When people work in hazardous environments, they need safety and health guidelines in place by the company to keep away from injuries and fatal accidents. But many companies don’t maximize on such policies. That ends up promoting an unsafe work ethic and culture for the employees. Hence, it’s necessary, not just for work ethics but also for company productivity, to introduce a culture that practices prioritizing employee health at the workplace. Many companies, like Elite Leather, are determined to provide products to promote safety for all employees in an organization. You just need to encourage a culture that practices it. In this blog, we talk about how you can promote a safety culture in your organization.
1) Create a Health & Safety Plan
Inspect what your workers need and ensure a plan is in place to keep them safe. Let your employees be sure of the fact that their health is of utmost priority. Introduce plans according to the machinery and chemicals your employees are operating with. Develop a proper health and safety plan to minimize the risk of hazardous incidents.
2) Train Your Workers
Train your employees to follow your health and safety guidelines. Provide them with pamphlets, booklets, and other forms of instruction. Take time out to conduct workshops in order to educate workers. Supervise each and every worker to ensure they’re following the necessary precautions. Share workplace safety awareness tips with employees in workshops and training sessions to ensure safety.
3) Conduct Workplace Surveys
Conduct regular surveys at your workplace to ensure everything is in order. Whether all the tools and equipment are well-maintained and safe to use, whether your employees know what needs to be done in case of an injury, whether they have access to a stocked first-aid kit. Do your employees know what to do in case of an emergency fire? Do they have proper access to the fire exit? Also keep a check on storage areas to see whether all things are stored in a proper, ordered manner and don’t run the risk of falling over.
4) Promote the Use of PPEs
Promote the use of Personal Protective Equipment and Gears to prevent workers from hazardous injuries and illnesses. Head and hand safety in the workplace should be of utmost priority especially when working with heavy machinery and chemicals. Hence, PPEs are an important part of a safe working environment. Make sure your employees have access to proper gloves, headgears, and overall equipment to ensure their safety.
5) Analyze Workplace Accident & Injury Records
Another task of utmost importance is to analyze the data on injury and accident records that have occurred in the workplace. How many injuries occurred before you introduced new safety measures, how many have been prevented, and what else needs to be done to minimize the risk of further injuries and accidents. Often times, employees overlook the use of hand gear while operating machinery and touching hazardous chemicals. For this purpose, leather safety gloves have been manufactured. Encourage employees to use equipment that maximizes their safety.
6) Keep Updating the Health and Safety Measures
Company requirements change, technologies change, equipment changes, and with that should change health and safety protocols that have been given in place. Updating health protocols makes for a healthier and safer work environment and keeps the workers comfortable knowing their safety is of importance to the company. The safety of workers is as important to a company’s success as sales. If the workers are happy, they can make the customer experience better.
7) Take Employee Opinion to Count when Introducing Measures
Ultimately, it’s the employees who have to spend time in the workplace and deal with heavy machinery and hazardous equipment, hence what they need as a safety measure should be taken to count while making or updating policies. Keep workers and their needs in mind when creating your policies to maximize safety.
8) Treat Workplace Safety as a Necessity Not a Hurdle
When it comes to introducing safety guidelines, many companies view it as a hindrance in the way of productivity. They don’t allow workers to take breaks or provide PPEs for their safety protocols. That’s an inhuman approach to gaining benefits in the workplace. Allow workers to have flexibility in completing tasks when they face a risk of hazardous injuries, take safety and productivity as equally important instead of opposite ends to a means. When workers are healthy, only then can your work be performed efficiently.
These were the basic rules to promote safety culture in your organization. Introducing these practices in your company can go a long way to ensure your workers stay happy with your policies and hence lead to success for your company.
