How to create a safe workplace for your staff

Ensuring you provide a safe workplace should really be one of your top priorities as a boss. If it isn’t, then you might need to reassess your priorities!

Putting safe work practices into place should come from a place of wanting to care for your employees well being, but it will also completely cover your back if the worst should happen.

Failing to maintain a level of safety could land you with a nasty court case, or fine, and can stay on your conscience for the rest of your life.

There are simple steps that you must take to ensure that your employees are safe and well protected. Covering every possible avenue that could result in injury, health problems or damage, will ensure a more successful and safe work environment, and choosing to ignore these factors could make you liable to pay the price. Here are a few very simple tips to help you ensure that the workplace you provide for you staff is safe…

Practice What You Preach!

It’s vital to put safe work practices into order as a business owner. These are essentially the “dos” and “don’ts” of your workplace. An example of this would be “do be sure to wear a hair net when preparing food” and “don’t run with sharp objects”. However basic or obvious these practices may seem, they need to be documented and easily accessed as a point of reference or training resource. These practices should be clearly documented and easily understood, for your employees to learn from.

If your health and safety procedures are fully documented and easily accessed by your employees, in the event of an accident, you can refer back to these procedures and cover yourself and your business from any liability – failing to do so could be the undoing of your business.

As well as documenting and displaying safe work practices, it’s important to deliver the correct training to your employees – you can either conduct in house training, or send them off on industry specific courses. Be sure to also have refresher courses and deliver constructive criticism to your employee’s safe work practices to highlight areas of improvement in your company.

Create a Safe Work Environment

Creating a safe workspace is equally as important as training up your employees and expecting them to follow safe work practices. If you don’t have a safe work environment, then all of your other efforts will be wasted. This can be as simple as tidying away exposed wires, fixing broken chairs and having wet floor signs to hand.

One of the most important, but most overlooked safety factors in a workspace is indoor air quality. Studies have actually shown that having poor indoor air quality can be more detrimental to employees than poor outdoor air quality. It’s really important to make sure that your office acoustically monitored, and if it's a loud enviroment you provide the right ventilation such a acoustic louvres.

It should also be well equipped with the right ventilation systems to ensure that your office or workspace is being supplied with clean air and that any potential pollutants are removed.

Don't just hire anyone...

Whether you’re just starting out, or have a long standing business, it can be really tempting to make a quick hire. This is never a good idea. You have to remember that your employees make your company, so it’s really important to get to know the person you are welcoming through the door. Hiring the wrong person could be extremely damaging to your company, as they could choose not to practice safe work procedures, damage your reputation and upset the work environment. Be sure to conduct some level of psychometric testing, so that you can get an insight into their wants and needs, if they do not share similar long term goals, then chances are that they will not share your visions for the company!

The hiring process should be insightful and informative, so be sure to give your potential employee a health and safety run-down, covering all avenues, so that if you do choose to welcome them to the company, you have a point of reference.