Are Your Employees Safe? Owning a business comes with a whole host of responsibilities, but one of the most important is the safety of your employees. Your employees are the lifeblood of your company. Without them, you wouldn’t have anything. And that is why you need to keep them and ensure that the space they work in is safe.
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Any safety precautions that you can take can only benefit your business; your employees are more likely to be happy in the workspace – making them want to work harder.
Plus, a safe and happy workspace will draw people in and inspire loyalty where an unsafe company would drive existing and new employees alike, out the door.
Depending on where your business is in the world, and what your company actually is, will mean that you could have extra, or different health and safety regulations that you must, legally, abide by.
If you’re unsure, then check out your local government website, or get in touch with someone there to speak to face to face. Before you can even think of extra measures for your employees, you have to have the legal bases covered, or you won’t be able to be in business anyway.
Following the legal stuff for running your business, look at the building you operate out of. What physical changes can you make that would improve the safety of your staff? If you’re renting, you will need to have the landlord’s approval before making any changes.
If you are working within a warehouse, then look into loading dock safety – make sure the best equipment is available, and that regulations and guidelines are in place and being followed.
Your staff is entitled to swift exits in case of a fire – but not all governing bodies enforce the need for extinguishers and fire blankets within the premises, which is something that you should definitely be looking into having.
Extinguishers need servicing each year to check that they are still to date, and still functional, and they should be dotted about where appropriate.
The usual place to find them is at the same location as the fire alarm. You will also need to think about the type of extinguisher you need – the main types are CO2, foam, and water.
If your company deals with chemicals then you will need to look into which ones would be the most effective, and which would cause more trouble than help.
If your company operates overtime or carries stock, then you might want to look into employing security for the building.
Security guards are great for large buildings where staff work late at night, and where there are large amounts of stock held. CCTV cameras should be installed within the building as well as the outside.
People working late and leaving on their own are at much more of a risk than people leaving at the same time as everyone else. If an incident were to happen, then you, and they will be highly grateful for the camera that caught it all.
Again, if security guards are present, they can escort the member of staff to their car, if need be, to again minimise this risk.
All electrical equipment within the company should be pat tested to make sure that it is safe for use.
Many third-party companies are available to come into your office and check your electronic devices. This usually only needs doing once a year, and whenever you acquire new equipment. Not only, should be ensuring the physical safety of the office devices, but also the online safety.
Anything that has access to the internet can be hacked. And most employees would have their emails attached to their desktops, and you will have all of their details on your server.
All their addresses, payroll details, emergency contacts – these are all things that hackers are interested in getting their hands on. And you can easily protect your employees from this by using a high-quality security system, combined with an additional anti-virus software.
Most viruses are used to create an opening for hackers to get through, so by stopping that you’ll save yourself, and your employees from that danger.
You can’t plan for every eventuality, but you can plan for most. And where the safety of their own person and property isn’t your responsibility, as your employee, on your premises, and working on your computer’s – you do owe them more than the minimum amount of safety regulations.
