The workplace has to be safe for a productive environment. Several more injuries than that occur each year, many of which could be prevented. Here are 10 ways employers can encourage and increase workplace safety, ultimately leading to a healthier, safer, and more productive environment.
1. Staff Training
Perhaps the most influential way employers can achieve fewer injuries and increased workplace safety is through clearer, more accessible, more thorough training programs for their employees. Every worker should undergo extensive training no matter how skilled or experienced they are.
2. Hire competent workers
When taking on additional employees within your workplace, make sure you are only hiring the best of the best. If this means you have to pay them a little bit more, do it. Hire competent workers and they will reward you with fewer on-the-job accidents.
3. Workplace safety
It all starts with you. If you as the boss enforce the safety rules and regulations and stand behind them 100%, your workers will take the cue from you that they need to put safety first—even in the face of increased production. Your workers will support you if you practice what you preach
4. Watch what you want to reward
When you reward employees for doing all they can to complete the job on time or even before a deadline, you’re unwittingly promoting a culture of “whatever it takes” mentality.
5. Post signs
Even the most safety-oriented worker can forget sometimes. Post signs around the warehouse or manufacturing facility that remind everyone of the everyday risks inherent in their jobs and what they should be doing to comply with safety regulations.
6. Equip your workers
If you don’t provide the tools your employees need to stay safe in the work environment, such as helmets, steel toe boots, personal lines on safety devices, and even safety glasses, you can’t expect them to take the necessary precautions. Making these tools accessible immediately will further encourage safety compliance.
7. Seek continuous improvement
Safety on the job is not a static thing. There’s always room for improvement, so get in there and brainstorm with your employees to find out ways you can all promote a higher level of safety awareness for all, whether that’s the guys on the machines or the people in the front office who have to walk through the plant daily.
8. Reward safety
Rather than reward high production targets that encourage quick work with a dismissive shrug towards safety, reward those workers who have followed all of your safety rules and have provided efficient work consistently.