Workplace safety is not something that you should compromise on since it is a legal as well as ethical obligation. So, a risky work environment not only elevates the risk of facing legal issues but also impacts the employees’ morale.
However, a health and safety policy alone is not sufficient to make the workplace safe. The comprehensiveness of the policy and the extent to which it is implemented in the workplace are major contributors to workplace health and safety.
How to Ensure Workplace Safety?
Ensuring workplace safety means investing in an HSE policy and making sure that the workplace is safe from different hazards. Here are some tips that can help you:
Conduct Regular Risk Assessments
The law suggests that you should conduct risk assessments in any workplace with potential hazards. However, to ensure that the risks are identified and addressed, any kind of workplace, be it an office setting or a factory, should have a regular schedule for conducting risk assessments.
Fire Safety
Risk assessments should include an assessment of the electrical hazards and fire safety mechanisms in the workplace.
The fire extinguishers should be regularly inspected, the employees should regularly be trained for SOPs in case of a fire like fire drills or refresher training, and fire exits should be easily accessible.
Incident Logs
Every workplace should maintain an incident log where any incidents or near misses are recorded. Many workplaces also make sure that near misses and incidents are communicated to the employees so they can understand the importance of maintaining a culture of safety and play their part in the overall health and safety of the company.
Emergency First Aid
Each minute after a cardiac arrest reduces the chance of survival by 10%. To take care of the safety of the employees, it is important to train employees to identify cardiac arrest and give first aid. In some states, the heat can increase the risk of heat strokes. In these cases, as well, emergency preparedness including employee training and availability of first aid kits greatly reduce this health risk.
Mental Wellbeing
With the increase in mental health problems, it is up to the employees to take care of their employees’ mental well-being.
Many employers offer free in-house counseling and therapy sessions for their employees. Others include mental health help in their health coverage. Not only do mentally healthy employees make sure employee commitment to the organization, but they also make sure that they are focused rather than inattentive, thus safe from human errors that could cause physical damage.
Conclusion
Your workplace needs to be safe for you to keep away from legal trouble and keep your employees committed to the work. In this guide, we have presented five tips that you can use to make your workplace safer for the employees. However, having a healthcare consultancy is greatly beneficial to reducing workplace risk and reducing costs associated with compensation premiums and health and safety costs.
