7 Ways to Prevent Accidents from Happening at Work

As a business owner, establishing and maintaining a safe working environment for your employees is an upmost concern. In order to be effective, your approach towards safety should be consistent and thorough and well communicated to your entire team.

Think you’ve got your safety strategy down pat? Be sure you are addressing these 7 ways to prevent accidents from happening at work. The health of your employees and your company could depend on it.

1. Establish and write out formal safety policies and procedures to be shared with your employees. By setting required guidelines, you and your employees will understand what is expected and can be held accountable if items are not accomplished. These policies should be both distributed and posted in a prominent location.
2. Seek safety suggestions. Encourage your employees to share their ideas for improved safety. By communicating that safety is a top priority for you and rewarding those who help in this endeavor, your employees will utilize their “in the trenches” insight to help you craft a superior safety plan.
3. Put someone in charge of company safety. Appoint a safety coordinator to head up your safety initiatives. You should meet with this person on a regular basis to discuss safety concerns and perform regular facility inspections to ensure that the appropriate precautions are in place.
4. Take steps to prevent slips, trips and falls on your property. Maintain sufficient lighting in parking areas, on sidewalks, and in stairway. Fix torn carpets or rugs or loose/missing floor tiles. Install handrails on stairways and ramps and ensure they are securely fastened. Use nonslip surfaces where possible, such as on stairs
5. Avoid taking shortcuts. By skipping or altering steps to meet a deadline, you may put your employees at risk for potential accidents. Follow protocol and best practices to ensure that doesn’t happen.
6. Create incident reports after accidents. By assessing past accidents (who was involved, why it happened and how it could have been prevented), you have a better chance of preventing them in the future. Be sure these incidents are not just paperwork quickly filed away. Management should review each incident report when completed for opportunities for improvement.
7. Hold emergency drills. Make sure your employees know what to do in the event of an accident by practicing emergency procedures.

Preventing accidents from happening at work is a critical initiative in your company’s ongoing success. Be sure you are doing everything in your power to ensure that your workplace is safe.

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Sources: Wiki.com, Learning Center