Safety Standards for Your Small Business
Guest Post
You probably know you need to have First Aid kits available for your small or medium-sized business. But do you know how many are required for the square footage of your operations building? You know you need fire extinguishers. Do you know whether they expire or not? Meeting safety requirements for your small business might require more involvement than you think. If you run a business and don’t employ a trained, certified safety manager, you should be aware of the safety requirements for your company to keep your employees safe and to prevent financial stress due to lax safety concerns.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) helps businesses keep their employees safe and helps regulate and enforce safety concerns for businesses across the nation. These guys should be on your radar to better understand specific guidelines for safety and protection. Keep your employees safe. Prevent unnecessary fines. Listen to OSHA.
Here are a few general guidelines to remember. Keep in mind not only the future safety of your workplace, but also how much money you’ll be saving as you employ guidelines like these.
Proper Equipment
Certain equipment will be required for certain industries. This might be as simple as assuring you have the proper supplies in your First Aid kit boxes. It might mean required HAZMAT suits, hard hats, gloves and eye protection. Have a good idea of the personal protective equipment (PPE) required for your employees. And make sure these supplies are readily available to your employees at all times. PPE is necessary. By assuring that every employee cooperates with PPE protocol, you reduce the possibility and frequency of safety incidents.
Have a Plan
Think about fire or weather evacuations. Think about your actions if one of your employees becomes seriously hurt. Do you know what procedures to enact? Do your employees know what to do if something happens on the job? And this doesn’t only apply to hazardous work environments. Your employees should be well informed about any possible event. Consider the hazards possible when brushing your teeth—tripping on the floor, spraining your wrist, anything—and use this mentality as you train your employees and create plans for unforeseen events.
Create and practice emergency exits. Train your staff with CPR courses and on-site safety. If your employees know about the importance of a safe work environment, you’ll see the number of incidents go down. You’ll see employees prepared when incidents do occur.
Update Your Safety Standards
It’s easy to set a system in place and to believe that, after months without incident, your safety standards are up-to-date and recognized by your employees. But that’s really when standards slip. That’s when someone is most likely to get hurt. Stay focused. Keep your employees alert to potential dangers in the workplace and create incentives for their watchful eyes.
This might sound tedious. It’s not. When your small business aggregates itself under the goal of maintaining a safe work environment, you keep one another safe. The safer you are, the more time and money you have to increase your bottom line.
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