When running a successful business, it’s vital that you don’t overlook the safety and well-being of your employees. While productivity and results are important, so too is the health and safety of your workforce, without whom your business wouldn’t be able to function.
As a business owner, you need to make sure the right procedures and processes are in place to keep the workplace safe. While you might feel that health and safety regulations get in the way of productivity, promoting safety can actually help employees feel happier and respected. This, in turn, increases your company’s overall production while also avoiding costly accidents.
All businesses have to follow specific safety regulations to comply with the law. These include placing adequate safety signs such as those you can find at RS. However, there are still other things you can do to help make your company a safer place to work.
Health and Safety Leaders
Within your company, it’s important to nominate a person who will be responsible for promoting safety and ensuring everyone follows all proper protocols. While you can do your part to encourage safe practices, you can only do so much.
It’s important to find someone within your organisation who has the skills, knowledge and experience required to be a health and safety leader. They need to have good relationships with other employees, and be capable of informing and promoting safe habits for the rest of the team.
The best leaders are those who have the right qualifications and years of experience while also having a positive attitude towards health and safety. For larger workplaces, you may benefit from choosing several health and safety leaders, but the important thing is that they all have an influence on the rest of the team.
Employee Engagement
One of the best ways to ensure a safe and happy workplace is to encourage employee engagement with fun and informative training sessions. You want to build a strong workplace culture that places a focus on safety. This is a two-way process between you and your employees. Through engagement, you encourage mutual understanding. It also lets your team know what you expect from them.
Data shows that an engaged workforce is far less likely to have workplace accidents. It also increases the likelihood that your employees will report any safety risks. This makes it much easier to find and resolve issues quickly. The process starts with communicating why health and safety are so important.
One of the best ways to communicate why health and safety is important is to hold regular meetings. You can also use these gatherings to share stories and discussions on staying safe in the workplace. Additionally, it’s important to give your workforce a voice, providing them with surveys and listening to their feedback on safety practices.
Continuous Learning and Improvement
Always listen to your employees and actually take their feedback onboard. It’s easy to take their opinions and discard them, but implementing their ideas won’t just make your workplace safer, It also helps to make your team happier and more productive. You want your safety practices to change and improve over time, making employees feel safer and ensuring their opinions and ideas count.
Of course, any improvements need to be tracked, and your workers should be kept in the loop. Hold regular meetings and update your training to reflect new ideas and processes. , You should also ensure that all employees have access to the right resources. A central resource should include all the necessary details on the latest health and safety procedures.
Through continuous learning and improvement, you can ensure your business not only promotes health and safety but also protects against future risks and issues that can develop over time.
