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Is your business safe? What steps have you taken in ensuring the safety of your employees? A safe and secure workplace must have in place measures preventing illnesses, injuries, security threats, and more. Ensuring the safety of your workplace encourages your employees and keeps them productive and healthy. Ultimately, your business will grow and thrive as a result.
As an employer or a business manager, you should take several steps to ensure the safety and security of your workers in your enterprise. Outlined herein are some pointers and tips on how to do so:
Involve and Educate Employees on Safety Planning
Involve your employees in making a safety plan. Start by bringing up conversations about security and safety and giving them a chance to put across their ideas. Here, they can discuss ways you can ensure a safer working environment, possibly even involving security companies to provide professional guidance. Also, devise a way for your employees to talk about uncomfortable issues anonymously thus, encouraging them to speak up. In turn, you will have an overall safety culture among your employees.
Additionally, train your employees on simple ways to ensure safety in your workplace. Teach them steps to follow when faced with security threats at work. You can even extend this to educating them on safety practices for their homes. Talk about things like installing proper security doors and maintaining the privacy of their homes. You can go ahead and teach them about organizations like Company addresses explained which offer services that ensure their customers keep their home addresses private.
Doing so will ensure that your employees stretch their safety culture to their homes. Ultimately, a safe employee is a happy and comfortable worker.
Follow All The Provincial and Federal Regulations
Make a point to adapt the available provincial and federal regulations in your locality. Some of them include maintaining the business premises, having emergency plans, providing first aid kits and training, and more. Check with your local government in offices or on websites to ensure you follow these regulations to the latter.
Have a Security Plan
After ensuring that you have followed the regulations, create safety and security plans for emergencies. You can highlight these plans to your employees. Also, have the safety plans in an accessible place like the walls along your corridors.
You should have a security plan in case of robbery, natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes, violence at the workplace, and terror attacks. Having these plans ensures quick action when either of these threats occurs.
Ensure Cleanliness and Maintenance of Premises and Equipment
Apart from the regulations set in place by the local government, you must have routines in place for cleaning schedules of your workplaces. You should take more steps beyond the required. Ensure that your workplaces are kept clean at all times by mopping floors after any spillovers to avoid tripping and falling.
You can also do daily checks on your machinery, equipment, and tools. Most importantly, provide clear access routes for emergency exits and keep them accessible at all times in case of fire incidents. Make sure you replace any fire door handles too, as they begin to show signs of wear.
Cultivate a Culture of Safety and Security
A great starting point for ensuring the culture of safety at your workplace is offering a reward program. Come up with different ideas about what to reward your employees on matters regarding safety and security. For instance, reward any employee that reports threats of terror attacks or violence with office perks, dinner with the boss, etc. Failure to have this strategy in place will only contribute to company losses or injury or illnesses of workers.
Moreover, create a health and safety committee within your small business and get volunteers from every department. Within the group, you can give different workers specific security tasks they will be responsible for. Some of these responsibilities include monitoring surveillance equipment, inspecting buildings and access points, and sounding alarms in case of fire. Also, these appointees can report irregularities and restrain trespassers. This way, you will prevent losses and damages in your small business.
You should also ensure your workers are seen at all times, especially when working in environments where there might be low lighting or risk of accidents as a result. The use of hi vis vests is a must for anyone working on a building site or worksite that may be dangerous without wearing one.
Keep in mind, too, that protection isn’t just about physical safety, but also managing all the aspects of business life. For example, data security software can ensure personal information is secure even in a breach of your systems.
Install Security Systems
Install security systems like controlled access, fire detection devices, and CCTV. This way, you ensure maximum safety and security of your employees, business machinery, and equipment. Automated security systems are advantageous in this case as they can automatically detect smoke or suspicious break-ins. The alarms will go off and alert the employees or security guards about any suspicious activities. Reach out to various companies that offer installation of security systems and get started.
Additionally, promote and advertise the security system you have in place. Make it known that you have installed them. This way, you keep potential intruders at bay. Also, have signages about your security measures at all access points.
Secure Your Workspaces
Take the simplest of measures to keep your employee’s workspaces safe. These simple steps will minimize theft and robbery in case of a break-in. Start by reminding your workers to keep away their things. Keep away all your paperwork with sensitive information about your business and staff. You can lock them in cabinets or a safe. All your paperwork that needs shredding should be kept in a safe and discreet location. Moreover, encourage your workers to check and lock doors when staying late at your business premises.
Regularly Check All Access Points
Create a habit of checking all your entry and exit points regularly, including broken elevators, open reception spaces, unsecured stairways, doors, and windows. These areas can be accessed easily by intruders at any time. Always check these places from time to time to ensure there are no potential breaks in or any suspicious activities. Also, check them to note any vulnerabilities and correct and repair them immediately.
Conclusion
Investing time and money into ensuring safety and security at your workplace may be tedious but will help your business in the long run. Doing so will ensure that your employees and business machinery are safe and secure. In turn, you will keep your business running and thriving peacefully. Follow the above steps and tips to ensure a safe workplace for you and your employees.
