7 Things Your Business Needs to Do to Keep Employees Safe

The United States labor force is strong with roughly 161 million people either currently employed or actively seeking employment. That’s about 45% of the population.

If you’re an employer responsible for the well being of a chunk of this massive amount of American workers, you have a lot of work ahead of you. An average of 99 employees in America every week succumb to fatal, work-related injuries.

Millions more are seriously injured and recover.

The key to providing safety in the workplace actually isn’t any single key at all. It’s a whole chain of keys that, when used in conjunction with one another, provide the conditions to consistently minimize risks in all situations.

To help you get a head start on your risk management, below are 7 of the most important keys to safety you should be taking seriously.

1. Admit That You’re At Risk

The first step to finding a great solution is admitting that you have a problem. Business owners and individuals all over the world suffer from a very flawed mindset of, “It can’t happen to me.”

This false belief that you’re impervious to adversity sets the conditions for something catastrophic to occur. So take a deep breath and say to yourself that your business, like all business’, is at risk of accidents occurring.

Once you get that into the open air, you can start moving forward with your safety arrangements.

2. Get Advice

What risks threaten your particular line of business the most?

Do you operate in a high-rise building and consequently, worry about fire and earthquake safety? Are you working in a place where the most real threat to employee safety is degenerative conditions they can get from typing?

Whatever your risk factors are, list them out and then talk to experts on how to circumvent your issues. Police departments, fire stations, ergonomic professionals and more will be more than willing to advise you on how to reduce risks relating to their expertise in your workplace.

Some may even be willing to give you and your team free or cheap classes.

3. Educate Your Team

Whether you get somebody to host a class or your collect information and disseminate it among your team yourself, it’s imperative that you take the time to educate your employees on safety in the workplace and remind them of it regularly.

To get started with this, we suggest doing your research on the top risk factors your employees are facing. Then, do your research on how to reasonably avert most of those factors.

Once prepared, call a meeting and present your team with your findings.

To take it a step further, schedule follow-up meetings quarterly to remind them about risks and how they can avert them.

4. Make Sure All Alarms are Functioning

If your office has alarms that detect harmful events (fire alarms, seismic monitors, carbon monoxide detectors, etc.) make sure that all of them are ready to notify you in case of an emergency.

You can figure out how to best perform fire alarm maintenance, carbon monoxide checks and more by referencing your specific alarm’s manuals or consulting an area expert.

Remember, negligence on your part to maintain your alarms could lead to accidents, lawsuits, and denials of insurance claims.

5. Practice Drills

This concept may be a throwback to your days in primary school or perhaps you regularly participated in drills when you worked for another company.

Either way, drills, and practice are key to being able to safely get your team through emergencies. Things like fires, active shooters, burglaries and more can all be made significantly safer by making sure everyone knows procedures well.

Don’t put your team at a disadvantage. Be sure to run drills at least on a quarterly basis.

6. Lean on Group Leaders

There’s only so much you can do to ensure safety in the workplace. In order to take some of the burden off of your shoulders, if you have a large team, it is advisable to nominate safety leaders.

Safety leaders can keep track of their group during drills. They can have micro meetings with the group they oversee to ensure they’re kept abreast on safety between your larger quarterly meetings. They can be your eyes and ears in the places you can’t see or hear.

Safety is a massive responsibility.

The more responsible people you can share managing it with, the higher your success rate will be.

7. Consider Self-Defense

This isn’t something that’s often covered in safety in the workplace courses. That’s because employees are more than likely to run into self-defense situations off company property.

Still, if you’re invested in your employees, basic self-defense can be pivotal in preserving their well-being. This is also valuable if you have employees who walk through dark parking lots late at night.

To give your employees a primer in self-defense, you can either subsidize their attending a local class or bring in an expert to give a seminar in your office.

Either way, something as simple as knowing the basics of how to get out of an altercation with a predator could mean life or death for someone on your team.

Wrapping Up Safety in the Workplace Tips

If you’re an employer, you have a legal and moral obligation to reasonably provide safety in the workplace. To get started meeting those obligations, our suggestion is to take seriously the tips itemized above.

Figuring out what your risk factors are, talking to experts, developing a plan and sharing it with your employees can mean a tremendous amount in mitigating the risks your office is subjected to each day.

The safer your workplace is the safer your company will be. So take the time today to start investing in safety and making it a cultural priority!

Want to know more about the best tips and tricks for maximizing your business’ success? If so, check out more of our content on Find a Business That today!

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