This is a guest post by Jess Cooper.
Every company that wants to succeed should strive to provide their employees with a safe and healthy workplace environment. It should actually be a top priority. Employers are responsible for ensuring that their employees have proper working conditions so they could do their jobs well.
However, this goes beyond merely putting up posters all around the company premises. You should really give your best in ensuring such a workplace environment and make your employees excited about it. Let’s take a look at how you can make a safe and healthy work environment in a few simple steps and practices.
First of all, you should promote health as well as regular checkups. Then, you should keep the workplace clean and have employees wear protective gear or uniforms, if necessary. You should provide your employees with proper health and safety training and have a plausible safety plan. You should always be one step ahead of potential hazards and give all equipment regular checkups. And lastly, there are even ways to make safety fun!
Read on for 8 ways to improve safety and health in the workplace - check them out.
1. Promote health & regular checkups
Workplace health starts with every individual’s personal health. We can’t have a healthy workplace consisting of unhealthy people. So, you as an employer should work on promoting overall health. When we say ‘health’, we mean both physical and mental health. For example, what usually happens is that adults somehow rarely find time for regular checkups, even though they could, if they tried harder.
You can help them with this issue by organising regular checkups for the whole company. Also, you should supply your workplace with a first aid kit your employees could use in case of a smaller injury. In addition, you ought to provide first aid training to your employees.
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Another way you can ensure a healthy workplace environment is to use drug testing kits occasionally to ensure employees are not a danger to other employees or the general public, as a result of using illicit substances while working. However, before you use drug testing kits, it is important to ensure that you follow the applicable employment law when doing so, and that you have a company policy that covers this eventuality.
2. Keep the workplace clean
The next step involves keeping the workplace itself clean. It’s essential to employ people who are eager to contribute to a safe, healthy and fresh work environment. You should openly speak about what they could do to avoid mess, accumulated garbage, clutter and smell.
Everybody should clean up after themselves, that’s one thing. And another thing, everybody should take care of their own desk and working space.
When it comes to keeping the surfaces and floors clean, you should hire professional cleaning services. They will make sure to clean and wipe everything thoroughly and thus prevent viruses and bacteria from thriving. Moreover, there should always be paper towels and soap in the bathroom.
3. Have employees use protective uniforms and equipment
Some workplaces require employees to wear protective equipment or uniforms. If this is the case with your company, you should follow these rules strictly. Not only that, but you should also opt for high-quality uniforms and equipment that will do the job of protecting your employees.
As an employer, you should do everything you can to protect the lives of your employees. It is essential from another aspect as well. Namely, if your employees notice that you’re not investing in proper equipment and uniforms, they won’t feel safe or content. And this can affect their productivity and motivation. The right uniforms and equipment can mean life or death in some jobs.
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4. Provide your employees with proper training
There are different learning and training needs in every company and plenty of courses you can consider. You should consider what your training needs are and choose the best training courses according to your needs.
All the employees should be properly trained in terms of health and safety each workplace requires. Both the employer and the employees should take these health and safety training courses seriously. Depending on their knowledge and skills, you can opt for starter, medium or high-level courses to suit your specific needs. You should train all new employees as well as those who change positions within the company.
5. Have a proper safety plan
Every company should also have a proper safety plan. A proper plan can minimise any potential accidents that can happen during working hours. A good plan includes all the necessary equipment for doing the job right as well as addressing any potential issues.
Also, your company should have clearly marked and functional exits, which your employees should know about. These things are crucial as they can save lives. You should keep them informed about safety protocols, so they would know what to do in cases of emergency.
6. Be one step ahead of potential hazards
You should be on alert when it comes to potential hazards in the workplace. Some workplaces are such that they pose physical or chemical hazards. You should be proactive about preventing these from happening. That means that you should do everything you can to ensure the proper functioning and no malfunctions or improper installations.
You should regularly check electric outlets in offices and generally, all types of work environments. You should remind employees from time to time about using equipment properly as well as how they can void slips and falls. Also, you should encourage employees to report any issues or strange things, which you should inspect ASAP.
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7. Inspect the equipment regularly
Firstly, you should provide your employees with suitable equipment. It should enable them to do their jobs easily and well. However, when you do that, you should maintain that equipment in order to ensure its longevity and quality functioning. So, you should either inspect the equipment yourself or hire a company to do it for you. You can also use a combination of the two. What's important is to deal with any, even the smallest issues right away.
8. Make safety fun
Even though safety by itself is no game, there’s no reason why we couldn’t make it fun for our employees. In that case, employees are more likely to follow all the rules and precautions eagerly. If you make it sound exhausting, daunting and meaningless, it’s more likely that employees will go past some regulations. You can create safety-themed quizzes and reward employees. You can send some fun videos related to the topic or amusing memos. You’ll keep your employees engaged in that way.
Being an employer means having a lot of responsibilities and sometimes even people’s lives at stake. That’s why safety and health shouldn’t be taken lightly.
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About the author
Jess Cooper is a part-time journalist and blogger based in Sydney, Australia. She is an energetic and highly motivated person with plenty of interests. The most prominent areas of interest include makeup and cosmetics, fashion, style, event organisation and decoration, healthy food, fitness, learning languages, pursuing a career as well as home improvement.
Jess loves learning about new things and having the chance to combine those insights with her ideas and spread them to the world. She enjoys having a mindful and well-organised, healthy life, filled with all kinds of different activities and interwoven with close friendships.
