Health and Safety Strategies Your Workplace Needs

By: John Garcia | Date Posted: September 17, 2021

Here you will find all about health and safety strategies your workplace needs. Regardless of the industry or the type of business, workplace safety risks can be present anywhere. They are especially prevalent in certain industries where the risks to one’s person are often higher such as transportation, manufacturing, and construction.

But even the quietest of office environments could end up being the setting of a workplace accident if there’s something left out on the floor that could be tripped over, for example. It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that employees can do their jobs without the risk of being physically harmed or injured. Here are some of the main ways to make your workplace a safer place for everybody to be.

Accident Prevention Guidelines

Safety Strategies Your Workplace Needs

It is important to bear in mind that it’s everybody’s job to keep themselves and everybody else safe while in the workplace. Clear guidelines on how to best prevent an accident will ensure that all employees know what they should do each day on the job to keep the workplace safe. You can include these in the employee handbook or during onboarding safety training, along with strategies to take to prevent accidents at work and examples that you can provide to give employees a clear idea of what their responsibilities are.

Here are some more helpful tips on how to prevent accidents at work that your employees may find useful.

Regular Equipment Testing

Some equipment such as machinery or electronics can pose a greater risk of accident than others when they are not regularly maintained and tested. In workplaces where the equipment and machinery used has the potential to be dangerous, it’s important to make sure that it is subject to rigorous regular testing. And it’s not just the obvious dangerous machines like power tools that need to be tested. Electronic equipment like computers, for example, can easily cause fires if they are not working correctly or are unsafe.

If you have no idea what equipment has to be tested and why look for someone who does. The computer example is a clear one to highlight the fact that most people have no idea how to test it to see if a fire is likely or not.

Report and Record

Accidents might be inevitable in the workplace even if you have strong safety procedures and guidelines in place. No matter what kind of work setting you are managing, making sure that all accidents are reported and recorded, no matter how small, can make it easier for you to see where future improvements can be made. Having an accident book allows you to clearly see the cause behind many workplace accidents and gauge the difference made when certain safety measures are put in place.

Ongoing Training

Ongoing training for employees is an important part of keeping the workplace safe and accident-free. You should always make sure that employees are appropriately trained and certified wherever required to use the equipment that they need to do this job. In addition to this, you may want to consider providing regular general workplace safety training including recognizing common hazards and steps to take in an accident to keep the knowledge fresh.

Any workplace can have several accident risks and hazards. No matter what kind of workplace you run, every business can benefit from keeping these health and safety strategies in mind.

Create An Effective Safety Incentive Program

Employees always achieve their goals faster and better when recognition is offered. This is why the implementation of a reward program that is incentive-based is a good idea. It encourages the employees to work together towards the creation and maintenance of a much safer working environment. Rewards are offered for decreases in hazards or accidents.

The incentive-based program can be a little complicated to create. It is always recommended to work with safety specialists who know everything about how to create an effective one. This is because there needs to be a balance between rewards. Smaller gifts will not motivate anyone and very large rewards will encourage employees to stop reporting accidents.

Points-based systems are usually the best and when it comes to what rewards are offered, what counts is giving diversity. The employer should be able to choose their rewards after a specific number of points is reached. This allows you to recognize employees, connect with the workforce, and honor all accomplishments.

Work With Health And Safety Occupational Specialists

It is always best to have a consultant help you, one who is an expert in occupational health. This offers injury prevention insights you cannot get alone. The specialist will perform advanced data analysis to learn all that is needed about working environments and all the procedures used by the employees.

The health and safety occupational specialist will analyze the organization’s policies and make sure that they respect industry regulations. Then, they can easily create brand new training programs and deploy them so that the main issues of the organization can be addressed. Such programs include best safety equipment use practices, exact policies that prevent injury or disease, and even simple general improvements that address worker health.

Actively Encourage Breaks

To maintain high workplace productivity, employees need to be encouraged to take breaks at the right intervals of time. A schedule of breaks has to be created. When you have regular breaks in place, employees manage to remain alert. Also, the employees are helped to effectively avoid injuries and stress.

Remember the fact that stretch breaks are very good when it comes to improving employee health and workplace efficiency. Stretch breaks will help deal with tears, strains, sprains, and even muscle soreness. They help deal with common workplace injuries, pain, and so much more. Even five-minute breaks that allow employees to stretch will easily loosen joints and ease muscle tension. Even repetitive motion injury frequency is drastically reduced.

Health and Safety Strategies Your Workplace Needs

If the budget allows it, you can even create a special area where employees can relax and work out or simply stretch. This is not at all difficult to do and you do not need to build a full workout gym. You just need to have the basics in place.

Thank you for reading!

John
 

John is the founder and chief editor of Homienjoy. With over 15 years of experience in the home improvement industry, John is passionate about helping homeowners confidently tackle their projects. Holding a civil engineering degree and working as a contractor, project manager, and consultant, John brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Homienjoy community.

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