As an employer, you have a duty of care towards the people who work for you, and you have to ensure you provide a safe working environment for your employees. This means making sure that there are enough fire extinguishers, sufficient warning signs, and so on.
Many employers might think that they don’t need to worry about health and safety because they’re not in any physical danger at work, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
In fact, most injuries at work are caused by something simple like poor lighting or awkward floor slope, which could prevent serious injuries from occurring in the workplace.
Improving Attitudes To Safety
If you are in a working environment with a lax attitude to health and safety, the best thing you can do is improve that attitude. If people aren’t concerned about it, you might have to make them aware of the dangers or potential dangers and make clear what could happen if they don’t take health and safety seriously.
This may involve offering training courses on health and safety and making sure all workers are aware of what’s expected from them in terms of health and safety
It may involve having regular meetings with your staff so you can report back on the work being done to ensure a safe workplace environment for everyone.
Preventing Accidents
There’s no point discussing accidents that have already happened, but looking at previous accident investigations and reports can be useful in helping employers to understand the dangers that have already been spotted.
No amount of historical evidence will change things, though, so it’s better to concentrate on preventing accidents from occurring in the first place by using a few of these tips.
Provide The Correct PPE
Personal protective equipment is something that you’ll want to make sure you have available at all times so that any potentially dangerous hazard is taken care of in a good and timely manner.
This might mean installing fluorescent safety signs, safety belts, and ladders, or any other equipment that can help should an accident occur.
Ensure That The Right Training Is Provided To Workers
Training provides your staff with the skills they need to help with their job safely and offers them advice on the risks involved in certain tasks.
This could mean putting together training courses for workers on how to use particular machinery or what could happen if workers didn’t follow prescribed safety rules (for example, not wearing safe footwear while working).
Minimise Accidental Dangers
Many accidents can be prevented if you have your own safety gear and equipment readily available, but what about those that only happen at a certain time?
Preventing unplanned accidents from occurring generally means ensuring all the tasks involved with a particular job are carried out in the correct order or to the correct standard because any unplanned accident can lead to serious injury or even death for your workers.
Monitor Risks
Although you can’t monitor every risk at all times, you can try your best to keep on top of any risks that impact your daily operations.
By monitoring risks, you will be able to spot any potential issues and address them in a timely fashion before they escalate into something serious.
Be Pro-Active In Addressing Safety Hazards
The best way to ensure that the people who work for you don’t get hurt is to spot any potential hazards and fix them immediately before anyone gets hurt.
If someone does get hurt, it’s better to have already identified the issue so that it doesn’t happen again.
Make Sure Workers Are Fully Qualified
Before you hire your employees, make sure they have the skills they need to do the job and are fully qualified to do so.
This not only helps you in a legal sense, but it also lowers the risk of accidents occurring because your workers know what they’re doing.
Employ Workplace Inspections To Ensure Compliance With Safety Rules
The best way to ensure that your workers comply with the rules is to conduct regular workplace inspections and ensure that all safety rules are followed correctly.
These violations will be highlighted during a workplace inspection, and any issues can be dealt with immediately to prevent any further accidents from occurring as a result of these problems.
Take Action Against Those Who Break The Safety Rules
You may find that you have some staff who simply don’t follow the safety rules, and there is no way around this problem.
Forcing your staff to comply with safety rules is only going to make them resentful and unhappy, so it’s best to act in a more passive way.