6 Ways To Prevent Injuries In The Workplace

Your employees are great assets to your company, which is why you must prioritize their safety in your workplace. Here are six ways to prevent injuries in the workplace:

1. Create A safety And Wellness Plan

Having a procedure that would address an employee's safety is extremely important and must be on top of this list. Here's a formula to develop the best safety and wellness plan:

• It would be best if you start by informing your employees about the importance of workplace safety and how having a plan can benefit everyone. This way, they would know how much you value their safety, plus you can be on the same page. When they know your goals for them, cooperation is easier and the plan can run smoothly.

• The next thing you can do is assess any risks and hazards you see. And since your employees are already aware of your plan, you can involve them too. Try releasing a survey that asks them about the risks of their job. You can also implement a rule about reporting any hazards they see. This way, nothing is overlooked.

• After this, you can now start creating a workplace protocol or guidelines for employee's safety. You can base this on the risks and hazards you compiled.

• Once that's finalized, it's time to educate your employees about the guidelines. Explain to them the importance of every bullet point. If proper training is needed, such as the appropriate usage of equipment, then you should do so.

• Finally, implement and evaluate. There will be a chance you'll notice something is lacking or a procedure is not working well. If this happens, feel free to make some changes.

2. Implement Clear Safety Policies

Now that you have created a plan and evaluated its effectiveness, it's time that you implement clear safety policies. One that is easy to understand and follow.

Not having clear safety policies can bring more harm than good.

Again, communication is essential. You should make sure that you and your employees are on the same page. Encourage them to ask if there are things they don't understand so you can keep on improving.

3. Invest In Health And Safety Training

Having health and safety training will lessen the number of accidents or injuries that can happen in the workplace. This is important for manufacturing industries, construction industries, mining industries, and other industries that use large equipment or machinery to get the job done.

We advise giving health and safety training to new hires before they start. Discuss the importance of workspace safety and why a particular procedure is necessary. Explain clearly the do's and don'ts and the consequences if they don't follow proper protocol.

At the same time, give your old employees refresher training at least once a year. This is for you to share any updated guidelines. Innovation is inevitable, and there's a high chance that some things you taught last year are no longer observed.

Another benefit of giving your old employees updates is that you'll be able to remove any arguments between the new employees on the proper procedures.

4. Encourage A Culture Of Wellness

You should not only encourage your employees to maintain a healthy physical body, but they also need to maintain a healthy well-being. This way, their performance will always be at its best.

Here are some ways that you can do that:

• Be an example. You can't tell your employees to take care of their well-being when you don't take care of yourself enough. So make sure you set an example first.

• Show that you care. Action speaks louder than words. You can tell your employees that you're concerned about their health, but if your actions don't show it, it will be useless.

• Invest in your employees' well-being. You can do this by starting programs that aim to improve your employees' health.

• Eliminate any barriers that your employees have. Sometimes, these barriers are the only thing that's stopping them from improving their well-being.

• Address all health components one by one. Again, you can create programs for this, such as financial programs, career programs, employee assistance, and more.

5. Maintain An Orderly Workplace

An orderly workplace can also mean little to no mess or hazards that could injure your people or risk their health. It has a lot of benefits to employees.

• Their productivity increases.

• They become happier.

• They're safer.

We recommend that you address this particular area in your workplace procedure or plan. You can create one whole section that would discuss how to maintain an orderly environment. This way, everyone would be cooperating in maintaining the workspace.

6. Conduct Emergency Drills

Emergency drills are different from training. Training is announced while an emergency drill is not.

This way, you know how ready your employees are in case of emergencies. At the same time, you'll be able to assess how well your employees understand the safety plan you have set up or if there needs improvement.

You can create an evaluation metric to determine how well the employees understand the guidelines of the procedure. Then, conduct retraining for those who fail the evaluation.

By creating a plan, implementing them, and ensuring that your employees understand them are the surefire ways to prevent your employees from getting injured.

About the Author – Raymond Chiu is the Director of Operations for Maid Sailors Office Cleaning Companies NYC. Maid Sailors offers its customers unrivaled office cleaning services that can address even the toughest cleaning needs. Matched with affordable prices, Maid Sailors is your best partner in helping you turn your office into a work-friendly workplace.