Every year, thousands of people sustain injuries at work due to preventable accidents. They are more common than most of us would like to imagine.
Injuries can cause short-term or long-term physical and emotional damage. People may be left with a permanent disability or ongoing emotional trauma.
But health problems are not the only negative consequence of workplace injuries. There is also the associated paperwork to fill out and medical bills to cover.
Employees may need to take some time off work to recover from their injuries, which can place extra stress on the workforce. It can also make things awkward between the employee and their employer, making their return to work more difficult than it needs to be.
As an employer, it’s in your best interest to prevent workplace injuries. Not only because you care about the well-being of your employees but also to prevent compensation claims.
Should one of your employees be injured in your workplace, they may contact a Lamber Goodnow personal injury lawyer here. If they do so, you may end up paying out large amounts of compensation to cover the employee’s loss of income and medical bills.
By implementing the following measures, you can prevent many injuries from occurring in your workplace to keep your staff happy and healthy.
Implement Health and Safety Policies
By law, all employers must have a range of health and safety policies. These policies must be written down and distributed to your employees accordingly.
Your policy should include:
- General health and safety rules
- Your commitment to maintaining the health and safety of your employees
- The process of reporting an incident
Provide Ongoing Training
Part of your onboarding process for new employees should involve training each new team member on the health and safety protocols that are valid in your workplace.
When your employees are fully trained, they are more likely to spot potential safety hazards and carry out their duties properly to prevent accidents.
Training should be ongoing throughout an employee’s entire time working in your business so that they can stay up-to-date on any changes to your policies. You can provide training in person or via video conferencing software if they are temporarily working remotely.
Display Hazard Signs
You can help to prevent hazards and accidents and injuries in your workplace by displaying the correct warning and hazard signs. You must also ensure that every employee is aware of which sign indicates which hazard. This is where your ongoing training becomes important.
Displaying the right warning signs is even more vital if your industry is one of high-risk, such as construction or chemistry where your employees will be dealing with dangerous machinery or hazardous substances.
You may need to walk around your premises and do a full risk assessment on each department. Doing so will make it much easier to identify which warning and hazard signs are appropriate for each area.
When the correct signage is used, employees will know when to take extra precautions to prevent accidents and injuries. You can keep your employees safe at all times, no matter where they are o the premises.
