Negosentro|5 Workplace Safety Tips to Get More out of Your Small Business Benefits|When starting a small business, the aim is usually to maximize the output while minimizing the input. This means that the goal is to increase the ROI (Return on Investment).
In every workplace environment, there are those possible hazards that are likely to cause accidents or injuries to your employees. When an employee is involved in an accident at the workplace, they have to go to the hospital for a medical check-up. This means that the employee will be absent until they are fit to work, and your company’s insurance company will have to settle any medical charges incurred.
When the insurance company has to pay for medical expenses regularly, they tend to increase your insurance premium, which means you have to pay more than usual for the medical insurance cover. This will normally eat into your benefits considering the fact that you are using the insurance cover to cater for avoidable accidents.
So which safety tips can you adopt to get more out of your small business benefits?
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Design the workplace with safety in mind
When designing the workplace, you should always have safety in mind. Make sure that the workplace is designed in a way that it avoids or prevents your employees from any accidents. If it is a manufacturing firm, make sure that there is enough space for the movement of the machinery. If it is an office space, make sure that any electrical cables are well fixed to avoid any accidents. If you deal with the products or any materials, make sure that there is a spacious storage facility where the materials and products are safely store.
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Invest in machine and equipment maintenance
Every workplace has those machinery or equipment that must be available for maximum productivity. These pieces of equipment become worn out the more they are used, meaning that their effectiveness decreases. This translates to a decrease in safety.
An old machine will easily fail and cause an accident than a piece of new or well-maintained machinery. Moreover, when a piece of equipment is not working well, your employees might become innovative, exposing them to accidents. It becomes very important in such situation to use OSHA Lockout Tagout to caution employees from using faulty machinery.
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Involve your staff
Your employees definitely know more about their vulnerabilities than you. They interact with the workplace environment and therefore understand more about possible accidents or rather safety concerns. This means that you should involve them in the drafting and advancement of workplace safety measures.
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Give clear job descriptions
When recruiting your employees, you should always give them clear job descriptions. This is to make sure that every employee handles only what they are trained to handle. The mixing of employee roles causes most accidents in the workplace.
For instance, since the electrician is away, you ask the office messenger to fix some naked cables in the boardroom. This is definitely exposing the messenger to an electronic shock.
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Review safety guidelines annually
Make it a habit to review workplace safety measures every year. You should invest in a risk assessment software that would help with you business needs. Every business expects growth and expansion, meaning that you might increase the number of employees, production, etc. This translates to an increase in safety loopholes in the workplace. You must therefore review them regularly to make sure that your employees are always safe.
Workplace safety should not be taken lightly by any small business. You should definitely do it with the safety of your employees in mind and not just to comply with any workplace regulations. It will increase your productivity and increase your returns
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