What are some of the most important safety tips for the workplace? As a business owner, owning and running a business comes with many responsibilities. One of the most critical responsibilities is ensuring workplace safety for all employees. As an employer, it’s your overall responsibility to protect employees from potential hazards in the workplace.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, there were 2.6 million reported injury and illness cases in the private sector in 2021. Therefore, workplace safety is an issue that we cannot ignore. Fortunately, as a business owner, basic safety regulations can help create a safe and productive environment for your employees.
Basic Building Regulations
You can find many hazards in business buildings, which can pose severe risks of injury or illness to employees. For this reason, commercial buildings are subject to various regulations which help to mitigate these risks. Therefore, one of the most important safety tips for the workplace is to observe these basic building regulations. The regulations touch upon things such as electrical wiring, piping, building structure, and more.
To ensure that your building is safe and up to standards with this regulation, you should hire professionals to conduct the necessary repairs and maintenance. For example, one of the most common hazards in the workplace comes from electricity, where exposed wiring or faulty electrical equipment can cause fatal injuries to workers. Therefore, as a business owner, you should hire electrician services to ensure that your electrical equipment and wiring are in good working order.
Plumbing could also be a source of several hazards in the workplace. For example, exposed, broken, or leaking pipes can expose your employees to dangerous substances. They can also cause accidents and injuries from explosions (high-pressure pipes), slips, falls, burns, and more. Likewise, these pipes should be regularly maintained, repaired if damaged, and, where possible, concealed to reduce the risk they can pose.
Besides building features such as plumbing and electrical installation, your workplace building can pose a hazard to your employees. For example, a building with an unstable foundation can collapse, injuring or killing nearby workers. As a business owner, you can prevent this and other risks in your business building by organizing regular building safety inspections. These inspections will help ensure your facility is compliant with all necessary regulations, and if not, identify potential hazards that need to be addressed.
Environmental Concerns
Maintaining optimal environmental health is another one of the most important safety tips for the workplace. In a business setting, you can find many hazards caused by chemicals, biological substances (mold, leaking sewage, etc.), dust, noise, water, extreme temperatures, and many others. You must address all these concerns to create a safe working environment for your employees.
For starters, hazardous materials such as chemicals should be stored safely and securely. Your employees should also have the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect them from these hazards. PPE such as masks and ear muffs are also essential if your business suffers from environmental pollution (dust, noise, etc.).
Another tip for creating optimal environmental health is to invest in air quality improvement. Your business premises should have proper ventilation in the form of windows, doors, and air vents. You should also install HVAC systems, humidifiers, air filters, air purifiers, and air quality monitoring equipment, which will help create a conducive environment.
Lastly, you should promptly address any environmental hazards that pop up before they become serious. For example, leaking water pipes can lead to slips and falls, seriously injuring your employees. It can also cause flooding, mold growth, and even cause electrical accidents. Therefore, in such a case, it’s wise to conduct prompt water damage repair before the issue becomes serious.
Addressing Common Hazards
Besides building and environmental hazards, you can find several other dangers in the workplace. These include fire, injuries from workplace equipment, falls (stairs, slippery floors, elevated work areas), mold, poor lighting, awkward working spaces, etc. Having a system in place to address these hazards is thus one of the most important safety tips for the workplace if you want to keep your employees safe.
The first step towards addressing these hazards is to spot them. You can do this through regular checks and inspections of the premises. You can even train your employees on safety awareness and create reporting protocols that they can use to report these hazards once spotted. Another idea is to have safety managers in charge of inspecting and dealing with these hazards.
Once hazards are identified, the next step is to eliminate them. For example, staff should immediately clean the affected areas in case of water spills. Additionally, you should hire professional services to deal with hazards whenever necessary. For example, mold remediation services for mold removal, waste management services for dealing with harmful waste, etc.
You can also help address common hazards in the workplace through protection. For example, equipping your workers with PPE will help guarantee their safety when working. You should also invest in other work safety equipment such as smoke detectors, fire alarms, fire suppression equipment, first aid kits, signs and marking, and more.
Stable Ground
Another top tip for promoting workplace safety is to maintain stable ground. The floor is usually the source of many workplace accidents and injuries. For example, liquid spills on your floors and outdoor grounds can cause slips and falls, injuring your employees.
Damaged concrete and asphalt driveways can also cause falls, equipment accidents (for example, forklifts), and vehicle accidents. On top of that, cracked concrete in areas such as the basement and other indoor spaces can promote mold growth, which can be a severe environmental hazard.
Therefore, as a business owner, you should regularly maintain your grounds and remove any hazards, such as spills, that can cause injuries or accidents. You should also have any damaged floors and outdoor grounds repaired promptly.
Besides maintaining your grounds, you should also ensure that you have ample space inside and outside your business premises. Areas such as warehouses, loading bays, and parking lots can be dangerous due to the high-speed movement of vehicles and other machinery. Limited space in these areas can thus increase the risk of collisions, injuring your workers and damaging your equipment. Therefore, hiring flooring contractors and asphalt pavers might be a good idea if your business is suffering from a lack of floor and outdoor space.
Stable Structure
Having stable structures, such as roofs, is another one of the most important safety tips for the workplace. For example, a damaged or unstable roof can lead to puddles of water on your floor when it rains, creating slip hazards.
A leaking roof is also a fire hazard (due to electricity), and it can also lead to the growth of mold and mildew in your building. Furthermore, it can expose your employees to elements and could be a huge safety hazard if it were to collapse. Therefore, you should hire commercial roofers to maintain, repair, and, if necessary, replace your premises’ roof.
Aside from the roof, you should also maintain and conduct repairs on other structures of your business premises. These include the exterior and interior walls, stairs, windows, elevators, columns, etc. Damage to these structures can cause serious workplace hazards such as slips and falls, exposure to elements, mold and mildew growth, and collapses, which can seriously harm your employees.
Premises Security
Investing in premises security is another one of the most important safety tips for the workplace. A secure workplace guarantees the safety of your employees and other visitors who might come into your premises.
You can secure your business premises in several ways. Starting with the perimeter, you should hire professional security contractors for gates and fence installation. Perimeter security will go a long way in preventing unauthorized access into your premises, keeping away anyone who could harm your employees.
Besides gates and fences, you should also secure your entry points. Having fences and gates won’t do much good to your business (and employees) if there is no way to control who is entering the premises.
An excellent way to secure entry points is to use access control systems such as keycards and security cards. You can also hire security guards who check and verify everyone entering the premises. Other ideas include using baggage scanners, metal detectors, and physical barriers at your business’ points of entry.
Deterring Break-Ins
Break-in deterrents go hand in hand with premise security and are another excellent way of guaranteeing safety in the workplace. These deterrents help to prevent unauthorized access to your premises, keeping your workers and business from harm.
There are several tips for deterring break-ins in your business premises. One of them is ensuring that your doors are properly locked. You should also consider investing in reinforced doors that make it hard for anyone to break in. Likewise, you should make sure your windows lock correctly and, if possible, install safety glass, which might require a window replacement.
Installing alarms and security cameras is another way to prevent break-ins in your business premises. Alarms will repel anyone trying to break into your premises and warn your security team. Likewise, security cameras will deter most people attempting to break into your premises while offering you a way to monitor your property and promptly respond to any incident.
Financial Security
No matter how well you plan, injuries and accidents can still occur at your workplace. And when this happens, your business can become liable for injuries sustained by your employees, which can be financially draining. Additionally, some accidents, such as fire and structural damage to your building, can be pretty expensive to fix. Therefore, investing in financial security organization through business insurance is another one of the most important safety tips for the workplace.
With business insurance, your business can fix any damage that occurs, thus making your premises safer for your employees. Your insurance can also cover injury claims raised by your employees, saving you from incurring critical losses.
Having business insurance can also help in preventing workplace accidents. Most insurance companies require organizations to have in place workplace safety programs that reduce the risk of workplace-related accidents. These requirements can go a long way in making your business premises safer.
Coverage and Benefits
Insuring your employees is another excellent way of protecting your employees in the workplace. Many insurance companies offer employee coverage plans, which provide various benefits such as medical, disability, and time off. These benefits can come in handy during workplace-related incidents.
For example, employees injured during such incidents can receive excellent and prompt medical care. Injured employees can also receive compensation for work-related injuries. In addition, these coverage plans help to take care of employees who fall sick while working for your organization.
Safe Employees
Investing in the health of your employees is another one of the most important safety tips for the workplace. Sick employees can be a huge health hazard to your workplace and endanger other employees’ safety. For example, contagious diseases such as influenza and coronavirus can spread quickly in the workplace, wreaking havoc on your workforce. You should thus invest in proper measures to prevent such a scenario.
Investing in quality medical services for your employees is one of the ways you can promote a healthy and safe workforce. This can include having on-site medical staff or working with an off-site facility where your employees can get prompt medical care. Another great idea is having your employees covered under a group health insurance plan.
Besides offering medical services, you should also put proper prevention mechanisms in place to protect the employees’ health. For example, you should invest in improving indoor air quality to reduce the risk of contracting diseases and illnesses. Employee education can also help promote both health and safety in the workplace.
Employee health and safety is a significant responsibility of a business owner. The above are some of the most important safety tips for the workplace, which can help create a safe and conducive working environment. However, these tips offer many benefits other than just protecting your employees. For example, they reduce business liability, which can occur when employees get injured or become sick due to unsafe working environments.
Promoting employee safety and health also creates a conducive working environment and a strong and healthy workforce. As a result, you can boost employee morale, which leads to increased productivity.