Safety is something that all companies need to prioritize. However, it is particularly important for manufacturing, construction, engineering, and chemical plants to practice the highest levels of safety. According to the National Safety Council, a worker is injured every 7 seconds. A single accident can lead to the death or serious injury of any member of your team. Luckily, there are a number of ways that companies can increase their levels of workplace safety.
Here are some of the top ways to encourage safety in the workplace:
1. Maintain a clean work area
Many workplace accidents are caused by people accidentally tripping over items that are not supposed to be in the work area. In fact, OSHA has provided data that nearly 40% of all construction worker fatalities were from falls in 2017. Things that people commonly trip over in the workplace include wires, wet areas, equipment, garbage, etc. You should make sure that your workspace is always clean and that people do not leave things lying around that can cause accidents.
2. Train employees well
Good training is a must in order to optimize workplace safety without good training, employees will not know how to do their jobs in the safest way possible. If employees are not doing their jobs in the safest way possible, then it is a threat to overall safety. This is especially true if your employees are operating heavy machinery, such as a forklift or an excavator. The more dangerous the job is that your employee will be doing, the more important it is for him or her to receive proper training on that piece of equipment.
Make training employees easier...
Training employees properly takes a lot of time and money, which is the #1 reason most companies fall short on proper training. Luckily, software solutions like Trainual can help expedite your employee on-boarding process as well as save you valuable time on employee safety training.
3. Make safety rules prevalent
All of your employees need to know exactly what the rules are regarding safety. If they don’t, then they are much more likely to cause an accident resulting in an injury. So, you need to post the safety rules in the work stations and always make sure that your employees know exactly what the safety rules are. Your employees might find the safety rules tedious, however, it's for their own good. It's also important that you review workplace safety topics during employee meetings.
4. Put up a safety scoreboards
Putting up a safety scoreboard around your business location can go a long way towards preventing accidents and keeping things safe. Safety scoreboards help to create a sense of team spirit regarding keeping the work environment safe. It also serves a distinct visual reminder to be safe. So, all employees will be constantly reminded to stay safe when you put up a safety scoreboard.
What is the purpose of safety scoreboards?
A safety scoreboard is a digital scoreboard that counts the number of days since the last accident has occurred in your workplace. The purpose of digital scoreboards is to keep safety fresh in everyone’s minds and to provide a constant visual reminder of how safe the team is being.
You can create further incentives for your team to be safe by offering them a reward every time they hit a certain milestone on their safety scoreboards. For example, you can offer them a pizza party every time they have 30 days of no accidents. Or if they go 150 days with no accidents, they get a half-day off – anything like this can be tremendously beneficial.
Workplace Safety is Important
When workplace accidents occur, it is highly detrimental for businesses. It is detrimental for moral, it is detrimental financially, and it can actually remove employees from your staff on a temporary or even potentially full-time basis if they are seriously injured.