3 Essential Tips To Improve Workplace Safety

Whether you run a business in construction or have workers operating at height, you have to establish a solid workplace health and safety plan. Here are a few tips to improve your strategy and boost job site safety.

1. Create a Health and Safety Plan

As a business owner, it is your responsibility to identify workplace hazards and take all necessary steps to eliminate or minimise them. The first step is to create a solid safety plan that tells your employees how you’ll improve safety and what is expected from them.

When working at height, hazards can include:

• Unsecure roof edges
• Fragile roofs
• Slippery surfaces
• Inappropriate access ways
• Climbing ladders while carrying heavy equipment

To minimise all risks, inspect the work site regularly and check all equipment. Make sure it is maintained as expected and safe to use. In case of modular scaffolding or access ladders, make sure they are installed and maintained correctly.

Other temporary structures, such as a flat roof fall protection barrier or fragile roof demarcation systems, must also be installed correctly and securely.

When not in use, make sure all equipment is dismantled and stored in a safe manner.

Consider all potential hazards and create a workplace health and safety manual, including rules and procedures your employees must follow.

2. Train Your Employees

Training is key to solid workplace safety, especially when there is a risk for potential fatal injury associated with the job.

The easiest way to let your employees know what you’re expecting from them is to provide written instructions for safe work procedure. In this way, each employee can check the procedure whenever they’re unsure of a task.

It is also crucial to supervise your employees. As odd as it may seem, it is the experienced employees who need more supervision, because they tend to be more negligent.

Remember, not providing correct training or not supervising your staff not only endangers their safety, but it makes you liable for both minor and serious incidents. 

3. Maintain Records and Keep an Open Dialogue

Once you have implemented a solid safety procedure and trained your employees, make sure to maintain records of all training activities, inspections, first aid interventions, and incident investigations.

Records can help you identify unsafe work procedures and any trends, helping you update the safety procedures and further improve your workplace safety.

Keeping an open dialogue with your staff through regular health and safety meetings is also crucial. Encourage your employees to share their concerns or ideas to improve safety when working at height.

Summary

Improving workplace safety should be a key part of your business. It shouldn’t be an afterthought or something to take lightly.

Just as you invest in financial planning, recruiting, customer service, and inventory control, you should invest in workplace health and safety too. After all, this is the only way to protect your business’ most valuable asset – your people.