Employee Health and Safety

Employee Health and Safety

As a business owner, you are responsible for proving your employees with a safe working environment. A safe working environment improves employee morale, creates a positive workplace, and reduces the chance of claims occurring.

Importance of Employee Safety

When you put your employee’s health and safety as a priority, there are benefits. Some of the benefits of creating a healthy work environment are:

·         OSHA Compliance

·         Injury and illness costs are reduced

·         Employee morale improved

·         Employee retention improved

·         Productivity increases

·         Absenteeism reduces

·         Improved company reputation

Safety Measures

There are several steps that you can take to implement safety measures to help create a safe working environment.

·         Disaster Plan – Have a plan in place for natural disasters, fire, and other emergencies, including evacuation procedures.  

·         Employee training helps everybody know their exact job duties, what is excepted of them, and what they expect management/owners to do to keep them safe

·         Regularly inspect your workplace for hazards – Regular walkthroughs of the business can help keep the workplace hazard free. All equipment should be regularly inspected, and records kept, to ensure that everything is working and in good condition. Have protocols in place for employees to notify managers or owners of anything that needs to be addressed or repaired.

·         Keep floors and areas clean and free of clutter to minimize trip and fall hazards – Floors should be clean of clutter or overstacked boxes, non-slip mats should be used in kitchens and areas where necessary, and immediately fix or replace flooring that is ripped, or torn or raised.

·         If any job duties include lifting, train employees on safe lifting procedures

·         Provide personal protection equipment for employees that required gloves, eye shields, lifting belts, or ear protection.

·         Have regular safety meetings with employees and make sure that employee feedback on safety measures is included.

The best way to implement safety measures is by creating a safety program.  The safety program should include all aspects of health and safety, rules and procedures, and where to report incidents.  Included in the safety program should be records of maintenance of things such as inspections, maintenance records, training, first aid treatments, accidents, and incident reports.

OSHA has created a page dedicated to Safety and Health Programs in the workplace. From this page, you can find links to step-by-step guides, core elements of workplace safety, tools to help your business, case studies, and resources for the business owner.