How To Minimise Injuries In The Workplace
By Business Desk
Tuesday, February 27, 2018.
Being in charge of a business is rarely easy, and there is a lot that you have
to handle every single day. However, as important as all of these other tasks
may seem, there is nothing more important than the safety of your employees.
Without your employees, your business would go nowhere, so when someone has to
go on leave because of an injury, it’s going to cause a huge impact, regardless
of how small or large your business may be. This impact is only going to be
increased if the injury was the result of something that you could have prevented,
and your company ends up being sued. To avoid this, here are nine things that
you can do to minimise injuries in the workplace.
1. Handle
Hazards Right Away
Make it
known to all of your employees that, if they ever spot a hazard, such as a
wobbly staircase or a spillage, they should come to you right away. When they
do, you need to do all that you can to eradicate or reduce this risk. For
example, with a spillage, you can mop it up and put up a wet floor sign, and
with a wobbly staircase, you could call someone out to repair it, or, at the
very least, put up a sign warning people that it’s shaky.
2. Carry
Out A Risk Assessment
All
businesses have to carry out a risk assessment to spot potential hazards, and
because you’re in charge, this is your job. You need to go around the entire
workplace, and make a note of anything that could pose a threat to you, your
employees, or customers, and then do what you can to minimise the risks. For
example, if the floor in your warehouse is slippy, you need to replace it with
something slip-resistant, like polished
concrete floors. You might also need to put up signs or buy specialist protective
equipment, depending on the risks.
3.
Educate Employees On Health & Safety
Once
you’ve carried out your risk assessment, you will need to write up some health
and safety policies, and ensure that all of your staff members are educated on
them. These could include anything from walking in warehouses rather than
running, wearing protective gear when necessary, and how to lift heavy loads
properly. If you don’t educate an employ, and they get injured, you will be
liable. Ensure that you write these policies up in a staff handbook and that
employees always have access to a copy, so that they can jog their memory on
things that they might have forgotten.
4.
Display Clear Safety Information
There are
a few signs that you are required by law to have up, including information on
the location of your first-aid box, directions to the nearest fire-exit, and
warning about moving vehicles. It’s important that these signs are somewhere
that can be seen clearly by customers and employees alike, or you could get
into a lot of trouble. If you have spotted any potential risks that you can’t
minimise, it’s essential to have these identifies with signs too.
5. Ensure
Employees Are Comfortable
While
risks like falling are obvious for people working at a height, it can be
difficult to find dangers in an office environment, as employees will spend
most of their times sat at their desks. However, just because a danger isn’t
obvious, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. Bad backs are a menace in office
environments, as employees often fail to purchase ergonomic chairs, and instead opt for cheaper, less comfortable
options. Never do this, as it will come back to bite you in the end. You also
need to ensure that your employees have access to drinking water at all times
and that there is adequate lighting where they are working.
6. Invite
Feedback And Suggestions
You may
have carried out your risk assessment as thoroughly as you could, but that
doesn’t mean that you haven’t missed a few things here and there, or that new
risks haven’t developed since your last risk assessment. Inviting staff to
comment on workplace safety can be a great way for spotting such hazards so
that you can deal with them before they can cause any harm. Keep a suggestions
box outside your office, just in case someone doesn’t want to come to you
directly for some reason.
7.
Provide First-Aid Supplies
As a
business owner, you are required to provide a fully-stocked first-aid box and
someone in charge of first-aid management, whether that’s you or someone else.
Preferably, you should have a few first-aid boxes in different places around
your premises, as well as a few people with first-aid training, including at
least one that is trained to help someone that is unconscious or bleeding and
can start CPR if necessary.
8. Learn
From Your Mistakes
Unfortunately,
you can do all that you can to minimise risks in the workplace, and something
could still slip through the cracks, resulting in an injured employee. If this
happens to you, you have to make sure that this injury is recorded in a book or
a computer document. This way, you can learn from this mistake, and ensure that
it never happens again, by making some changes and updating your health and
safety procedures.
9. Keep
Updating Health & Safety Policies
Unfortunately,
you can’t just carry out a risk assessment at the beginning of your
business and then forget about it for the next few years. Risk assessments are
things that need to be carried out at least once a year, to ensure that you
spot any developing hazards and keep yourself and your employees safe.
Preferably, risk assessments should be carried out more than once a year,
especially if your business is growing fast or you’ve brought in new equipment,
for example.
No matter
how much you prepare, accidents can still happen at any time. Just ensure that
you aren’t at fault, by doing all that you can to minimise the risk of injury
in your workplace.
