Five ways you can reduce workplace accidents
Want to reduce workplace accidents in your company? Here are five things you need to do.
No business owner wants an employee to be a victim of a workplace accident. Not only does it impact the employee on a personal level, it also affects your business’s productivity and could open you up to severe repercussions.
However, in many cases, business owners only do the bare minimum to prevent accidents, and workplace safety becomes an afterthought. By applying the proper measures, you can reduce workplace accidents and ensure the safety of your employees. Here are a few ways you can create a culture of safety in the workplace and reduce the chances of accidents happening.
1) Invest in the proper gear
To work safely, your employees need the proper work attire. Depending on your line of business, it’s important that you protect your employees from chemicals, airborne matter, heat, electricals, and biohazards. Safety workwear isn’t limited to work boots, masks, and helmets, either. You also need to account for things like noise reduction.
Supportive and protective footwear must be considered when choosing the appropriate personal protective equipment for work. Protective workboots that are the most comfortable and also protect the feet help to limit workplace overuse injuries.
When it comes to safety workwear, it’s dangerous to try to cut costs or corners. You can find safety work attire online for a fairly reasonable price. Just ensure that whatever you buy is compliant with industry standards.
2) Perform a risk assessment
To ensure you’re fully aware of any risks your employees may be exposed to, you need to perform risk assessments on a regular basis.
You should also make sure that health and safety plays an important role in training. Properly trained employees are less likely to make errors and practice unsafe behaviour. Something as simple as offering supplemental training on things like body mechanics could greatly reduce the chances of injuries and ensure that your employees are safe at all times when moving or lifting objects.
You should also instil a ‘safe culture’ in your company and make sure that your supervisors lead by example by obeying every safety rule, no matter how tedious they may seem. This attitude will trickle down and ensure that everyone incorporates safety measures in their daily tasks.
3) Don’t overwork your employees
Many accidents happen due to lapses in attention from overworked employees. Employees are often asked to perform multiple tasks at once, and some business owners might try to squeeze the most out of their employees, forgetting that they are human, and that there is a limit up to which people can perform optimally.
So, make sure that you don’t overwork your workforce with excessively long hours or unrealistic deadlines. This also means re-evaluating your staffing and ensuring you have the proper number of employees on the floor at all times. While it may be tempting to reduce work hours, you’ll eventually pay at the end with higher turnover rates, lower employee engagement, and more absenteeism.
4) Encourage your workers to report any issue
Your workers are usually the first to be aware of any safety issues at the ground level, and can often be aware of issues way before supervisors or inspectors.
In some cases, your employees might be reluctant to report issues due to fear of not being taken seriously or facing repercussions. So make sure that you encourage your employees to report any issues on the floor by having an open-door policy and responding positively to their complaints.
5) Screen employees carefully
You also need to screen employees carefully if you want to reduce the number of incidents. Make sure that you make safety requirements very clear from the get go. Pre-placement physicals will allow you to determine whether prospective employees even have the capacity to perform the tasks that will be required of them.
Workplace safety isn’t something that you can take lightly or just leave to chance. Make sure that you are proactive and always do what you can to make your workplace as safe as possible by providing your employees with the tools needed to do their jobs safely.
Photo by Aurelien Romain
