A safe workplace isn’t about luck. No matter what industry you work in, it’s about taking a strategic approach that emphasizes planning and communication. To help ensure you protect your people – and keep accidents, injuries and costs down – here are seven steps to put into practice.
Step 1: Understand your risks.
Your facility has its own set of unique risks, hazards and unsafe behaviors. It’s important to identify these, so you know the areas to focus on when you’re planning out workplace safety measures.
Step 2: Invite feedback.
Your people are on the front lines each day and likely have in-depth perspective on safety areas of concern. So make sure they’re part of the planning process. They can help you further identify any hazards you didn’t know about, as well as develop solutions that are effective in dealing with them.
Step 3: Put it in writing.
Once you’ve inspected your work space and received feedback, create a policy document that defines rules, regulations and expectations. By doing so, you’ll be able to better manage risk, stay in compliance, ensure everyone understands their level of responsibility, and communicate what to do in the case of an accident.
Step 4: Practice it regularly.
With your safety plan in place, it’s something your employees should be trained on regularly, especially new hires. If laws change or new hazards arise, then it’s vital your team knows and understands how to handle them. It’s also important to discuss safety in general and why it’s necessary to have a plan in place.
Step 5: Define departmental leaders.
Choose a front-line person in each department who can oversee your plan’s efforts and track progress. That way, you can communicate directly with them to find out about any department-specific safety concerns or risks.
Step 6: Make it easy to report hazards.
It’s critical that you find out about any new hazards or workplace safety issues as quickly as possible. To do so, create a process and communicate about it often to your staff so they’re clear on what to do if they see any issues that seem risky.
Step 7: Consult with experts.
To fully protect your people and your company, you should also consider consulting with employee safety experts to help you develop and implement your plan. They’ll be able to work with you to identify high-risk areas, all so you can reduce or eliminate accidents and injuries.
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At Future Force, we can offer you the best of both worlds with our temp-to-hire staffing services: access to skilled, safety-conscious people you can test out before making a full-time hiring decision. Contact us today to learn more or get started.
