Having your own business is something you should be proud of. It takes a lot of effort to build something, but maintaining it is an entirely different story. So it might take you a lifetime to build your business, but only one neglect in safety protocols might end up costing you your entire business.
And then there is a notion that business owners have it easy. However, let us be real, business owners have to work twice as hard and take care of administrative, operational, financial, etc., from scratch.
One thing that small business owners might end up neglecting is safety concerns. However, there are a lot of work policies and rules that you must follow to get the state’s approval to get your business up and running.
Once you have set up safety protocols, the key is to maintain them religiously as well. In this article, we have outlined 8 major workplace safety considerations every new business owner should enforce.
8 Workplace Safety Considerations That You Should Consider
Once you have set up your business according to the land laws and registered it, you also need to consider workplace safety protocols.
To prevent any additional cost that can arise due to sudden accidents or prevent your business from incurring any lawsuits, we have outlines these 8 Workplace safety considerations that you need to enforce.
1. Assess Workplace Hazards
Whether you are opening a small convenience store or a huge grocery store, you need to know all the risks involved in the business. For example, risk in the grocery store might include shelves falling on customers or employees.
Similarly, depending on the kind of business, you need to do an analysis report on all hazards that might incur in the workplace. You might want to go through this government list of health and safety at work to make sure you meet all the requirements.
In this analysis, you should document all the risks associated with the workplace and your employees. Then, after listing down all the risks, you need to sit down and think about ways to reduce those risks.
Hypothetically, if you are running a small café, you need to know about fire and gas hazards. And as a solution, you can get state-approved safety certificates.
Similarly, for a construction business, there is a hazard of your employee falling or your site breaking down, etc., which is why you see a lot of hazards sign at a construction site. A major aspect of managing a construction project is therefore a thorough safety inspection.
Conducting a detailed analysis report on the hazard of a workplace should be the first step in the process of making your business operational. If you overlook this, you might end up being sued or costing a person’s life. And just like that, you might end up losing the license for your business or, worst, in jail.
2. Enforce Safe Working Habits at the Workplace
It is one thing to make all the rules and regulations for your workplace safety consideration, but implementing and observing the rules successfully is another matter altogether. It requires constant effort by the employers and employees to enforce those rules as a regular practice.
And let us be real, half the businesses that face incidents happen due to the neglect of an employee. For example, an employee might forget to turn the stove off after he/she is done cooking, etc. There are many things that can go wrong and one workplace safety consideration that you need to enforce is that all your employees are following the safety procedures as religiously as possible.
3. Encourage Employee to Report any Safety Violations
This is a major part of your workplace code of conduct. If you have a strong code of ethics where employees must report on their friends if they see any safety violations.
Usually, corporations deal with peer pressure, where employees don’t feel comfortable telling on their colleagues or friends. You need to strongly enforce a culture of “if you see something, say something.”
For example, if you see one of your friends come to the workplace drunk, it will compromise the quality of work and endangers the safety of others. Hence, coworkers need to report it to the management. As a business owner, you need to ensure that the management can secure the employee’s trust and faith and ensure that the reporting will stay confidential.
4. Provide your employees with Safety Gears
Depending on the kind of business you are working with, you need to provide your employees with safety gears. For example, if you are dealing with construction workers, you need to provide them with helmets, safe working equipment, gloves, goggles, etc.
5. Practice What You Preach
It is one thing when you give a safety handout to all your employee and another thing when you practice them yourselves. The best way to enforce a safe culture in your workplace is to practice those safety protocols yourself.
6. Safety Reward Programs
Workplace Safety consideration programs can ensure that the employees feel rewarded for practising a safe environment. Human beings are prone to work hard towards something if they see they are being rewarded for it. The reward can be gift certificates or a free lunch etc.
7. Analyze the Long Term Risks
When planning short-term, a lot of businesses forget to see the long-term consequences. You must take a look at all those long-term risks as well. For example, a driver might know all the road rules, but he might be overlooking the toll all that driving is taking on his mental health.
8. Ensure that Employees are Getting Breaks
To stay productive and alert, the employees must be given breaks so they aren’t overworked. It is no secret that when humans are tired, they make mistakes. Therefore, it’s better to ensure sufficient break time between and during shifts to ensure alertness. Even one over-worked employee can end up putting the entire project at risk.
Author Bio
Shoaib provides ghostwriting and copywriting services. His educational background in the technical field and business studies helps him in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. He occasionally writes articles for Gas Safety Certs.
