9 things to create a culture of workplace safety

Every business, regardless of size, has its own risk factors and must account for them on an ongoing basis to keep their workers safe on the job. The good news is that much of this work is relatively easy to accomplish, and mostly just requires a bit of direction and a clear path forward, driven by example from the top of the business on down.

The following steps should help your small business operate more effectively and safely going forward:

1) Assess your risk factors

First and foremost, when creating a small business safety program, it's important to know what unique risks your facilities might have, according to BasicSafe. Every business is different and, while there are certainly risks that all businesses must deal with, you need to make sure you get a full understanding of potential dangers that just don't exist everywhere else. A careful walk-through of your facility could help you take full stock.

2) Decide who the stakeholders are

When it comes to fully understanding your workplace, it's important to get input from everyone, and make sure they have bought into the efforts, BasicSafe said. Creating a safety committee that meets regularly to assess all aspects of your safety efforts, such as how you have performed in the past or seasonal hazards that could arise in the next few months, is usually a good idea.

A safe workplace leads to a better business.

3) Examine ergonomics

One of the biggest hidden risks for most businesses is not the big equipment and slip-and-fall hazards, but rather the kind of work that leads to repetitive stress injuries or weakening over time, according to Progressive Commercial Insurance. Something as simple as encouraging workers to be more mindful of their posture or picking up heavy items the right way could go a long way toward reducing on-the-job injury.

4) Set a maintenance schedule

It's important to make sure everything in your workplace is in good shape on an ongoing basis, from the machines you might use to make products to the forklifts that carry heavy loads in your warehouse, and even for the chairs in your office or pavement in your parking lot, Progressive Commercial Insurance advised. Basically, if something is in need of even minor repairs, it's important to complete them before risk starts to rise.

5) When you come up with rules, make them easy to find

As you begin to get a clearer picture of the risk at your workplace, it will become important to set standards and create rules for how everyone is supposed to act with relation to the hazards they face, according to Advanced Consulting and Training. Once you do that, however, make sure those rules are clearly posted wherever they apply, and easily visible for all employees. After all, what good are standards if employees don't have clear guidance?

6) Create a culture of reporting

Employees should feel as though they have as much of a stake in workplace safety as executives or those on your risk assessment committee, Advanced Consulting and Training noted. To that end, it's important to encourage them to report any potential issues — such as a machine that isn't running as effectively as it used to — as soon as they spot them. That way, you can address the issues before risk really increases.

7) Train your workers

Of course, workers can't always report risks if they don't know what they are or how to avoid them, so it's important to set time aside — on a regular basis — to train workers for effective workplace safety based on the risks they might face, according to Erie Insurance. For instance, if you have an industrial workplace, your workers on the factory floor definitely face different hazards from those in the back office. However, training for all risks is usually a good idea, especially if there's a lot of multitasking going on at your small business.

8) Hold safety drills

Fire drills aren't just for grade school, Erie Insurance added. It's important to hold drills — whether you tell workers in advance or surprise them — so you can test the effectiveness of your emerging culture and every worker's readiness to deal with any issue. That applies not only to fire drills, but also testing how employees respond when a coworker is in medical distress or has been injured on the job. The more you can do to train in any of these areas, the better off you are likely to be.

9) Provide all necessary PPE

Finally, once you know all the hazards your employees face, it's important to make sure they have all the personal protective equipment they need to continue to do their work safely, according to Atlantic Training. Again, every workplace is unique, so it's unlikely that every single employee will need, say, safety goggles, a hard hat, work gloves or the like. However, it is incumbent upon the business to not only provide that gear, but also create a culture in which potential problems with it are reported so the problematic equipment can be swapped out.

For any small business, workplace safety is simply not a set-it-and-forget-it proposition. It's critical to continually assess risks, train workers, replace old PPE, meet with your safety committee and more to ensure employees are as safe as possible every time they come to work. Going that extra mile to prioritize these issues is critical to a successful organization overall.

Categorised in: Asset & Liability Protection

This post was written by