One of the key responsibilities of the business owner, perhaps the most important of them all, is to provide a workplace that is free of undue risks to the health and safety of the people that work in it. Here, we’re going to look at some of the most vital strategies to a comprehensive health & safety approach worth adopting.
Ensure everyone knows their responsibilities
While you, the employer, might bear the brunt of the responsibility of protecting workers from health risks, you’re not going to be doing it alone. Health and safety training for your team is going to help them better mitigate risks and make sure that they’re working to reliable standards.
Pinpoint the risks in your workplace
OSHA guidelines can help you find ways to protect employees from risks in the workplace, but it’s always a better idea to take a closer look at the workplace to see which risks are legitimately the largest threats you have to deal with. Services like risk audits and process safety management can help you do just that. Get a better idea of which risks are most likely to happen and, as a result, get a better idea of where to invest in safety controls.
Equip them for risks outside the workplace, too
If your business’s services involve sending workers away from the workplace, you don’t suddenly lose responsibility. You still need to do what you can to keep them safe. In this case, it is most likely going to mean providing them with the personal protective equipment that they need to carry out their labor safely. Think about the health risks that come with the work they do and make sure they are equipped safely, even if it’s something as simple as good work boots to prevent slips, trips, and falls.
Keep your eyes peeled for threats
Forming policies and processes to address known risks is one thing. However, you should make sure that you are always keeping an eye out for new and unknown threats, as well. One of the best ways to do that is to choose one of your employees or to hire a new one to train and act as a safety officer. If it becomes part of one’s job to identify and alert you to threats, you’re more likely to not miss any.
Give employees the tools to address risk
You don’t need a safety officer to be made more aware of health and safety risks. By improving business communication and giving your employees a safe channel to report health and safety risks or incidents, you can act much more quickly on them. This can also include instances of assault, bullying, or harassment in the workplace, as it’s your responsibility to stop them, too.
Some businesses deal with a much smaller risk of illness or injury and, as such, you should manage your investments accordingly. However, you should never simply ignore risk or assume that there is none. Take a close look at your business and make sure you’re well aware of what risks there are and what you can do to mitigate them.
