Protected and Productive: How to Create a Safe, Structured Workplace

No matter what type of business you own, creating and maintaining a healthy work environment is a primary goal. Healthy workers are happy workers. Safe operations mean less time and money spent addressing injuries or shortfalls in how you run the business. Here are four excellent ways to ensure that your business runs smoothly.

The Shoe’s Fit

If you own a small business that presents a low risk for injury or illness, your safety plan may simply be to hold weekly meetings to address concerns of the staff. However, if you handle food or have a large business, you’ll need to address the specific aspects of safety in your plan—cross contamination or procedure in the event of injury.

Assess Concerns and Identify Hazards

Bringing your employees into the loop, either in an informal meeting or through more structured communication can often help you to focus on the areas that need the most regulation. Knowing the opinions of the people who work for you and experience the working environment can also help you to cogently assess problems that general policy might overlook.

Hit the Books

When you design your policy, you should be familiar with OSHA regulations for workplace safety, common practices of other businesses in the same industry, and the scale of preparedness and infrastructure needed to implement your plan. In other words, do you simply need a checklist for a shift supervisor or do you require a full-time manager who will oversee production safety?

Training and Safety Culture

Providing excellent hazard management training for your employees at regular intervals will not only help to mitigate damage or injury. It will also ensure that you build a culture of safety among your staff. They will be mindful of risks as they work, and have a firm idea of how to handle crises should they arise. Your employees should also be informed of where to report injuries, if they happen, and when to report by. According to the work injury lawyers at Diederich Law Firm, failing to report an injury can hurt an employee’s chances of obtaining workers’ compensation benefits. For the protection of your employees, keep them informed of everything they need to know to both avoid and deal with workplace injuries.

In order to effectively keep your workplace safe, it’s important that you stay up to date on the latest policy from OSHA and other organizations. You should also make a point of providing regular refreshment training for your employees, and structured communication by which they can help to address issues that arise unexpectedly. As well, having standard, but flexible policies regarding illness or high-risk circumstances in your business can help you to ensure that illness is not spread without consideration and no one foments a dangerous situation due to an unaddressed condition.