Securing Success: A Comprehensive Guide to Enhancing Workplace Safety for Business Prosperity.

Safety in the workplace is crucial for any business. Not just from a legal and ethical standpoint, but from a practical one as well. Safety incidents cause injury and downtime that few businesses can afford these days. The good news is there are many strategies you can use to make your workplace as safe as possible for your employees. Read on to find out what they are.

Praise Safe Behavior in the Workplace.

Another great way to improve safety in your business is to encourage it with praise. This means you’ll need to have an active system for spotting safe behavior such as people using the right PPE, and reporting safety violations such as frayed wires or trip hazards. Once you have identified someone that is practising safe behavior, praising them either privately or publicly can be a very effective way of motivating them to continue to act in this way.

Some businesses even choose to formally reward safe behavior in the workplace with prizes, or points that can be traded in for additional benefits such as paid time off, flexitime etc. Of course, the trick here is choosing something that you know will motivate your workers, and if you are unsure it's best to just ask, and then work with the feedback they give you.

Support Your Safety Professionals.

Within the workplace, you will likely have certain people whose speciality and responsibility is to look after health and safety. Usually, giving specific people this responsibility and the time to attend to it works very well, but there is one issue that many frequently come across – isolation.

Indeed, sometimes being a safety officer or professional within an organization can feel very isolating especially if you are the only one. Sometimes it can also feel as if you are at odds with both the rest of the employees in the business in which you work and that management too as both groups can be resistant to change. It is for these reasons that management must support the safety professionals within their organization.

One way of doing this is to send them to conferences so they have an opportunity to mix and network with other safety professionals. This can help because they will be able to compare their experience, empathize with one another, and learn from each other at the same time.

Making sure that any safety procedures are fully backed by management is also a way you can reduce the stress on your safety professionals. After all, if employees see that management is behind a change they are much less likely to challenge it.

Provide CPR Training for The Entire Staff.

Most businesses train specific representatives as first raiders, ensuring that they are compliant with the law. However, organizations should also consider the benefits of training all staff in first aid basics such as CPR.

CPR, short for Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is a method of pumping oxygenated blood around the body when the person in distress is unable to do this for themselves. It can include chest compressions and breathing for the patient and can keep a person alive until professional medical help arrives. However, anyone performing CPR in the workplace must be properly trained to do so, both for the safety of the patient and the person administering it.

The good news is that it is easy to train your employees in these areas of safety because you can offer them courses like online CPR and first aid certification that can be done without having to attend any training in person. The added benefit of doing an online qualification is that it can be done at any time and so can easily fit around your employee's schedules and other responsibilities such as family care. Not to mention that online options like this are much more cost-effective than paying for workers to travel to a training center, or for a trainer to come to your site.

Invest in Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs).

Recently there has been a big drive for the public and workplaces to have Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) freely available. AEDs are designed to help those suspected of having a heart attack. They are complex pieces of tech that are simple to use and can assess the rhythm of a patient's heart, and if necessary deliver a controlled electric shock to regulate it.

Often AEDS in public or workplaces come with security measures such as needing to call 911 to get the code that activates the device. The best places to situate AEDs include common areas with the largest volume of footfall. That is why you often see them on factory floors, in shopping centers and in airports.

If you choose to install AEDs in your workplace it is also crucial that you provide the necessary training that will allow your workforce to use them safely.

Take OSHA’s Recommendations.

Guess who knows health and safety better than just about anyone on Earth? OSHA, or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as they are also known. Indeed, OSHA provides a wealth of information and advice on how to make your business a safer place not only for employees but customers and clients as well, with best practices in line with their rules and regulations known as being ‘OSHA compliant.’

In particular, OSHA’s list of the most common safety hazards within a commercial setting is a good place to start when it comes to assessing and improving standards in your own business. Check them out here.

Regularly Inspect PPE.

PPE, short for Personal Protective Equipment, is vital for many types of businesses to ensure employees can safely complete their daily tasks. PPE can include a range of different items such as gowns to protect employees' clothing, masks to stop them from breathing in debris, and goggles to protect their eyes from injury. In some cases, respirators will also be used as these supply clean air to users when the air quality is poor and poses a risk to health.

Of course, it's not just important that you as an employer provide all the necessary equipment needed for your workers, but that you regularly check and maintain it as well. This means regular cleaning and aspects need to be scheduled and completed, and issues that these inspections show should result in those items being removed from use, and immediately replaced.

Set Up a Hazard-reporting Email Address.

Many businesses say that they want employees to report safety issues in the workplace, but they don’t always make it easy for them to do this. One way to improve your reporting procedures is to set up a dedicated email address which all employees are given and can use to report any email safety concerns.

For example, an address like safetyreport@yourbusiness.com could be set up and sent out to each employee. Then they can report any concerns they may have. The team responsible for health and safety can check it regularly and then investigate any concerns. You may even wish to reply to the person who made the report telling them what action has been taken as this will encourage them to report again if they ever see anything else of concern.

Follow Through With Incident Investigations.

For your employees to truly be and feel safe in the workplace you must have a robust incident investigation process in place. That means you not only acknowledge and assist when a safety incident has occurred but that you use your safety team or outside professionals to investigate what caused the event and how this can be prevented from happening again.

Include First Aid Kits in all Your Vans, Cars and Vehicles.

It's very likely that you have plenty of first aid kits situated in opportune places around your business premises. However, Such kits aren’t very good for employees who work for you but who are not on-site. For example, if you have a delivery fleet, your delivery drivers will only be able to access first aid if they are back at base, but they may need help while they are on the road. That is why you should include first aid kits in every vehicle your business operates.

Keep Your Emergency Plan Up To Date.

Last of all, when it comes to keeping your employees safe at work it's crucial that you have a plan for any type of emergency or critical situation that can occur. Such a plan should direct the actions of employees in order to keep them as safe as possible. These plans need to be gone through with employees and practised where possible. They also need to be administered by designated staff in the event of an emergency to ensure that people do not panic and follow the plan.

Finally, such plans need to be regularly updated to account for any changes in the workplace or differences in procedure. Not updating your business’s emergency plans regularly could leave your employees vulnerable to harm in the workplace and your business at risk!