It’s the responsibility of an employer to makes sure that they look after their employee’s safety and well-being. To most this is something that is seen as obvious however, it can sometimes be difficult to achieve. You need to make sure that you have things such as the right equipment, safety protocols in place and make sure your staff are trained.
So how can employers make sure they are providing the best environment for their employees? Have a look below at some of the things you should be focusing on:
Make Assessments
The first thing you need to do is assess how safe the workspace you’re providing already is. Have a look at areas such as wires leading to computers and printers, safety catches on the windows, clearly identified fire points, etc. No matter how bad or good the assessment turns out you then need to put a plan of action into place to fix any problems and put a reassessment in the diary. It might be a good idea to send out a regular email or have an area on your intranet where any issues can be reported by your staff, At the end of the day they will most likely see more than you will just from completing an assessment as they work in the environment on a daily basis.
Look At Behaviours
Many employers forget that an important part of keeping your employees safe is to look at their behaviors and be able to identify any problems. This doesn’t mean that you need to invade anyone’s privacy, however, sometimes through no fault of their own people can go on a downward spiral and get drawn in by things such as narcotics and alcohol. Part of keeping your staff safe includes performing drugs tests in order to protect both the staff members who are using and the staff members who aren’t. You can find many drug test locations available and some will even come to your premises to carry out these tests.
Keep Aware
There is certainly a lot of areas you need to train your employees in. From using the equipment correctly to how to complete their job role, you need to make sure there is a recordable training program in place. It should also include training in areas like health and safety. Now that we live and work in a very digital world it’s important to make sure you include a section for internet safety too.
Designate Leaders
It’s proven that a team works better when there is a designated leader in place. Every employee will have or should have a basic knowledge base when it comes to health and safety, for both their benefit and that of their teammates. However, you should try to make sure that there are leaders within your team who can coordinate and take additional responsibility if something were to happen. At times this may include extra training off-site to ensure they’re able to deal with the stress and pressure of needing to keep collected in a dangerous situation such as a fire drill.
Sometimes accidents in the workplace happen which are just unavoidable. However, you should always make sure you have the right measures in place so that your employees can lead a safe life in the workplace. Do you have any other ways to help keep employees safe in the workplace that you can share in the comments?
