When you are in a workplace, it is really important to take as many precautions as possible to ensure that it is accident free, since accidents can cost you a lot in time and money if they are severe. It will also make your employees feel a lot more safe and secure when they are at work, which will generally help them enjoy the work environment better.
Have a First Aid Kit & Implement Training
One of the first steps you must take in order to have an accident free workplace is purchasing a first aid kit as well as making sure you have staff that are trained in first aid. It is important that you have more than one person undergo training so that if one trained employee is not in work for any reason, you still have people that can help out. First aid training is not hard to get and is really beneficial. Many people think that anyone (untrained) can carry out first aid on someone, but this is not the case if your injury is more than a small graze. It is important for the healing process that you take the right steps to ensure a fast recovery.
Follow Health and Safety Guidelines
Everybody within your workplace should have a good idea of what the health and safety guidelines are and how they should follow them. This is generally done by taking them through a health and safety assessment when they are first employed and updating them on this every year or however often you deem necessary. If you are in a high-risk workplace, this should be done more often. It is really important that employees all take safety seriously and that you emphasize to them that it is one of the core values of your company.
You should be having fire drills regularly, and other relevant drills to ensure that people know what they should do in case of an emergency.
Related: What to Do if You Don’t Have an Emergency Fund
Follow COVID Guidelines
Particularly during times of COVID-19, additional guidelines must be put in place on top of the regular ones to keep everybody safe. Government guidelines should be followed by everybody and those in charge should take an active role in ensuring that these are enforced. This includes wearing a mask and washing your hands regularly as well as taking general risk assessments every so often to evaluate workplace suitability.
Make Sure Everyone is Trained to Use Equipment
Everybody in your workplace should be trained sufficiently with equipment, even if you are in a relatively low-risk area such as an office. Any equipment that could potentially cause harm should have training associated with it. If you have a piece of equipment such as a water boiler in a kitchen, training to use this should be offered but if not, then a caution sign should at least be put into place.
Equally, if your employees are required to lift heavy items at any point – whether this be computer screens, boxes or ladders, you must take them through how exactly this is done before they do the job. Even if they are not being harmed directly by the lifting, it is easy to develop back problems which is an indirect effect, so they should be advised on how to do everything properly and sensibly.
As an employer, it is your responsibility to sure that everyone stays safe. If accidents do happen, but you have trained employees sufficiently, then you will likely not be held responsible. However, if you do not take them through thorough training processes, you may be at fault.
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