As a business, you have a responsibility to keep your workforce safe and to create a business premise that is safe for everyone, both internal staff and external guests included. Whether it’s a work site or office environment, every effort should be made to keep your workers safe and sound.
For any business that’s looking to improve its efforts when it comes to keeping its employees safe and to become a leader in the industry for doing so, here are some top tips.
Ensure there are enough first-aiders in the building
First aid is something that can be crucial in situations where immediate, professional medical aid isn’t available for a period of time. While not every employee likes or wants the responsibility of somebody’s health in their hands, it’s useful to have those who are willing, to have additional training.
As a business, having enough first-aiders in the business is important and the larger the business, the more first-aiders are needed to be available. Depending on how big the business is, one to two first-aiders on each floor is a good place to start. Of course, if you have hundreds of staff in the building, it might be that you need three or more first-aid staff on each floor.
Having these trained individuals available whether they know basic training or have done online CPR courses too, can be a great help and peace of mind for many.
Keep the business premises clean and tidy
In order to stay on top of hygiene within the workplace, pay attention to the cleanliness of the business. Take a look at how much the general workspace is being looked after and then how much effort is being made to look after the personal workstations of your staff.
There should be some responsibility put on staff members to look after their own workstations during their working hours and before they clock off work to go home. After all, their workstations are likely going to be seen by guests and clients who come into the business. It’s useful to keep on top of the cleaning and tidying where you can.
It may be that you look to introduce increased cleaning schedules so that you’re able to keep on top of hygiene and the spread of bacteria. With the memory of COVID-19 still fresh in many of society’s minds, it’s useful to stay on top of cleaning to keep your staff healthy.
Make sure their working environment is ergonomic
To help ensure your staff is working comfortably, the use of ergonomic office equipment is important. It’s often an overlooked area but ideally, your HR department should be assessing everyone’s working space and ensuring it’s set up properly.
A few suggestions to recommend when it comes to providing an ergonomic space is to focus on any of the following:
- Computer chairs – do they support the neck and back properly?
- Screen monitors – are they at the right height to avoid neck strain?
- Wrist support – Are there wrist supports when using the keyboard and mouse on a desk?
There’s a lot to cover and much of the ergonomic equipment introduced into the working environment can be helpful for all staff members. Not every person with mobility issues or health problems will be older. It’s important to not discriminate and assess every individual member of staff’s needs when it comes to comfortable and safe working environments.
Focus on introducing online cybercrime training
To help with safety procedures in the workplace, one area to focus on is cybercrime. It’s only starting to become more apparent that staff members need some generic training when it comes to spotting phishing scams and other methods that cybercriminals use in an attempt to steal data and leave harmful viruses behind on work desktop computers and mobile devices.
It’s something that not only provides peace of mind to employees but more importantly for businesses who worry about being a target by hackers and cybercriminals in general.
Have a hard-working building operations team
Your operations team is integral to the health and safety of the building. The premises should be well maintained and only a great operations team is going to achieve this. Consider who makes up your operations team so far and whether this needs to be improved upon going forward.
Perhaps you’ve not got enough within the team or additional training needs to be provided. They’re at the heart of the business itself – well the physical business anyway. They keep the building running so that the employees can do their jobs efficiently.
They’re just as important as any role within the company so make sure they’re doing their best with what available resources possible.
Maintain communication amongst all employees to report problems
To keep your workforce performing at their best, it’s useful to improve upon any communication within the business. There are a lot of businesses that can fail to set up the right networks when it comes to communication. As a result, a business can find itself in a state of disarray when employees aren’t communicating properly.
When a building problem occurs, having the ability for all staff to report a problem is useful for the building’s team to manage. Having this software or systems set up is definitely worth doing and if it hasn’t already happened, now is the time to do it.
While you can have the most efficient operations team for the building, they’re not always able to keep an eye on everything 24/7, so it’s good to have eyes and ears everywhere!
Provide employees with safety training where necessary
Employee safety is useful to train, especially as not all employees will have common sense when it comes to basic health and safety knowledge. There’s a reason that most injuries happen in the home, rather than in the workplace where there are a lot more dangers generally found.
By keeping your workforce safe, it definitely helps to keep the entire building safe. From knowing who to let in and out of the building to cyber security protocols, it’s all useful information that every staff member should know.
Perform appropriate risk assessments
Risk assessments are a good way of understanding what risks exist in the business currently. Work with your operations teams to conduct the relevant risk assessments needed to keep your building and business operations compliant and most importantly – safe. Regular checks and inspections such as LEV testing might also be necessary to ensure hazard-free premises.
Protect entries and exits to the office building or worksite
One of the biggest safety risks for any business premises, whether that be an office building or worksite is the presence of an unexpected guest or stranger. After all, you never know who could enter the work premises and cause trouble.
That’s why it’s essential you’re making a conscious effort to protect entries and exits for the business. This could be installing barriers and having key cards that control who goes in and out. It might be getting a security guard who stands/sits at the entrance to help prevent any problems.
Remember to pay attention to mental health and wellbeing too
Just as it’s important to look after physical health, mental health is also important to look after. As a business, it’s useful to put in place any type of mental health guidance or support for your employees. From one-to-one meetings to offering mental health days off, it’s all useful to help support your staff.
Keep your workforce safe in all areas of business where you can this year. It definitely makes a difference in the health of your employees!