How to Keep your Workplace Health and Safety Compliant

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The health and safety policy of your workplace is paramount, both to protect your employees and your company. Making sure that you stay compliant is no mean feat, especially since the exact regulations seem to change regularly. Here are just some of the ways that you can keep your company compliant.

Stay up to Date

With legislation changing quickly, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the latest rules and regulations. You can do this via industry news sites or by retaining legal advice or a specialist to help you out. While the latter options can be costly, they can end up saving you a lot of time and money further down the line.

Official government websites are good places to start, as this will give you the latest news right from the source. If you’re struggling to understand the lingo, you can always call up for further advice.

Talk with your Workers

It’s all well and good for you to look up the latest regulations, but if you don’t pass these onto your workers then it won’t be very effective. You need to give them this information and talk them through the latest changes that will be implemented in the workplace. Some workers will naturally be resistant to change but put rigid guidelines in place to ensure they are followed.

You can also give out handouts and checklists to make sure the information is to hand when needed.

Evaluate Jobs

Blanket policies will most likely need to be adjusted depending on the job at hand. For example, you might need protective equipment from a company such as Trimaco for one job, especially if the job requires some sort of surface protection, but not on another – on the Trimaco website, each product includes a detailed description, which is useful to reference when judging whether or not the equipment is necessary. Take each job as an individual assessment and provide your workers with the equipment they need to carry it out safely.

Refresh yourself on the different types of legislation surrounding jobs too, as there may be a long period of time between working in the same environment once more.

Conduct Risk Assessments

A risk assessment can be conducted by just about anyone in your company, as long as they have the right guidelines. This kind of regular check can highlight issues before they cause accidents or liabilities. The best people to carry these out are the ones that are in the area most often, as they’ll most likely be able to think of a few different hazards off the top of their head.

You should keep these assessments in order to ensure that the highlighted actions are being taken care of via a health and safety management system.  This is great for your work if health and safety ever becomes an issue, as you’ll be able to use these as evidence that it is important for you. Keep them in a safe place with an accident book just in case you have an audit to prepare for.

Health and safety legislation is no joke, so don’t fall foul of it! There are many ways to make sure you’re ahead of the game, whatever you do don’t fall too far behind the latest changes.