Every business should be looking to prevent workplace accidents, but what steps can they take? These tips might seem small, but they can make a huge difference to your workforce and reduce the frequency of accidents.
Have a Safety Plan
Like with anything you want to achieve, it’s best to start with a plan. If you’re going to reduce accidents at the workplace, then you need policies that enable you to achieve this, and it needs to be accessible for everyone.
Safety should be a big thing for any business, and that means having a well thought out plan that’s focused on constant improvement.
Educate Your Employees
It’s one thing to have plans, but you need to give people the skills to create a safer workplace and to do this, you’ve got to invest in training. Training will allow people to do their jobs better and more safely, meaning there are huge benefits for your business.
It might take an upfront investment to provide your staff with extra training, but it’s sure to pay off in the long run. The right education can drastically cut accidents, so make it a focus of your plan.
Make Safety a Part of Your Culture
Have you ever walked into a business, perhaps a factory or warehouse, and it’s just felt like safety isn’t a priority?
That’s because safety is engrained in business culture. Some businesses end up with a culture of recklessness. They probably don’t intend for this to happen, but it’s just something that seeps into the way things are done.
If this is the case, then accidents will happen, and to address this, you need to look at changing the culture of the business. This is an incremental process, but it’s an important step in reducing accidents.
Maintain Facilities
Your facilities and the equipment you use play a huge part in workplace safety.
When small issues go unreported, that’s when things eventually lead to a serious accident, so it’s important to have a culture of reporting issues and then acting quickly on them.
For example, someone might have a small slip because of some old flooring. Because they didn’t get hurt, they didn’t report the problem, and the flooring didn’t get fixed. However, the next person who walks by might not get so lucky, and they may have a big accident. Instead, these things need to be reported to an expert such as Limegate Specialist Flooring at limegate.co.uk to get the problem resolved.
Protective Equipment
You’ve got to give people the right tools to get the job done. Protective equipment is a huge part of this, and it can make a huge difference to your accident rate.
Someone can dispose of glass bottles in the recycling a million times and not get a shard of glass fly up and strike them in the eye, but on that million and first time, they’re going to be glad they wore safety glasses. You never know when an accident might happen, but if you’re always wearing your protective equipment, at least you’ve got some protection.
