5 Small Changes To Create a Safer Workplace
June 19, 2024
5 Small Changes To Create a Safer Workplace
Safety should be a primary concern in any industrial workplace. Your employees are your most important asset, and ensuring their wellbeing will help your business prosper. A lot goes into building and maintaining your company’s success, and making sure you’re utilizing the right safety products and services is only one part.
Pause and take a moment to consider whether safety is a significant part of your company culture. How often do you stress the importance of it to your employees? Once you analyze your company’s attitude toward safety, you can begin to understand some of the sources of your most serious potential risks and begin to foster a culture where safety rules. Here are some small changes you can implement in order to cultivate a safer workplace.
Make Smart Hiring Decisions
The industrial machinery industry needs high-quality employees who will follow important rules and regulations while doing stellar work. Take appropriate precautions during the hiring process by screening employees and making sure that they have the training and expertise necessary for the required job. Along with hiring employees that are skilled and have the needed qualifications, be sure to put an emphasis on training, and make sure your programs are up-to-date. Hiring with the right priorities in mind eventually leads to a team of professionals that put safety first.
Use Proper Machine Safety Equipment and Other Products
With proper training comes proper machine safety protocol. The right tools and equipment will allow your company to create a better product and overall work environment, but only if you are following proper safety measures when it comes to using those tools. Utilize equipment such as safety shields, blade guards, fall protection equipment, and any other appropriate components to help prevent injury and minimize risk on the job. Stronghold Safety carries an extensive array of products that can support safer use of industrial machines.
Have an Effective Communication Plan
Proper safety necessitates communication. Not only do you need to convey essential information like new safety regulations, training procedures, and other important topics throughout your company, but key info also needs to be able to travel back up the line. Take an emergency situation, for example. Things can worsen quickly if you don’t have a way to contact key employees immediately, or if those employees don’t have set communication procedures to follow.
Another key requirement of effective communication is providing an open environment in which your employees feel like they are able to come to you with health and safety concerns. Employees will be more likely to report hazards and identify areas of potential risk quickly when they feel secure making their concerns known.
Consider creating a safety committee to keep employees engaged and involved when it comes to improving safety throughout your workplace. Incentives may also provide an opportunity to encourage employees to follow procedure and create safer habits. You might think about offering company-wide or department-wide rewards on a regular basis when a period passes with no incidents. And be sure to acknowledge and give appropriate praise to employees who are doing an excellent job.
Always Make Sure You’re OSHA Compliant
Being OSHA compliant with their regulations and standards is crucial to maintaining a safer workplace. Ensuring that your company complies with these standards will safeguard employees while allowing your company to avoid fines and other penalties. OSHA constantly evolves and updates its rules, so be sure to stay up-to-date and take advantage of the newest advancements in safety.
Conduct Regular Safety Assessments
Don’t limit yourself to evaluating safety only when regulations are updated; you need to conduct overall assessments as well as regular machine guarding assessments, like those we do at Stronghold Safety. These tests will help to make sure that you are maximizing employee safety and efficiency. Through scheduled assessments, you can learn what areas and aspects of your workplace need attention. Take installed shields used to see point of operation, for example. These essential safety measures undergo wear and tear just like every component in your workplace. Regular tests can help you stay on top of those worn-out or damaged parts. Be sure to act on the results of these assessments by replacing and updating protective measures such as shields and interlocks as they become worn or damaged.
Create a Safer Workplace with Stronghold Safety Engineering
Implementing some of these small changes can make all the difference when it comes to creating a safer workplace for your employees. With the right machine safety services, you can increase productivity and remain proactive, benefitting all levels of your business. With Stronghold Safety, a thorough machine guarding assessment can help you identify risks, design a custom safety plan, and implement solutions that will help deliver a maximum ROI. If you're serious about safety, contact Stronghold Safety for complete professional safety solutions that will help you protect what's most important.