Employee safety should be a priority for any business owner or entrepreneur. Still, because not all situations and environments are the same, it can be challenging to identify which areas you need to focus on the most. Doing so will ensure your staff will feel comfortable and confident in any work environment, and this brings a range of benefits for the workplace.
With assured safety in all potential aspects, you can reduce the risk of unnecessary downtime and guarantee continued success and productivity throughout the workday and beyond. To give you a thorough idea of what areas to consider, here are 6 ways to keep your staff safe.
Practice Drills
Creating practice drills for a range of different hazard scenarios will ensure that everybody at the office or worksite can keep themselves safe should an accident occur. Such accidents can range from structural problems to fires, as well as flooding or other disasters that could impact your work.
Carrying out procedures for your staff helps everyone know what to do should something happen. It is best to carry out these drills regularly, usually once every few months, as this will drill the measures into their heads so that they can act accordingly should anything go wrong.
Planned drills where you inform your staff that an exercise will occur at some point is useful. However, you should also use surprise drills. This will help assess reactions in an unexpected situation and will give you information about how you can improve the process for the future.
Regular Training
No one likes training programs. Staff will often believe their time is better spent at their desk or completing tasks and projects. Despite this, much like drills will ensure the team knows what to do, regular training, both online and in-person, will keep their skills sharp as well as provide information for improvements in specific aspects of workplace safety.
Such training can include refresher modules that will reintroduce safety aspects to employees who may have become complacent. They can also undergo training for new equipment you introduce to the office. Providing this training will ensure that everyone is proficient and minimize the risk of accidents and safety breaches.
While some training can be informal, more serious training should come with a certificate that demonstrates they can operate equipment and devices when required. Even if some employees do not work with such equipment, they can still benefit from the training in the event they ever need to operate it.
Background Checks
As an employer, you want to have trust in everyone who works in your office. It is admirable to give everybody the benefit of the doubt, but putting your trust in anybody without a background check could leave your business exposed.
To ensure the safety of your staff and customers, you should make background checks a company-wide policy regardless of which department they work in. This will allow you to get an idea of any criminal history, and you can use your discretion to decide whether they are the perfect fit for your business and its culture.
Background checks are not perfect, and there is just as much of a chance that someone with a clear record could be a risk as there is someone with a record not causing any issues. As you are liable for everybody you hire, the background check can help mitigate any problems.
Rely On Technology
Technology has done wonders for employee and site safety. Any business with sensitive information or expensive equipment should invest in a security system, especially one that is remote, that allows you to view any incidents from wherever you are. However, it is not just security measures that can help with employee safety.
Construction sites, factories, and off-shore drilling locations come with a range of hazards that are unsuitable for your staff to investigate by themselves. This is because of potential structural problems that could cause severe injury and even something more serious. To overcome this, you need a remote solution that will allow you to diagnose the problem.
Commercial drone technology, such as the Matrice 300 is the solution to this. You can identify the problems without putting anyone at risk and then take the steps necessary to correct it.
Do Not Get Complacent
Complacency is a natural part of the human condition. We become comfortable with the routine, and the longer we do something, the more shortcuts and secrets we uncover to complete the job quicker.
Despite this, efficiency should not come at the cost of safety, and complacency can derail the workday and cause serious problems. Regardless of the environment of the workplace, you must make compliance with safety measures mandatory, and anyone who is found to breach these measures, therefore putting the wellbeing of others at risk, should be reprimanded.
It can sound harsh, but you must remind everybody that it is not just their safety that should be concerned with, but everyone’s. If your staff respect this policy, you won’t need to worry about accidents.
Let Them Work From Home
There is no safer way to ensure the safety of your staff than by allowing them to work from home if possible. Of course, this isn’t suitable for all professions, especially construction sites. However, for office work, you can reduce the risk of people suffering an injury or be involved in an accident.
If your staff can work from home, you should encourage that as much as possible. With fewer bodies in the office, there is less chance of crowding. It will also minimize the possibility of someone causing a hazard and making a mistake that could affect the office.
Because any hazard or incident can ground the day to a halt, there is the chance that you will miss out on productivity. By encouraging remote working, you can keep everybody on task and eliminate the risk of an accident.
Safety First
A safe employee is a confident employee. They are happy to come into the office or visit the site without the fear of experiencing an injury or suffering an accident. While you can never wholly protect your employees, as freak accidents will always occur, you can do everything in your power to make sure that they feel as safe and secure as they possibly can.
