As an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure that everyone who works for you can carry out their work safely and without risk of harm to themselves or the people around them. Many companies look to hire security services kitted out with armor plates and official uniform for this reason, so they are confident they can protect their employees in a time of danger.
It can be difficult to know what measures you need to take if you’re just starting out. This article will discuss some great places to start.
Risk assessment
Carrying out a risk assessment is the logical place to start when deciding on your health and safety procedures because it allows you to assess your individual workplace and mitigate any potential risks fully.
There are a lot of risks that will be common across industries, but also many industry-specific issues that should be accounted for.
To carry out a risk assessment, you should:
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- Decide what the risks are. Do this by walking around your workplace and physically inspecting it with safety in mind. Bear in mind long-term as well as short-term risks – for example, high levels of noise can be damaging to hearing over a long period of time.
- Who is at risk? Once you have identified the risks, think about who is at risk. Are all of your employees at risk, or just the ones fulfilling a specific role? Is the level of risk different for members of staff who have a disability?
- Decide on precautions. Once you know what the risks are and who is at risk, you can think about precautions. This could come in the form of training, protective clothing, or adding safety measures.You can reach out to Coast To Coast First Aid in Scarborough to learn how formal training can help keep your workplace safe.
- Write up your risk assessment. It’s important that you document the results of your risk assessment and the measures that are put in place. This is a requirement for many insurance policies, but it also means that you can easily refer back to it.
- Keep it updated. Things often change, so be sure that you schedule a regular risk assessment to keep your policy up to date and your employees safe.
Preventing falls
One of the most common ways that people injure themselves in the workplace is by falling. It’s easy to lose your footing, and if there isn’t adequate protection in place, such as safety rails and safety matting, a fall can be serious.
As an employer, it’s your responsibility to keep your employees safe from falls. One of the easiest ways to do this is to contact a specialist like Oxford Safety, who will be able to advise you on the best fall prevention measures to take in your workplace.
Preventing Fires
Preventing fires in the workplace is of paramount importance for the safety of employees and the protection of valuable assets. To achieve this, organizations should implement strict fire safety protocols. This includes regular fire drills, the maintenance of fire extinguishers and sprinkler systems, and the training of staff on fire prevention and response procedures. This can also be innocuous measures such as investing in door closers for all doors from a site such as doorcontrolsdirect.co.uk, this can help to prevent the spread of a fire in the event of an emergency and prevents any doors being accidentally left open leading to the spread of the fire or smoke entering areas where people may be evacuating or stuck inside.
Additionally, regular inspections of electrical systems and fire fighting equipment is very important. To stay on top of your service intervals, you can use a capable fire inspection software.
Manual Handling
Another common way for people to injure themselves in the workplace is through heavy lifting. Lifting is something that we all do, but without proper manual handling training, it’s easy to do yourself harm.
Injuries sustained through improper manual handling can be severe and can put people out of action for a long time.
If you want to keep your employees safe in the workplace, one of the best things you can do is provide proper training on how they can keep themselves safe.