Creating Safety Culture
Guest Post
While you have many concerns in the day to day running of your business, one of your overall goals should be promoting a safety culture within the work environment. Safety culture refers to a safe and injury free workplace that protects its workers through a variety of safety measures. When a focus is put on the wellbeing of your employees, the quality of life within the workplace is improved.
Implementing Safety Culture
The specific ways in which you implement safety culture depends on the type of business that you’re running. The requirements to keep a construction worker are much different than that of an office worker, for example. However, making sure that the management and other top positions at a company sees safety culture as a necessary part of your work environment is the first step to implementing it.
Look over OSHA guidelines to get an idea of the bare minimum that you need to get started. You’re going to want to go well beyond these, however, and adapt new safety measures for your particular business. You may want to focus on equipment that has the latest in safety features, ergonomic chairs to cut down on work related injuries from typing stress, and other ways to keep everyone healthy.
Benefits of a Safety Culture
Other than the fact that all of your employees will appreciate having a safe workplace when they come in for their jobs, you also benefit in other ways. When you don’t deal with a lot of workplace injury, you don’t have to worry about running short-handed. You also get the benefits of employee loyalty and increased productivity. When your employees don’t have to worry about their health or getting any sort of long-term problems from their work, they can focus entirely on the task at hand.
Tips to Create a Safety Culture
After you’ve gotten the initial implementation of your business safety culture, you want to make sure that it is emphasized every chance that you get. Make sure that everyone from the top to the bottom of your organization knows about all relevant safety rules. You also want to make sure that you go over any changes as soon as possible in meetings or training programs.
Keep track of the latest safety features available in your field, whether it’s brand new construction equipment or monitors that reduce eyestrain. You want to try to take every angle possible when looking at new ways to keep your employees safe. Try to keep track of new safety initiatives to see if they’re being implemented properly. You don’t want to have a solid new way of keeping everyone safe, only to have it fizzle out because no one is actually following the rules. Have human resources open to address any safety policy questions that your employees might have.
Your business safety culture will grow and change over the years, and that’s the sign of a safety culture that is working well. You want to always have an eye open for ways to adapt to changes in your business market, as well as ways to keep your employees happy through safety.
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