As the boss, it is your prerogative to make sure that everyone is safe and secure while they work. Safety is a basic human right, but it isn’t as easy to implement as most people would like to believe. The office can be a minefield of potential hazards, and you must defuse each bomb. Otherwise, you could face a series of potential lawsuits due to injuries in the workplace. What you need to do is learn the best practices that will keep both you and your workforce safe.
Come to Terms with the Risks
From the beginning, you have to understand that it can happen to you at any time. Although a lot of workplaces are perfectly safe, it does not mean that regular checks should be avoided or that it should not be a concern of yours. Workplaces with the best safety records take their safety seriously. When you start to think that it will never happen to you, or you if perhaps just don’t care, you are in for a rude awakening. Your first task is to realize that your business is just as capable of being hit by potential disasters as any other business. Then, you can start to take the necessary precautions to negate the potential impact.
Survey the Area
The first job is to analyze what needs fixing in terms of safety. Take a good, hard look around the office and look for any problem areas that stand out. For example, are there any loose wires or low-hanging light fixtures? What about outlets that have a lot of electrical appliances plugged into them? Or even boxes that have been stacked too high or items precariously placed on shelves. Even the smallest detail can turn into a problem with the right amount of bad luck.
Implement A New Safety Strategy
Once you know where the problem areas are in the office, you can start to tackle them. There are no real secret tips to this particular method – make a checklist and fix each hazard one by one. It is that simple!
Get Legal Advice
You may want to seek expert legal advice if your workplace has had previous safety concerns. A lawyer that has years of experience and a great safety track record is essential. They can provide you with legal advice that will help your workplace to stay safe and will and leave no stone unturned. The majority of the hazardous areas are easy to spot, but some are more abstract and require a certain amount of knowledge. With a lawyer in tow, you can be safe in the knowledge that your business is a safe place to work.
Training
One fantastic tip to remember is that you cannot do it all alone. There is too much to do, plus you have the job of running the business to deal with. Your employees, on the other hand, only have the one job, which means they can shoulder more responsibility. A senior first aider or a health and safety officer can act as the middlemen and perform vital tasks when you delegate the responsibility. All they need is do is go on a senior first aid course or an industry specific health and safety training course. You might have to offer an extra incentive, but the money is well worth it in the end. Don’t forget to train employees too on proper lifting techniques and on the proper us and storing of hazardous chemicals if need be. Also make sure you have proper safety equipment on site if it is required to do the job in a safe manner.
When put safety first, you reduce the risk of any unwanted problems in the future.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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