9 Workplace Safety Tips You Should Know About

Workplace safety is one of the top priorities for every company and for good reasons. Specifically, in 2019, OSHA received reports of 2,836 fatal workplace incidents.

By ensuring worker safety and reducing accidents, your company will save time and money. The following workplace safety tips will enable you to keep your employees safe and your organisation operating properly.

What is Workplace Safety?

All factors that affect an employee's safety, health, and well-being are included in the term of workplace safety, which relates to the working environment at a company. 

Workplace safety leads to fewer accidents, which leads to lower worker's compensation expenses, less downtime for employees, and less retraining time for workers who would otherwise be needed to replace an injured worker.

Avoiding equipment damage will result in lower repair and maintenance expenses. When employees are aware of how to prevent accidents and trust that management is actively working to keep them safe, performance goes up.

Why Workplace Safety Tips Must Be Followed By All Employees?

Every workplace has a certain level of risk associated with it. This can be either normal working conditions, like the weather being cold, or in other scenarios the working conditions can be extreme. 

No matter what your workplace may be like, there are some workplace safety tips you should consider to keep your workplace safe. Many people also believe that if they are not working in dangerous conditions they are not at risk of suffering an injury but this is simply not true.

Safe working practices in your workplace are essential to avoid an accident. Careful management of your business will also prevent any future legal issues. A point should be made that each employee must follow basic safety rules to ensure the safety and wellbeing of other staff.

Making money is the most important aspect of running a business. If you keep your employees safe, you will have a more profitable workplace and more loyal employees who are happy to continue working for your business. 

Follow these simple tips to ensure your employees’ safety at work every day.

9 Workplace Safety Tips

1. Organise Frequent Safety Training

You must be prepared in advance for hazards since they never arrise at a favourable moment. Offering employees consistent training is a crucial step in improving workplace safety, which is a skill set that must be developed over time.

Although this instruction can encompass themes like danger awareness and reaction, it shouldn't be given only through a lecture or written document. OSHA suggests substituting the use of hands-on learning methods so that employees can become used to whatever would be expected of them in the event of a workplace safety issue.

2. Immediately Report Dangerous Events

To avoid embarrassing themselves or others, employees may occasionally feel reluctant to inform their supervisors of specific harmful situations and risks.

This may increase the likelihood that an accident or injury may happen on the job, which is not favourable to a safe work environment. To assist in safeguarding their fellow employees and themselves, all employees must report harmful circumstances as they are noticed.

When a risk or hazard is detected, notify relevant stakeholders following the correct protocol to minimise risks promptly and successfully.

You can take an incident as a chance to increase worker safety and comply with regulations by using SafetyIQ's free incident report template.

You can use the Incident Report Template to

• Meet your duty of care obligations.

• Maintain compliance with health and safety regulations.

• Enhance worker safety practices.

3. Maintain A Clean And Functional Workplace and Equipment

Working conditions can rapidly worsen when a big number of individuals cooperate in the same area, use the same tools, and utilise the same flooring.

It is necessary to maintain and keep everything clean and safe, including forklifts, alarms, and the coffee machine in the break room. By doing this, you can avoid accidents from poorly kept equipment and machinery, slips and falls brought on by damp or unclean flooring, and generally preserve the health and safety of your workforce.

4. Wear All Necessary Safety Gear (PPE)

Wear the required safety gear at all times. Luminous clothes, fire-retardant apparel, professional workwear, or something as basic as non-slip shoes might all be appropriate safety equipment for your business. If your workspace contains waste or dust, or if you need to work with poisonous or harmful substances or gases, always wear a face mask.

5. Always Follow the Rules

To protect employees, always follow the rules and regulations. It isn't worth risking injury for the sake of saving time by missing a step or failing to wear safety equipment. Follow the directions while using each piece of equipment and machine.

6. Guide New Staff

Team members with more experience should mentor new team members. To maintain a solid foundation for safety, it is crucial to educate them on the safety culture of the company and the principles it follows.

To build a safe workplace and a stronger safety culture, the team can work together if every member is completely committed to the benefits that safety delivers to both the business and themselves.

Remind staff to follow workplace safety precautions at all times to help guarantee that everyone arrives home safely at the end of the day.

Small efforts like these can be taken by the workforce regularly to help promote the significance of safety and the advantages it can provide.

7. Safety Inspections

Inspections and audits of your workplace's safety procedures regularly might disclose much more than just safety breaches. It can pave the path for a culture in which employee safety is prioritised.

You can prevent missing any issues and achieve compliance by including the proper questions in your checklists.

8. Maintain A Record of the Incidents

You must look at the safety incident reports if you wish to stop such injuries. It might be serious situations, close calls, or accidents.

You'll have a better understanding of the typical problems if you analyze the reports from the previous few months or years. To identify the main causes of severe mishaps and accidents, you can also run a deep analysis.

9. Employees Journey Management

According to the National Safety Council, accidents cost businesses around $9.25 billion per year across all industries.

It’s crucial to have a journey management system in place to reduce costs and the risk of incidents.

SafetyIQ is a great journey management solution. The leading provider of integrated services, Downer's Journey Management procedure was focused on a paper-based method that was unreliable and difficult to administer.

With the SafetyIQ technology, Downer was able to control real-time operations, decrease the frequency of vehicle accidents caused by accidents, and reduce response times for their domestic workforce.   

You can request a free demo of the SafetyIQ Journey Management System by clicking here.

Before using SafetyIQ, Sandvik, (the leading provider of machines, instruments, services, and technological solutions to the construction and mining sectors) took up to 50 hours a month on average to manual Journey Management procedures. The labour expenditures were about $2,500 per month.

They are currently saving over $1,000 per month and 42 hours after the implementation of SafetyIQ.

Conclusion

Safety doesn't have to be complicated. It's much more a question of practicality - make sure you're following the rules, keeping equipment in its place, and following solid safety processes.

Workers should always follow safe and proper handling procedures. Workers should take safety precautions when performing tasks, such as working under dangerous equipment or during electrical storms. 

They should also be careful when working in confined spaces such as sewers, scaffolds, and mechanical equipment. Follow the above workplace safety tips to create a safer working environment.