Businesses need employees in order to function, without them selling goods or servicing customers becomes virtually impossible. Yet, having employees is complicated and risky for any business.
Alongside needed to ensure fair treatment, a business should be mindful of dangerous situations that employees can find themselves in. An unsafe situation can result in an employee being injured or even killed.
This leads to heartache for the employee and their family, a loss of earnings, and the potential to sue the company because the issue happened while they were at work.
Having an injured employee is devastating to morale and can potentially ruin a company, even if they are insured.
The bottom line is that businesses need to do everything they can to improve employee safety. Fortunately, the following four techniques are simple to implement.
1. Undertake Risk Assessments
Most businesses will be advised by their insurance company and the health & safety inspector that they need to undertake risk assessments.
In effect, you need to look at every working position and situation your employees may find themselves in. The risk assessment will look at the risks involved when working and then decide how to reduce or eliminate the risks to keep employees safe.
The best way to do these is to complete time in each position alongside the employees that do the job, then ask them for their views and combine them with your own.
It will create a guide as to how to do the job correctly and safely.
2. Introduce Lone Worker Alarms
Most businesses have at least one worker that undertakes their tasks by themselves. It could be on-site or elsewhere. The biggest issue for lone workers is when something unexpected happens, such as a trip or a spill. If the issue incapacitates the employee they will be unable to call for help.
A minor issue can quickly become much worse if the employee is unable to get the help they need.
That’s why businesses should invest in duress alarms. These can be personal alarms that make a loud sound, attracting the attention of others in the vicinity.
Or, they can be connected to a central hub that the business monitors, allowing them to respond quickly to any employee issue.
3. Create A Reporting Procedure
The duress alarms will help employees feel safer and know they have help on the way if they need it. But, alongside this, there should also be a reporting procedure. It can be as simple as calling in every hour or as complicated as using digital technology to monitor the vital stats of employees.
The important thing is that employees are checked on regularly, limiting the amount of time they are stuck or injured.
4. Review Regularly
Finally, creating risk assessments and adding checking-in procedures is a great way to ensure employees stay safe.
But, you also need to note that situations and work conditions change. It’s vital to review all work scenarios regularly to ensure your procedures are the best they can be.
