As a supervisor or business owner, you are responsible not only to pay your employees their fair wages but also to ensure their well-being while on the job. While you don’t have to provide luxury accommodations or special perks, you are expected to ensure a safe, healthy, and comfortable working environment. Here are four basic needs every employee is entitled to.
Safety Equipment
Whatever the work may require, employees should be given safety equipment for protection. This might be as simple as grounded electrical wiring in their offices, or it could necessitate construction gear for outdoor work. Safety training, first aid kits, and protective measures of all kinds to maintain a safe working environment should be implemented and updated as needed.
Healthy Environment
You should ensure that your workspace has good air circulation. This will help prevent air contaminated with viruses, bacteria, toxic fumes, or smoke from affecting your employees. The temperature indoors also needs to be comfortable for the average worker, with modifications available as needed for someone who has a specific condition.
For example, an employee whose body temperature runs low due to a health condition or a medication being taken could feel chilled at times, so a space heater could be provided for their use.
Pest control may be necessary to remove rodents, insects, and bats or snakes that have taken refuge in the building to protect employees from harmful exposure.
Clean Workspace
A clean working environment is essential for employee health and to ensure consistent productivity. Immediate problems like spilled substances that need to be cleaned up or a messy storage area that poses a trip-and-fall risk should be immediately addressed. Shared work areas and restrooms must be kept clean and tidy to avoid spreading germs.
General cleaning is also important to remove dust from surfaces and debris from carpets, as employees with respiratory conditions may find it difficult to breathe otherwise. You can hire a commercial cleaning crew to handle these needs if the company doesn’t already have a maintenance department.
Security
Secure entrances are important everywhere to ensure unauthorized persons, especially those with criminal intentions, do not enter the company to cause problems. Parking areas should be monitored for security, and employees who are concerned should have someone available to accompany them to or from their vehicle, especially after dark.Computer and record security is also important to protect employees and the company from cyber attacks.
Business owners are legally and ethically responsible for their employees’ well being while they are at work. Make sure you are providing for these important needs to protect your workers.
Anita is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn’t writing.
