July 27, 2020 How to Improve Business Safety

You need to be on top of the health and safety of your business.

Safety has always been important, but until recently, it hasn’t been enforced. When you consider just how young health and safety laws are, it only stands to reason that new laws and regulations will be rolled out in the future. You cannot and should not wait to be forced to improve the health and safety of your business. Instead, be ahead. Invest in health and safety inspections, audits, and consultants to improve your business in a way that makes sense.

You can always go too far, and safety measures become hindrances to your business. Striking that delicate balance, however, will mean happier, safer, and more productive employees. People want to know that they are respected by their employer, and one of the best ways to do that is by investing in both their training and your equipment.

Training

1. Ensure All New Employees are Fully Trained and Certified Before They Begin Work

If there are formal certifications in your state, do your due diligence and do not allow a new hire to work on the floor until you have these certifications on file. If they are training currently, have a note in their HR file when they graduate, and when their exam is so, you know when to start asking for their paperwork.

If there are no formal certifications, then you will want to create a training and safety regimen that ensures your employees follow your regulations. This could be a safety training onboarding week, or you can have a buddy system in place so that senior employees can train newcomers on the job in health and safety.

2. Have Training Refreshers Periodically Throughout the Year

People forget, become lax, and eventually start to develop their own way of doing things. Getting them involved with the health and safety development process can help you take advantage of any smarter solutions they may have come up with, but mostly you are going to need them to retrain to stay safe. Have regular training days and put your employees on a rotor. Give employees a day for training recertification, for example, so your business can continue to run, and you can ensure your employees know how to safely operate your machinery.

3. Audit Your Employees on the Floor for Issues

Employee feedback should be given to help address concerns. If one employee consistently wears their PPE wrong or doesn’t clean it properly, this must be noted and addressed. Have managers oversee these issues and make notes to put on file.

4. Listen to Suggestions to Improve Your Safety Protocols

At the end of the day, unless you are on the floor with them, you will not know what is safest and what isn’t. Work with your employees and specialists alike to come up with the best safety protocols. Not only will this make everyone safer, but you will also be giving your employees a key voice in the matter.

Equipment

1. Use High-Quality Equipment

Always use high-quality equipment, especially for delicate processes. Short path distillation equipment, for example, must be effective and sturdy, able to handle regular use without breaking down or shattering. A high-quality investment will allow your employees to do a better job and stay safer, as the thickness and quality of the glass makes a difference.

2. Set Up Regular Maintenance and Inspection

No matter what the equipment in question is, it must be maintained, and it must be inspected. Inspections should be done regularly, either at the end of the day or before its use in the mornings. By having set checklists from industry specialists created for each of your significant types of equipment, you can make it easy for your employees to make a note of any problems.

Maintenance should also be done regularly, though the specific time frame will depend entirely on the job. Have alerts set up automatically so that no one will ever forget. You can even require a sign off on the job being done before the alert disappears so that you can put it in your records.

There are so many ways you can improve your company’s safety, but to ensure that the efforts you put into place work, you need to have your employees involved. They are the ones on the ground, after all, and they will have suggestions on what is and what is not effective. Sometimes you might not have a choice if it is a regulation you must follow. Other times you will be able to use their suggestions to make your workplace safer for everyone involved.

James Daniels

James Daniels is a freelance writer, business enthusiast, a bit of a tech buff, and an overall geek. He is also an avid reader, who can while away hours reading and knowing about the latest gadgets and tech, whilst offering views and opinions on these topics.

Subscribe to Industry Today