Businesses in the UK have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of their employees, customers, suppliers and visitors who may be on their premises. There are several strategies that that business can implement to ensure that their working environment is as safe as it can be.
Act Together:
Making health and safety the responsibility of all staff members will help them to take ownership of their role within keeping the environment safe. Offering training such as first aid, self-defence classes and making safety a priority within your company culture is a great way to achieve overall health and safety compliance and raise awareness to help the prevention of accidents.
Elect a Departmental Safety Leader:
Every member of staff should have a clear knowledge of safety procedure but ensuring every member of staff is as up to date as they should be is a difficult task. By electing a departmental safety leader whose job it is to ensure safety information is communicated and is in charge should a crisis happen. This team member can take pride in their role helping to ensure the wellbeing of the department and can be held to the high standards of your company’s safety protocol.
Have a Plan:
Be prepared for potential hazards by having set plans that dictate how your employees should behave in case of an incident, these procedure should be trained for and drilled frequently to confirm that your staff are fully prepared. When taking on new staff it is important that they are educated in all safety procedures when they are inducted.
Minimise Risks in your Operations:
Having staff members that are aware of how their actions in their day to day operations could affect or impede any safety procedure when it occurs is important, this include making sure that boxes are not absentmindedly left in corridors or doorways are not blocked in anyway.
Keep Your Safety Signage Up to Date
People see safety signage everywhere in almost every establishment that they visit, it can become something that is taken for granted. To ensure that your signage is taken on board make sure that they comply with the Safety Signs and Signage Regulations act 1996, ensure that they are hung in prominent places portraying correct and current information.
Keep Pace with Change
Regulations can change rapidly from government recommendations to your company deciding to change the materials they are working with. When these things happen it is the perfect time for you to ensure your safety signage and communication is as up to date and as relevant as possible. By anticipating change you are protecting not only your staff but also yourself, if an incident did occur your foresight could help you avoid costly litigation that could be brought against you.