No matter what industry you work in, your employees form the backbone of your company; their health and safety is crucial to your company’s profits and public image. However, outside of following industry regulations, many business owners don’t know where to start when making their workplace safer for everyone there. Here are just a few things you can do to make your company a better place to work for all of your employees.
Update Appliances And Facilities
Obviously, one of the first places you should check to keep your employees safe is the areas where they’re spending the most time. Keeping your workplace’s materials, utilities, and appliances up to date reduces the potential risk to your employees on a regular basis, particularly those who are dealing with them most frequently. Where should you start? Look for components of your work environment that are the oldest; they’re most likely to have signs of damage. For example, there are water storage tanks still in use that are 100 years old or more. While technically stainless steel pipes can easily exceed a 100 year lifespan, that doesn’t mean they won’t be due for replacing sooner than that for a truly healthy environment.
Check Up On Sensitive Products
Whether you’re working in the food or beverage industry or in pharmaceuticals, there’s a strong chance you’re frequently handling materials or goods that need carefully monitored conditions in order to be safe for both employees and consumers. This includes during shipping these products as well. The food and beverage processing industry accounts for 17% of total manufacturing shipments and for 2% of the national GDP. If your employees regularly handle any materials that could cause illness if not properly contained, make sure you’re taking every precaution possible to keep everyone exposed safe.
Add Extra Alarms
For businesses that don’t handle end products or manufacturing directly, there are still steps you can take to protect your employees. If you own a shop or storefront, do you have a plan in case of a burglary to protect your employees? If not, it’s time to purchase alarms for your business. Even during impulsive, unplanned burglaries, more than 50% of the intruders said they would discontinue the burglary if they discovered an alarm. Just adding an alarm to your workplace is a great practice to prevent theoretical harm to those in your space.
Review Your Health Policies
Finally, one thing you can do from a business model perspective, regardless of the industry you work in, is to take a look at your existing employee health policies. What are employees expected to do if they’re sick? Is your business structured in a way where employees can afford to take the time they need off to recover? While it may seem inconvenient to have more employees absent, providing additional sick time allows workers the time they need to recover and come back to work safely and productively. Also be sure to take a look at your HR department and see what long-term options are available for employees with chronic conditions. The more options that your employees have, the more likely it is they’ll be able to stay safe and healthy while under your employ.
Creating a safe and healthy working environment should be one of the goals of any responsible business owner. Following these tips can help you create the safest and healthiest space possible, making your company an excellent one to work for.
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