Having a proactive approach to the health and safety of people in your office is a sign of a great leader.
If you neglect the status of the workplace, it can deteriorate the overall state of the workplace so bad that it affects the safety of your employees. Thus, one must always be conscious and deliberate with how they deal with workplace safety management.
On that note, there are many ways you can implement the active compliance and management of health and safety in the workplace.
If you’re a leader in your workplace that can influence health and safety status in your office, then this article is a great source of ideas for you.
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Designate a health and safety officer
If you’re working for a large company, then you may want to consider hiring a designated health and safety officer for your workplace. Who else can better advise you on how to manage office health and safety than a professional consultant?
You don’t have to hire them full-time. Instead, you can have occasional consultations with them about the status of health and safety in your office.
If you’re still quite tight on the budget, you could assign yourself or another employee to oversee the health and safety management in the office.
You can try having one consultation from a professional or a training session from the consultant. So that whoever is your designated health and safety officer can work with much better knowledge and understanding.
Create a health and safety policy
Another way to implement health and safety management is by making it an official matter in the office. The way to be able to do that is by creating a health and safety policy that is specific to the work matters of your company.
To be able to enact a systemic change in your company’s health and safety, an official rule is a safe bet.
The policy doesn’t have to be too complicated. It only needs to describe a few key issues, like who does what and protocols for certain situations that require more delicate health and safety management rules.
Having a guideline can help guide not only you but also your employees on how to act in terms of workplace safety and health. Plus, it’s a great show of your care over the employees in the office.
Conduct safety training with employees
For the improvement of employees’ skills and to keep them sharp at all times, conducting some training sessions every once in a while is a must.
If you’ve organized a training session before, then you should know how it goes. Now, the only change you need to implement is that the topic of the training should be workplace safety.
Training enables your employees to get practical experience and practice on workplace safety issues. Instead of only hearing about what to do and reading about it, having practical experience is key to really nailing it down.
Plus, it’s a great chance for employees to learn new skills and hone their minds outside of the work that they do.
Prevent foreseeable risks
One way to manage health and safety in the workplace is by preventing incidents that can compromise the health and safety of people in the workplace.
A proactive approach is done by creating preventive measures instead of cures.
With that said, you should look into your industry and your company’s usual work processes and identify key areas that you can see potential accidents happening. You can assess it yourself or hire a consultant to point out these risks for you.
Either way, as long as you know what could happen, you would have a solution that prevents this from happening altogether.
Provide the right workplace facilities
Sometimes, the reason why employees are more prone to health and safety issues is that they don’t have the right tools and facilities in place.
Faulty or inappropriate facilities can make doing work less efficient. At the same time, it makes it a less safe environment too.
If you want a workplace that is professional and safe to boot, then you should maintain and provide all the right tools for the matching work. This job is quite simple for an ordinary office.
All you need to do is check up on things like whether cleaning materials are well-stocked. Also, providing rest spaces aside from workspaces is another way of keeping a healthier and safer working environment.
There are other simple tasks which ensure that you are providing the right workplace facilities. An awareness of the needs of your employees is a must.
Have first-aid arrangements
When it comes to emergencies, it is crucial that people are prepared in some way to deal with it. The usual response to a struggling individual that may have gotten into an accident is to provide them with first aid.
But how will you provide that if no one in the office knows how to do it?
With that in mind, you should set up preventative measures that can address this problem. In particular, you should arrange for the right protocol for first aid response. You can start by arranging a first aid training session for some if not all of your employees.
With the right first aid assistance, you can prevent more severe health and safety issues from happening.
Obtain insurance for your business
Last but not least, one of the ways that you can encourage or prioritize health and safety in the workplace is by making sure that you get insurance for your business. If an employee gets injured while on the job, they can then ask for monetary compensation from you.
It communicates that you are willing to protect your employees and that you do care for their well-being. Having employee liability insurance in place in your office is a sign of an ethical workplace.
Aside from that, it’s a strong commitment made towards workplace health and safety.
Wrap up
A sign of an excellent business isn’t found only within its monetary value. It can also be found in how well they treat their employees. With health and safety management, you take care of everyone in the office while communicating that you are a business of value to stakeholders.
Don’t compromise on workplace health and safety, and you are sure to have a sustainable and ethical business.
About the Author – Raymond Chiu is the Director of Operations for Maid Sailors Office, a trusted office cleaning services in NYC. Maid Sailors provide a wide range of cost-effective, yet high-quality office cleaning services that are sure to delight their customers.
