Employee safety: Simple strategies to improve the working environment

This guide outlines the key factors to improve your employee safety and ensure a better and safer working environment for your entire team.

One of the things that takes new business owners by surprise is how challenging it can be to manage employees. For many, this is something that they’ve never had to do before. When you’re a leader, you’ll need to think about what roles you need to fill, how much to pay your staff, things like that. One of the less glamorous but deeply important aspects of having employees is ensuring employee safety. You have a duty to ensure that they’re safe and secure when they’re working for you.

Ways to improve employee safety

In this guide, we’re going to take a look at a few ways you can nudge your employee safety credentials in the right direction.

Reinforce the value of security

To ensure employee safety and a safer work environment, awareness of the team is the first step to be taken. This involves, for example, recognizing and rewarding employees who comply with the indications for the use of personal protective equipment, precautionary measures and measures to reduce the risk of accidents.

On the other hand, the opposite path must also be taken: establish employee safety notification routines for team members who do not follow these security measures, including disciplinary measures for the most serious cases.

It is also worth emphasizing that care such as these are beneficial both for the company and for employees. In hospitals, for example, it is mandatory that professionals wear protective gloves when performing medical procedures, even the simplest ones — which guarantees not only the health of the professional, but also that of the patient.

Provide the proper protective equipment

It is the company’s responsibility to provide the necessary protective equipment for employee safety, depending on the risk presented in each activity. All of them must be of good quality and certified. It is also the company’s responsibility to guide employees about its use and proper conduct for occupational safety in general.

Provide employee safety training for your team

As we’ve already said, it’s the company’s responsibility to organize safety training for employees — and that’s of paramount importance. By knowing all the protection equipment and procedures, teams can actively act to improve the safety culture within the organization. In this way, in addition to reducing costs and problems with accidents, the productivity of the company as a whole is improved. In general, the following training should be addressed:

• measures to reduce accident risks;
• necessary care to carry out each activity;
• analysis of workplace risks;
• protective equipment and its functionalities;
• organization parameters.

Develop an employee safety risk analysis

A frequent employee safety risk assessment allows the company to check at all times what precautionary measures are necessary, always updating the plans already prepared. In hospitals, for example, it is necessary to instruct the teams about the risks of contamination, injuries and other care.

But, as the adoption of new surgical equipment and technologies is a frequent practice, it is necessary to update the teams on the possible impacts of these new developments. After verifying the risks associated with them, the next step is to prepare the risk mitigation plan.

Monitor teams and their activities

Especially in the health area, managers must provide adequate conditions for employee safety. It is also essential to monitor the company’s routine on a daily basis, verifying that all the recommended security measures are actually being followed by the team. Only in this way is it possible to timely identify aspects that need improvement , and adopt corrective strategies in order to comply with what is established in the regulations.

Employ technology solutions

Undoubtedly, new technological solutions are making it increasingly easier to perform repetitive tasks for employee safety. This implies increased productivity and more accurate services , in addition to helping to reduce work-related accidents. And the gains from this application are noticeable in several fields of activity: the automobile industry, for example, has considerably reduced accidents by automating a large part of its production.

In hospitals, however, several surgeries can now be performed by robots, which considerably reduces the risk of physical and biological accidents — for both the patient and the medical team. So, with that in mind, check out which technology solutions can improve your work environment!

Staff wellbeing

Life can be hard, exceptionally hard. Most of the time, the thing that bothers a person has nothing to do with their work, but they can’t always prevent it from affecting their job. If you have an employee that’s going through a difficult moment, then be sure to provide the employee safety support they need to get through it. And of course, if your staff are in a bad way because of their job, then you’ll need to rethink your approach. No-one’s mental health should suffer because of the actions of the company that they work for.

Office threats

One of the simplest ways to improve employee safety is to take a look at what could threaten that safety. Of course, if you’re running a factory, then there’ll be more threats than there would be if you’re running an office — but in any case, it’s important to remember that things can go wrong in all work premises. Making it safer could be as simple as tidying away any loose wires that someone could trip on. Take a look at potential dangers, and take steps to remove them.

Controlling access

The only people who should be on your premises are the ones who are authorized to be there. The security of your site is important for employee safety; even if it’s unlikely that anything will happen, you shouldn’t take any chances. If a criminal did decide to enter your site, then your employees would be in danger.

There are a couple of ways to manage this threat. The first is to have controlled access, either through swipe cards, keys, or fingerprint access. You’ll also want to install business security cameras; these prevent criminals from targeting sites, but also provide evidence if something does happen. If your workspace is high-risk, then you may consider hiring a security guard.

Ensuring that your security guards are equipped with the necessary tools and resources is not only crucial but also plays a vital role in enabling them to perform their duties effectively. In addition to training and skills, providing them with appropriate uniforms, self-defense tools, and reliable communication devices, such as two-way radio accessories, is essential. 

Worst-case scenario planning

It’s important for improving employee safety to think about what would happen in a worst-case scenario. For example, if there was a fire or a natural disaster. Would your employees know what to do in the event of an emergency? Have you trained them sufficiently? Training should be reviewed every few months. This is something for which you may want to hire an external expert, since they’ll be able to identify the biggest dangers and offer training and guidance to your members of staff.