There’s always a buzz of activity at your business premises. After all, this is where all the action happens! You’ve got the staff going about their individual tasks, supplies stacked up, and so on; it is, all around, something of a chaotic space. While this can up the energy levels and ensure that things are always moving forward, it also means that your staff and visitors are at an increased chance of danger. Whether you’re operating factory operations or you work in a traditional office, it’s always imperative that you take your site’s security seriously. Below, we take a look at some tips that’ll help to keep everyone on your site safe.
Review Your Operations
You can’t figure out where you’re going until you know where you are. Before you start plotting your path towards a safer workspace, take some time to figure out how you’re currently doing things. This can involve going around your premises and checking to see just how safe things currently are. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can hire a safety expert to conduct a review. Once you’ve got a list of concerns and potential problems, you’ll be able to figure out the changes you need to make.
Get Organized
Most injuries that occur in the workplace aren’t serious, but they are preventable. The biggest cause of accidents isn’t anything dramatic; it all comes down to organization. If your office is shambles of an organization, one in which chaos rules, then you can’t be surprised if accidents occur, can you? It doesn’t take a long time to get things in order, though you might have to give up a Saturday if you’ve been letting the office figure out its own organization up until this point. If you’ve got a clear space, then you’ll be reducing the chance of small, avoidable accidents from happening.
Careful Stacking
You’d be surprised by the number of people who get injured due to things falling on them. It happens more than you think! And of course, there are injuries that don’t need to happen. When it comes to organizing your space and making the office or factory clear, make sure you’re not just stacking your materials high up on top of each other. You’ll be asking for trouble otherwise! The dangers of incorrect stacking include head injuries, back strains, and falls. Try to establish a system that requires minimal physical effort. There are plenty of advanced storage solutions you can incorporate into your premises. It’s also worth looking into off-site storage solutions for those documents that you need to have, but which you don’t need on a daily basis.
Beware of Trips
Of all the dangers that exist on your premises, none are capable of quite as much damage as your floors. It’s a numbers game: there may be more dangerous aspects of your site, but your floors are used day in, day out, by everyone. If they’re not safe, then they could result in serious injuries, which won’t just injure your staff; they could result in a lawsuit being filed against your company. It’s imperative that the floors are kept clean, are not slippery, and are without obstacles. Remember that the dangers of your floor won’t always be visible. Sunken concrete, for example, can happen gradually but presents an increased chance of falls. If this has happened to your floor, contact Helitech; they have a system that raises sunken concrete in a cost-effective way. Treat your floors as a potential danger, and you’ll be able to minimize the risk they pose.
Staff Training
It’s all good and well having safety procedures in place, but if your staff doesn’t know what they are, then there’s only so much good they can do. As with most everything in life, knowledge is power! You’ll most likely have briefed your employees on the safety side of working for your company when they first started, but people forget. As such, you should be hosting periodic training days for all your staff. Just because they’ve worked at your place for years doesn’t mean they’re an expert in safety. Very often, it’s the ones who are most comfortable there that are in the greatest danger, because they figure out their own way of doing things rather than following the safety guidelines.
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Clear Instructions
Most incidents you have at your business premises will be minor. They may require a little bit of medical treatment, but the consequences will be minimal. However, though most incidents will be minor, there’ll always be the risk that something more serious could happen. If, say, a fire was to occur at your site, would your staff know exactly what to do? Only if they’re well trained and have practiced drills. No-one expects the worst to happen, but it’s crucial that you’re ready to handle it in case it does occur.
Regular Breaks
Your staff aren’t machines. They’re human beings, and as such, there’s only so long they can work before their concentration begins to wane. In most settings, this will just mean that their productivity takes a hit at certain points throughout the day. When they’re working in a factory setting or somewhere that uses tools, their tiredness can be dangerous. So, take a look at your breaks policy. Is it in line with people’s concentration levels? Studies have shown that it’s best to take a ten-minute break every hour. Tell your staff to take a break, do anything else, and they’ll be less at risk of having an accident with equipment that can cause a lot of damage.
Staff Feedback
You’re the one overseeing the whole operation. As such, you don’t always see what’s actually going on. The ones who do know the score are your staff. They’re working “on the floor” every day, and will have an insight to the dangers that you couldn’t possibly have. Start by asking them. They might just tell you something that will allow you to greatly improve your worksite’s safety credentials. This should be an ongoing process too. Make a habit of asking them periodically if they’ve noticed any safety concerns, as well as advice on how best to solve the problem.
The Correct Way To sit and Lift
Injuries can happen in any number of ways. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that cause the most damage. Take lifting heavy objects. This is the cause of many back injuries, which in turn will lead to days off from work. As such, you’ll be well served by training your staff on the correct way to pick up and carry items. If you’re a traditional office, take a look at your chairs and the position of your computer screens. Long-term problems can occur if a person is hunched over a computer all day. You might want to invest in Bluetooth keyboards and something that lifts the screen up off the desk.
Eyestrain
There’s a common issue that has been a growing problem in recent years. It’s called eyestrain. It happens when a person stares too long at a computer screen. We could say that the issue isn’t overly serious, but since computers are a relatively new phenomenon, no-one really knows. Prevention is the best measure. Make sure your staff knows the best practices when it comes to using a computer screen for long periods of time. The 20/20/20 rule seems to be a good one. Every twenty minutes, you stare at a point twenty feet away, for twenty seconds.
Secure Entry
Danger comes in all forms, including the outside! If you have a city or premises in a busy urban area, make sure that your workspace is kept secure. Everyone will be able to get on with their work safely and securely if you have keypad entry or a receptionist on the desk. And of course, it’ll also help keep your belongings safe at night.
Plan of Action
Try as you might, you’ll never make your business site completely safe. There will always be incidents. Hopefully, they will just be minor, and won’t require any advanced medical treatment. But whatever happens, and how severe it may be, it’s crucial that you treat every injury the same. That is, you should establish a correct way to handle the injuries, and then follow that procedure whenever an injury occurs. When you have a robust plan of action in place, you’ll help to reduce the panic that can often set in when something goes wrong.
Final Thoughts
Office premises should be a place of business, a place to get things done and take your company to the next level. And they are. But like anywhere where you gather groups of people and a lot of items, there are dangers. While you’ll never make your site completely safe, you can go a long way towards protecting your employees by taking your site safety seriously. Make a plan to update your safety credentials every few months or so, and you’ll have done your bit to create a happy, productive, safe workspace.
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