Workplace Health And Safety: Smart Ways To Prevent Accidents And Injuries

Preventable deaths in the workplace decreased by 20% in 2020, totalling 4,113, NSC Injury Facts reports. There were also four million injuries requiring medical attention. In addition to being physically and emotionally damaging, workplace accidents often have severe financial implications — costing employers $120,000 per injury on average. By improving safety in your workplace, you can better keep your employees satisfied, productive, and engaged.

Conduct a company-wide safety assessment

By conducting a company-wide safety assessment, you can identify all health and safety weaknesses across your business, as well as pinpoint cost-effective solutions. In particular, your assessment should include staff interviews, walkthroughs of your premises, a safety policy review, and reviews of workplace equipment and procedures.

When performing a safety assessment, you’ll know which aspects of your business need to be addressed or modified to ensure workplace safety and health. A safety assessment will also determine if your team requires first aid training Calgary to enhance security and be prepared for unforeseen emergencies. For example, if the review says that your premises are untidy and filled with scattered objects, you’ll likely hire commercial cleaning services to keep your workplace clean and clear of clutter. 

In other words, a company-wide safety assessment plays a crucial role in keeping your premises safe and healthy. Schedule the procedure regularly to obtain more positive results. Moreover, if you feel you lack the time or expertise to conduct your own assessment, an experienced health and safety consultant can do the job for you. Similarly, you may also want to work with a reputable lawyer who understands how the law applies to your business and any regulatory requirements you need to meet, Johnson Garcia explains. An experienced lawyer can also help you navigate any legal issues you may be dealing with.

Display clear and necessary safety information

Safety training is a key step in ensuring employees can smoothly handle workplace challenges. That said, instructions and guidelines should be made easy to understand, visible, and readily available; leaving employees to memorize complex methods and procedures can easily lead to potentially fatal mistakes. Ideally, use simple, engaging, color-coded signage to display key information that directly impacts worker safety in their immediate surroundings.

Moreover, keep an open dialogue with your employees about workplace safety. Encourage them to come to you if they have health and safety concerns. If you’re preoccupied with other important business matters, designate a health and safety officer to communicate and address employees’ concerns. Let your workforce report any hazards so your health and safety officer will take the necessary measures to prevent accidents and injuries. 

Consider conducting regular meetings with your employees if you want a more consistent way of providing safety information. Use the meetings to remind your workers about workplace health and safety and review rules to ensure your premises are healthy and safer. 

Implement a reward system

A reward system is an effective way to highlight existing safety protocols and encourage safe behavior in your employees, therefore reducing accidents and injuries in the workplace. For example, if your employees meet safety initiative goals, reward them with extra break time; this can even further improve safety by ensuring employees are well-rested before returning to work. Alternatively, gift card prizes are another great incentive. Choose cards for online stores or restaurants already popular with your employees.

Aside from the ones mentioned above, there are other creative ways to incentivize or reward employees who take workplace health and safety seriously. If you want a monetary-based reward, you can implement the ‘safety bucks’ reward program wherein you allow employees to earn money each time they address a safety hazard and cash in what they make at the end of the month. Another way is buying them lottery tickets to give them a chance to win prizes. 

Running monthly or quarterly initiatives can also be a good timeline for rewarding employees and help keep them engaged and interested in safety protocols.

Workplace health and safety should be a priority for all businesses. By conducting a company-wide assessment, displaying key safety information, and implementing a reward system, you can keep your employees as safe, productive, and happy as possible.

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