As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure, as far as possible, that your employees have a safe and healthy environment in which to work. Whether all of your employees are on-site, you have remote workers, or you offer your services at client sites, you need to offer the necessary tools and information so that your team do not suffer accidents and injuries. Although health and safety has become a byword for unnecessary bureaucracy, workplace accidents cost businesses billions every single year, but by following accepted processes and procedures, you can limit your exposure to this business risk.
Assess
Assess any potential risks by completing a health and safety risk assessment. Look around the workplace and identify anything that has the potential to cause injury or illness, no matter how seemingly trivial it initially appears. Assess how likely the risk is to cause an injury, and the likely extent of that injury. You don’t need to mitigate for every potential accident, because this would be unfeasible, but you do need to mitigate for those that are likely to occur and most likely to lead to injuries or illness.
For a lot of businesses, a risk assessment is a legal requirement, and insurance companies may demand to see one before they will consider offering a policy. What’s more, it can be used during any annual or other health and safety checks, to report on progress and identify ongoing areas for change.
Highlight
Not all changes can be remedied immediately, and in some cases, changes may not rectify the situation. Ensure that all hazards are highlighted. This can include highlighting potential dangers in health and safety policies, as well as literally highlighting hazardous areas using appropriate signage and other techniques. For example, low ceilings or raised floors can pose a hazard, but adding hazard signs will help prevent people from falling victim to them.
Improve
Once you have identified risks, look for ways that you can make improvements. There are many ways to improve safety conditions, including through the provision of reliable training and the offering of safety gear and equipment. Simply knowing of potential hazards may not be enough to prevent employees from falling foul of those hazards. It is down to you, as employer, to take suitable steps in order to mitigate the risk.
Train
Training will form the backbone of a lot of health and safety procedures and policies. Train staff on how to effectively set up their workstations to avoid Repetitive Strain Injuries, or have obligatory training for those that work at heights. If you have judged a hazard to have minimal risk, it may not be necessary to offer training.
Some job roles have mandatory training requirements, set out by law. These are dependent on the role fulfilled by an employee, but also on jurisdiction. Regulatory requirements differ from country to country, but even from state to state and city to city.
Training should not be considered a one-off solution. Regular training updates will ensure that health and safety practices are at the forefront of employees’ minds, and it will also ensure that your team has access to the latest techniques and tips to help avoid injuries and illnesses.
Equip
Sometimes, training alone isn’t enough. There are a lot of hazardous environments that necessitate the offering of safety equipment to those around. Safety equipment can be as simple as ear plugs to help combat repetitive and loud noises. Harnesses can prevent falls from heights, as long as they are used properly, and these are just two examples of the type of safety equipment you need to offer employees.
Maintain
Everything from safety equipment to the machinery and tools that employees use, need to be properly maintained. Poorly maintained equipment can fail, and because the individual expects the equipment to work, it may mean that they take fewer other precautions. As such, poorly maintained equipment can be worse than having no equipment at all.
Check maintenance requirements for your machinery and arrange for regular checks. If any problems are reported with the machinery, have them seen to quickly, because fixing a small problem is less expensive and safer than trying to remedy a huge error.
Update
Health and safety is not a one-off procedure. It needs to be conducted regularly and routinely to ensure the continued safety of those on site. Policies should be updated with any new training requirements, safety procedures for new equipment and machinery, and with updated health and safety contacts within the working environment.
When you do update policies, make sure that employees are aware of the changes. Have them sign an update to the policy, and ensure that training is offered for any new updates.
Health and safety is a highly scrutinised area of business. Many people see it as unnecessarily complex bureaucracy but, in reality, it saves lives and money, and it can prevent injuries and illnesses, so all employees should be encouraged to get on board with training and other processes.
Check out Garratts Solicitors for more information about common causes of workplace injuries and the most effective techniques to help combat and prevent them.