Four Steps to Create a Culture of Workplace Safety
Like an airplane needs a clear and safe runway to depart and arrive, businesses need safe workspaces free of hazards to arrive at productivity and profits. Anything less can cause a crash with the potential of wrecking a business.
Work safety involves a series of steps and procedures, from hazard-free workspaces, to proper training, to attentive and conscientious employees.
When one facet of a safe workplace falls between the cracks, the company can pay. The costs may arrive via lawsuits, theft, or inferior products that dent or devour a brand’s reputation leading to unrecoverable losses monetarily.
Fortunately, making your workspace—i.e., equipment, floors, chemical products, structures—accident-proof involves quite basic, rudimentary measures. Harnessing and properly securing employees who must conduct their work from high perches, for instance, serves as one physical work safety measure.
However, when it comes to preventing employee-driven accidents, the task presents more complexities. Employers must know all their workers are trained properly enough to conduct their jobs productively. They must also know that all their employees are functioning with a clear, capable mind as well as an able body to perform their tasks successfully and safely.
Employers should focus on these primary four steps when striving to improve work safety in physical form and in terms of employees.
- Prevent Falls
Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor indicate falls from perches above floor level account for nearly 15 percent of all fatalities in the workplace.
Keep all scaffolding and ladders free of disrepair while making sure proper harnessing equipment, secure attachment of such equipment, and study sides on worker lifts are used to deter falls from high platforms. Make sure no overhead obstructions pose a snaring or collision problem while someone is working from a high platform. Also keep the worker free of electrically charged apparatus, commonly along the ceiling line and outdoors.
Falls from floor level, however, occur much more frequently than from high places. In fact, labor statistics show that slips and trips account for more workplace injuries than any other means. Keep floors dry, and clean spills immediately. Before workers arrive, make sure floors are completely dry after mopping.
Also, always keep floors clear of clutter, provide lighting sufficient to detect potential tripping hazards, and post signs warning of potential trips or falls in relevant areas.
- Conduct Work Safety Training
Through manuals, pamphlets, appointed trainers, and visual aids, train your workers on equipment and floor safety. Many employers—large grocery chains, for instance—even test their employees with quizzes via computer. Others go through physical practice with their employees on the floor or work site until they can go through the work regimen in a safe manner. Be sure to provide work safety handbooks or literature to all workers.
If a piece of equipment needs repair or replacement, post a sign on it that restricts use until the equipment returns to safe working order.
Allow only those who possess a written approval, certificate, or license to use motorized equipment. Be sure an employee is properly licensed to drive motor vehicles. Keep manuals attached to or inside any motorized, mobile equipment or vehicle.
- Secure Chemicals and Toxins
Only allow use of toxic solutions for particular types of cleaning or repair. Meanwhile, establish clear procedural access to them. For instance, require workers to gain the key to the chemical closet from a supervisor or foreman, who can decide whether the solution should be used at that time for the particular problem. Keep all potentially toxic or flammable products well labeled and identified, and make sure caps are always secure and tight.
Further, keep toxic chemicals separated from all other non-toxic cleaners, solvents, and toxin-free products. This dissolves any potential employee confusion.
- Establish a Drug and Alcohol Policy
The U.S. Department of Labor and the National Institute on Drug Abuse find that workers influenced by the use of drugs or alcohol pose a risk of workplace injury nearly three times higher than other workers. And unfortunately, the injury can befall either the impaired employee or another worker(s).
When hiring employees, explain policies regarding the use of drugs and alcohol. Such policies should address the disallowance of their use before entering work and in the workplace. Moreover, your policies should disallow drug and alcohol use outside the workplace when it affects their state of health and alertness during work hours as well.
A variety of drug-testing methods are allowed by law for employers whose concern for work safety require such tests.
According to many drug-test kit providers, the type of test used by an employer affects the window or history of drug usage detected and even the number of drugs detected. Some, such as a urine or saliva test, can detect drug usage within a 3-5-day period before the test. On the other hand, a hair drug test can detect usage over a 90-day period but not within the 3-5-day period before testing.
Some methods of drug testing are obviously more invasive than others. Blood testing, for example, proves much more invasive than a hair, saliva, or urine test. Urine tests, which require privacy for sample collection, pose a higher fallibility rate because cheating is easier than when other methods are used. Blood, saliva, and urine do not detect nearly as long a history of drug use as hair testing does. So, employers must choose a consistent method of drug testing to administer before employee hiring and during employment as well to ensure a culture of work safety.
Sources:
https://ohsonline.com/articles/2019/06/01/drugs-and-workplace-safety.aspx
https://www.arbill.com/arbill-safety-blog/bid/203028/Painful-Statistics-on-Slips-Trips-and-Falls
https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/14054-common-workplace-safety-hazards
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