What good ways are there to improve safety in the workplace for everyone? Seven years ago, the cost of illnesses and disabling injuries reached about $57 billion. Consulting occupational health professionals are among the effective ways of gaining insight into preventing injuries. But could this be enough, especially if you have many employees depending on you?
While there is a no-size-fits-all approach to ascertain the safety of employees in a workplace, the following are ways to make the working environment safe for workers:
1. Run toolbox meetings
The safety of workers must be a priority of every employer. Knowing how to run toolbox meetings is important for employers to uphold. So toolbox talks and safety meetings need to be carried out regularly to educate employees on safe work practices and comply with training and security regulations. Toolbox talks and meetings about working safely are also vital to building a safety culture and reinforcing the commitment of your company to protect your employees. Holding toolbox talks and safety meetings regularly will prevent your employees from being complacent and prevent taking the importance of protection and prevention for granted.
2. Update the facilities
As you establish your company’s safety culture, you will need to look around the physical surroundings. Companies must keep their facilities updated constantly in the interest of the underlying safety culture. The good news is that many options exist to achieve this goal. This includes things like keeping the space clean. If you run your facilities with high-danger risks, be sure to convert them into smart buildings for optimum feedback on daily conditions. This will allow for automated warnings of area hazards, mobile monitoring, and other features, which make for faster troubleshooting and problem-solving. Other ways of updating facilities include:
- Signage
- Lighting
- Technology
3. Opt for lockout tagout training
Machines or pieces of equipment unavoidably break down and needs to be regularly serviced. It won’t be enough to shut them off and do the necessary repairs. According to OSHA, machines should have power sources removed, locked out, tagged out, and isolated from the main source to avoid serious injuries. Most serious accidents occurred when people thought the equipment was shut off safely. This is where Loto comes to play to offer protection to you and your employees by ascertaining that machines remain temporarily or completely off.
4. Identify safety hazards in the workplace
Before you start building a safety plan for your workplace, it will be best to understand and define the potential hazard sources. Identifying safety issues and hazards is one of the steps to protect workers in a workplace. The most common hazard include mechanical issues, restricted visibility, weather-related dangers, risks of falling, noise population, ergonomics, and hazardous chemicals, just to mention a few.
5. Prepare a safety manual
After the safety committee has reviewed and met all the materials offered to them, discussed safety plans that need to be implemented, and inspected the entire premise, be sure to have them prepare an effective safety manual. Consider looking for sample manuals or online templates to guide them through.
You should also share the safety manual with your insurer and other professionals you believe should see the document, like your lawyer. With this, your attorney should be in a better position to tell you where you can get into legal issues by making a few safety suggestions, which may violate laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act.
6. Consider taking breaks regularly
Your workers must take breaks regularly. The like of OSHA has put this in place for a good reason: tired employees are always susceptible to accidents. The more tired your workers are, the less likely they will be aware of their surroundings. So urge your workers to take breaks regularly so as to keep them fresh.
Concluding remarks
All workplaces have to ascertain property safety and health regulations. Organizational security and safety processes will help prevent and manage damages, thefts, and injuries in a workplace.
Photo credit: The feature image has been done by Gorodenkoff.
