Workplace injuries are more than just disruptive and dangerous. If you’re not careful, these incidents can cost you a significant amount of money in workers’ compensation and material replacement.
Efforts to improve your facility’s workplace safety are both cost-effective and moral pursuits. However, the act of determining what safety measures suit your facility best is a matter of personal opinion. If you’re not sure where to start when improving your workplace safety, consider the ways you can marry employee productivity with steps towards increased on-site security.
Conducting Regular Building Inspections
Workplace safety inspections serve three purposes. First and foremost, they help you identify areas where your team may be lagging. Second, they help you identify current obstacles to your team’s safety. Third, they can help you identify conditions that may evolve into problems if they go unattended.
Related: Inspection Time - Be Ready
You can bring in members of your own staff, or representatives from a third party, to inspect your workplace operations. Outside opinions, even if they’re from people in different departments, can help you identify work safety hazards and their potential solutions.
Drafting Staff Safety Regulations
When it comes to improving the safety of your facility, the best place to start is with your staff. Meetings on workplace regulations and work danger let your team know what to expect from a day on the floor. You can also invest in safety measures including:
Comprehensive Training Programs
Learning is a lifelong pursuit. By requiring yearly or bi-annual training programs, you can ensure your team stays on top of the workplace regulations required throughout your industry.
Incentivized Employee Improvement
No one pursues a goal like an employee who’s appropriately incentivized. When you institute incentivization programs with rewards like free lunches, days off, or even bonuses, you encourage your employees to adhere to safety regulations more often. Work with your team to determine what kind of incentivization program is most feasible for you. From there, integrate the program into your training sessions and watch your team’s compliance with new regulations improve.
Building a Safer Site from the Ground Up
The security of your staff is something to bear in mind at all times. When you integrate essential safety features into your day-to-day procedures, you can improve not only your employee retention, but your productivity as well.
Invest in Safety Signs
Nothing is quite as effective at improving safety in your facility as a safety sign. OSHA requires specific sign and symbol usage on complex machinery, but you need to ensure your employees know what they mean. Make sure your equipment abides by industry safety policies, and you can protect your employees from accidents on the floor.
Work Cleaning into Your Daily Routine
The rule of cleanliness and its impact on mental wellbeing doesn’t just apply to your home office - it applies to your entire facility. When you make a point to keep your facilities debris-free and well-maintained, staff members are less likely to endure debilitating (and avoidable) accidents.
Integrate Breaks into Employee Schedules
A tired employee is an ineffective employee. If you don’t regularly allow your staff to take breaks, they’ll end up making mistakes that could endanger themselves and others. Consider first what kind of breaks state law requires you to offer, then expand upon those requirements. The better-rested and fed your staff is, the more they can do for your business.
Tips and Tricks for Improved Workplace Operations
Maintaining workplace safety and regulations is no easy feat, but it has to be done. If you want your staff to effectively serve your interests, you need to keep them as secure as possible. From intensive training to workplace redevelopment, you can take steps to ensure that your workspace design keeps your staff in mind. For help with inspecting your facility, and getting training set up for your staff, give us a call or email any time - Tate’s team is here to help.
