Employee safety needs to be a top priority for your company. Whether talking about appropriate workwear clothing, safe practices, the condition of equipment or other important issues, it all matters. The weakest link is what will likely lead to a less than safe workplace and potential issues derived from that. Here are five efficient ways to keep employees safer at work.
- Equip Staff with Protective Clothing
When it comes to protective clothing, it depends on the employee’s role whether it makes sense for them to don a safety workwear jacket from a reputable supplier like engelbert strauss or stick to general work attire. Indeed, engelbert strauss have a wide range of workwear suitable for different job types in a variety of colours, sizes and attractive designs.
The main thing with safety wear is that it should be durable and enhance the protection for the individual whilst also being comfortable. The engelbert strauss safety clothing is designed around comfort and functionality. Whether that means trousers with multiple convenient pockets to store items regularly needed on the go, or a softshell bodywarmer to keep out the wind while unpacking delivery trucks. Multiple layers are often advisable to handle various weather conditions too.
There are also several high visibility work clothing options with reflective strips and patches to help employees stay safer when outside the office on company business.
2. Broader Risk Assessment
In addition to providing safety workwear, you need to perform a safety audit to make a risk assessment for the company. Consider what risks are present for employees when people come onto the premises. This might be the general public, customers, former customers, or current or former employees.
Review places of access for people visiting the business. Is there a security guard outside the building or at least looking over CCTV monitors to review the area for any unusual activity? Resolve any issues where people could lurk just on the edge of the car park, for instance, to keep people safer. Also, ensure the grounds are well lit for the later months in the year when it gets darker early in the day.
3. Be Prepared for Emergencies
Be well prepared for emergencies. Rather than being caught out with inadequate procedures. Create standard procedures to follow, appoint people responsible for directing staff during an emergency, train them and run practice drills.
An evacuation due to an emergency can be for a number of reasons including a dangerous person in the vicinity, a local fire, or a natural disaster making the building unsafe.
Standard preparations include having exits marked and emergency lights installed to illuminate the way in the event of a power cut and a fire at the same time. If parts of the business use dangerous materials, create special procedures for an orderly shutdown of that part of the building and a smooth exit for staff who work there too.
4. Attend to the Smaller Things
Implement a clean desk policy. This also extends to the surrounding areas. There should be nothing on the floors that could be problematic.
There needs to be sufficient electrical sockets to plug into. These are usually under a desk with cables leading up to a computer and other equipment on an office desk. Where power cables must extend from a main power socket, use a floor tidy (a rubberised floor covering) to cover the cables to make them safer. Organise to get the number of power sockets increased when there’s a shortage too.
Look for anything that could cause someone in the office to trip and fall. Re-position desks away from exit points and busy areas. This avoids them being an impediment to staff exiting the building quickly in an emergency. It also prevents a chilly wind draft as the nearby door opens and closes frequently, not to mention the ongoing distraction of foot traffic.
5. Alarms and Windows
Verify whether the windows have safety catches or window restrictors to prevent them opening too wide to the point where someone could fall out. If they’re not present, see if they can be installed on all windows.
Look at the alarms both for the windows and doors, and also smoke and other detectors. Some might have malfunctioned since they were last checked. Others may have a battery that’s run flat. Set up a new procedure to double-check the status of every alarm on a regular basis to avoid getting caught out.
Safety in the workplace is a complicated topic. Simple things like providing reflective jackets for anyone heading outside can make a big difference to employee safety. Similarly, sensible policies inside the premises and training staff on keeping everyone safe while at work make a huge difference to the smooth and safe operation of the company.
