Employee safety should be in your mind at all times. This is not something esoteric, or some social consideration you must deftly manoeuvre around to get right. This is something which is practical, and has real life important consequences. The importance of this is hard to downplay. If you find it at all important to keep your staff healthy, your business running, and your insurance premiums down (preferably in that order,) then you need to enact solutions to give your employees the most positive and healthy workplace you can.
The following list will offer you some solutions to make sure this is the case.
Hold Regular Safety Meetings
While there is no legal policy which demands you continually drill safety in the mind of your employees (past their standard induction to your firm,) it’s important to understand that this knowledge can fade over time. An employee should never be more than six months away from or before a full daily safety briefing. This should be so even if nothing has taken place to change the office environment. Simply going over how to act in event of an emergency, where the safe meetup points are, how to contact emergency numbers and which ones to reach out to, as well as regular fire safety drills are vital to keep everyone prepared.
It’s important you factor in that these dangers can and do happen. It’s easy for employees to feel as though a safety briefing is a day they can spend away from their desks and in a meeting. In fact, this should be the day they are the most aware and attentive to your aims. To help with this, consider making these meetings fun! Invite guest speakers from the fire department, or factor in safety lessons into your general team building activities. This is much better than stuffing everyone in a meeting hall and talking at them for eight hours. Your staff need to understand that safety is the glue which holds everyone together, so make them feel that viscerally.
Incentivize Safety
If you can, financially incentivize safety. Of course we’re not talking about paying people to run in and safe workers from a burning building. We’re talking about paying for staff to qualify in first aid, or other relevant qualifications. If a staff member truly needs it, having someone nearby skilled in this can help save their lives. No one wants a death in the office, so this is one of the most important things to preemptively take care of. You should have a minimum of 30% of your management trained in first aid too, and there must always be at least this many in the building.
Having 30% of your staff trained in first aid is great. Having almost everyone capable of it is even better, even if they’re not designated on your dedicated responsible first aiders. It’s easy to understand why this is.
None of this will work however if you delay in restocking your medical cabinets. You should keep a minimum of two first aid boxes for every ten staff members. This sounds like overkill, but sometimes you may truly need it, particularly in the event of a tragedy. Continually restock this cabinet as it becomes used or ages.
Consult
You might have a great idea of how your safety protocol could and should work, but it’s always best to consult with the experts about this. Consider bringing in someone from the fire department, or someone with experience in this field to gauge any fire safety hazards you may have in the office. Continually check for pests and lay down traps/poison in those storage areas that are likely dark and sometimes damp. This is especially important if you’re running a business in the hospitality industry.
Bring in a mezzanine gate specialist to help you install and utilize high risk transportation of storage goods is great too. Anything which allows your employees to transition heavy loads while being protected by fall hazards should be respected in the highest degree.
Also consider public safety, particularly if you run a store or open business. For example, think of how easily people can evacuate your restaurant if there is a fire hazard in the kitchen. Consider how busy and stocked a full restaurant can be with coats, bags, baby strollers, and organize your table layout around this to facilitate open movement in the event of a fire. No matter who you are, there is always room for safety improvement, for both your employees and patrons.
With this advice at your side, you are much more likely to enjoy a wonderful safety presence in all firms you manage.
