Every successful company is built on the hard work of the efficient, highly motivated, and engaged workforce. These qualities, however, will forever be out of reach if you can’t provide your employees with a safe work environment where they will be able to realize their full professional potential. These things should be taken into even more serious consideration keeping in mind the recent survey saying that private employees report 2.8 cases of work injuries per 100 employees. So, let’s look at a couple of ways you can efficiently address this issue.
Put more effort into training.
A well-trained and educated worker is a safe worker. That is why you have to ensure that all of your workers go through a very comprehensive onboarding process and have access to comprehensive and frequent training even when they become a part of the team. Also, keep in mind that these training sessions are not your final goal but rather the means to the goal. So, make sure to introduce some form of testing and scoring and don’t hesitate to offer the workers that are lagging behind additional help.
Leverage the labels and instructions
All safety procedures should be pend down in a simple and easy-to-understand manner and made easily accessible at every workplace corner. But, to be extra careful, be sure to make the documents available online. However, the simplest and most efficient way to pass the instructions down the ranks comes in labels, signs, and color-coding. These tools are very effective and can help the employees to work without a second thought and make a quick decision. So, use them wherever you can.
Provide good equipment and a clean work environment
You have to go all-guns-blazing, but even the small improvements make great cumulative results. For instance, if you provide your workers with the best men’s workwear, they will have a much better range and, in the long-term, be able to work with less effort and stronger precision. Similarly, clean floors, well-maintained work equipment, and the absence of any clutter will drastically reduce the chance of slips and missteps. When combined, all these things have a tremendous impact on workers’ wellbeing.
Establish rewards for compliance with safety rules
The effectiveness of the instructions and rules you have provided will be limited only by your workers’ willingness to comply with them. Therefore, make sure that all breaches of workplace safety conduct are penalized in some shape or form. Also, you should remember that positive affirmation is probably an even stronger motivator, so you should also offer the rewards for demonstrating initiative in this matter in the form of small bonuses and free days. The works will eventually steer in a positive direction.
Introduce more stretch breaks
Short breaks don’t affect the overall productivity, but they allow workers to quickly recoup, catch a breath, and then continue working with a much higher level of alertness. The recent guidelines by CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) even indicate that these short 10-15 breaks could even benefit from some low-level or medium physical activity stretches, Tai Chi, Yoga, office workouts, music activity videos, or any other form of exercise that promotes both mental and physical wellbeing.
We hope these few suggestions gave you a general idea about the strategies you can use to make your workplace much safer. Unfortunately, most business owners are afraid to engage in some initiatives to ramp up workplace safety, fearing they will require considerable investment and offer no certain results. However, that couldn’t be further for truth – if used effectively, even the smallest workplace changes can have a tremendous impact on the wellbeing of your workers. So feel free to make as many of them as possible.
