seemingly infinitesimal measures, such as placing rubber padding along the ends of a staircase step, improving lighting around corners and parking spaces, and matting floors for more traction are powerful steps to creating a safe place for employees.
Designate Disaster Coordinators
Find leaders in your workplace and designate them as captains who can help coordinate and take responsibility in case of a disaster, such as during bad weather or workforce panics induced by internal company problems. Making workplace safety a team effort by involving employees of all levels and departments and designating captains to manage them can further your cause. It ensures long-term implementation of such safety measures and gives you peace of mind that it is being enforced even with minimal attention.
Creating a safe place for your employees means fewer injuries, which translates to maximum productivity and unimpeded business growth. Follow the six simple steps above. While they may ostensibly look simple to the point that they seem ineffective, any and every business type and size can benefit from such practices.
