For most business owners, their worst nightmare is an employee getting injured in the workplace. I’m not talking about a papercut or a broken finger, I mean severely injured. Because with a workplace injury often comes an investigation, a lawsuit, and a bad name for yourself as a business owner. As someone who runs a small business, this isn’t something that I have to worry about just yet. However, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t done adequate research into how, in the future, I can keep my employees safe. Something that all business owners should do.
With that in mind, I thought that below I would share a few tips for how you, as a business owner, can keep your employees safe at work. Take note and implement these ideas, and remember, nothing should come above health and safety.
Offer adequate training
One of the best things you can do to keep your employees safe is offer them adequate training. This shouldn’t just be when they first start, health and safety training should be something that you offer on a regular basis. At least once or twice a year, you should run health and safety training for your employees. This can be done via an online program or in person, depending on your budget and preference. By offering regular training, you can ensure that the whole team is kept up to speed.
Be smart about uniform
This relates more to business owners in hazardous industries, such as construction and manufacturing. However, it’s still worth taking note of. As a business owner, it’s your job to ensure that what your employees wear, keeps them safe while at work. So it’s important to be smart about the uniform that you provide, or the dress code rules that you have in place. Say, for example; you run a construction company. To ensure that your employees are always safe while at work, hard hats, steel capped boots, and high viz clothing are all must-haves. Because it’s these things that help to prevent accidents from having serious consequences.
Perform regular health and safety checks
Last but not least, it’s important to ensure that your premises is as safe as it could be. The best way to do that is to perform regular health and safety checks on your business premises. Ideally, you want to perform these at least once a month yourself. Then, every six months, it’s worth having a specialist come in to assess your business premises for any dangers. That way, you can ensure that your employees are kept as safe as possible while at work, as any potential dangers can be addressed and dealt with.
As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to keep your employees safe while at work. So it’s important to take workplace health and safety seriously. Otherwise, you could end up in a sticky situation. The last thing you want is to end up in court with a lawsuit from a disgruntled employee who has been injured while working at your business premises. So make sure to take health and safety seriously.
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