As an employer, you are required to provide a safe and healthy environment for your employees. It’s good for them and ultimately good for your business. From a humane perspective, you don’t want your employees getting hurt because you care about them. There’s also the fact that there is lost money from lost man-hours when somebody is out of work.
Most importantly, employees can seek legal help and end up suing for quite a bit of money if their injury is serious and was due to your negligence.
In this article, I will go over how you can create a workplace in which injuries are reduced.
Create a culture of safety
How safe a workplace is almost always comes down to the culture of the company. If safety is taken seriously and words are as good as deeds when there is talk about its importance, then there are generally fewer accidents.
Make sure to have meetings to discuss safety and outline what is expected of the employees themselves and from management to make sure that measures are taken seriously.
This means that there is accountability that is expected of everybody and there is a clear chain of command so people know how to make sure it stays safe. For instance, there should be a system in which employees can report faulty equipment or a dangerous area of the workplace. When people feel like they are able to communicate these things and that they get resolved it creates a culture in which safety is increased.
Make regular inspections
All equipment should be maintained according to the specifications of the manufacturer. It should also be inspected in regular intervals to make sure there are no work parts or that there is something that will affect the performance that could end up leading to an injury.
This doesn’t just include equipment as people can trip over loose rugs or broken flooring. Leaks can lead to slips and broken bones or even worse.
Make safety training a priority
Practice makes perfect so training a person well so they know exactly how to do their jobs well and safely is very important. It can be second nature to stay safe when they are properly trained.
From the very first day of training, there should be a focus on training. However, it shouldn’t only be done for new hires. Throughout a person’s career with your company, they should receive regular training periodically so they don’t develop bad habits when it comes to their work that could cause injuries.
Reward safety
There should be some incentives for people to stay safe themselves and contribute to safe work culture. If somebody brings a faulty piece of equipment to the attention of a superior that prevents an injury then they should get something special like a voucher or a special parking space close to the entrance.
Also, everybody on staff should get something special when certain safety milestones are met. Something like 100 days without an accident or injury could be celebrated with a pizza party.
