5 Tips to Maximise Employee Safety at Your Business

There’s always a need to maximize employee safety at your business. You would never want someone to get hurt on your watch, knowing you didn’t do all you could to prevent it.

Set Boundaries and Rules

We live in a society based on rules. And because of that, there is some semblance of control in all areas of our lives. At your business, you set the rules. Of course, there are some rules established by law. But others are optional. Yet being given the option of whether to enforce some rules and not others doesn’t mean you should ignore them. This is why it’s essential to draft a health and safety policy in your workplace. An approach like this ensures everyone knows what and what not to do. And it is a legal requirement under British law.

Provide Adequate Training

You can reduce the number of workplace incidents by providing training to all employees using anything potentially dangerous. Of course, some hazardous workplace items, like heavy machinery, require licenses anyway. But there are plenty of things that could be disastrous that don’t. For example, suppose you own and manage a beauty salon. Then your employees need to know about the potential dangers of the chemicals used in hair dye, nail application and cosmetic treatments. So ensure they are qualified or provide the necessary training.

Maximize Employee Safety with Security 

Your business is always at risk from crime. But one of the simplest ways to prevent criminals or help catch them later is with security. You don’t need to hire bouncers to stand in your store, and security can be as simple as a single Wi-Fi-enabled CCTV camera or data protection. Additionally, you can help reduce workplace violence. In the UK alone, there are almost 700,000 colleague-on-colleague incidents of violence per year. So you need to protect employees from each other just as much as anyone coming in from the outside with the intent of doing harm. 

Hire Someone for PAT Testing

Our world relies on devices for almost everything. And you will invest heavily in electricals and electronics at your business. Yet even the best electrical devices can fail. And when this happens, they pose a severe risk to your business, employees and customers. But you can mitigate the risk with PAT testing. There are Class 1 and Class 2. Class 1 is mains-powered and grounded, and Class 2 is mains-powered and ungrounded. These should be checked every two years. In addition, cables and portable equipment require a PAT test each year.

Practice Emergency Procedures

Your business should have emergency alarms for anything that can happen, such as fire or flood. And you need emergency procedures for when something happens. However, even the best emergency plans are useless if nobody knows what to do in case of such an event. So you need to practice each month. Employees should know the location of emergency exits, external muster points and how to handle the various different types of fire extinguishers. For example, you cannot use a water-based (red) fire extinguisher on an electrical fire. 

Summary

You can easily maximize safety at your business by making some adjustments. A health and safety policy is a massive help, and you can hire security and practice emergency procedures.