Workplace Safety: Tips to Ensuring Employee Well-Being
Workplace Safety: Tips to Ensuring Employee Well-Being
Business owners have a vast amount of considerations, including workplace safety and other things they likely never foresaw, that they must worry about when running their company. Unfortunately, employee safety is often the last thing a budding entrepreneur contemplates when thinking up his business model. Once everything gets underway and government regulations start to become obvious, though, employee safety is hardly ever completely out of a business owner's mind. Luckily, there are a few tips that every employer can put into action in an effort to keep their workers safe.
Ensure Proper Employee Training
One of the most important things that a business owner can do to keep their employees safe on the job is provide a focused training period. Even some of the seemingly simplest jobs, such as fast food work, can present serious dangers to those engaged in them. What if, for instance, a new employee didn't know that certain shoes must be worn to avoid slips? Additionally, what if they didn't know the appropriate safety procedure for something as simple as a wet spot on the floor? A lack of training in either of these simple areas can result in serious injuries.
Take Additional Dangers into Consideration
Employers in certain industries should always consider the additional dangers that their workers face. The construction industry, for example, accounted for nearly 20 percent of all private-sector workplace deaths in 2012. This makes it obvious that these workers face a variety of dangers that most in traditional businesses do not, and the employer should take this into account when implementing safety protocol.
Nearly 40 percent of construction injuries are related to falls. This means that, unlike employers in most other industries, a business owner would do well to provide harnesses and hand rails on every job site that their workers step onto. When a worker is injured in these situations, who responsibility rests on may vary; but if the employee hires an attorney who can prove that reckless negligence led to the accident, they may be able to file a personal injury claim against their employer. According to a firm of accidental injury lawyers in New York many considerations are taken into account, "Some of these factors include pain and suffering, emotional stress, lost earnings, medical expenses, property damage, and lifetime effect."
Learn Appropriate Safety Requirements
As mentioned, certain industries will require much more serious safety measures; but varying industries, even if they're not the most dangerous in the world, will require varying safety protocols. Safety procedures on a commercial fishing vessel, for instance, will undoubtedly be different than those needed in an agricultural job. Luckily, the website for the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) provides guidelines on what businesses in any industry have to do to stay within legal guidelines of keeping their workers safe.
Use Common Sense
One of the most important things that any business owner can do to keep their employees safe is to use a bit of common sense. If a dangerous ice storm is predicted to come through, for instance, it's likely a better idea to tell employees to hold off on coming in rather than risk the dangerous roads. A recent freak ice storm in the southeast that resulted in at least 12 deaths shows the importance behind this. Additionally, if a business is in a bad neighborhood, it wouldn't hurt to allow employees to head out before nightfall. These little obvious examples can go a long way in ensuring employees' well-being.
Workplace safety is important for both employers and their workers. When accidents happen, it can affect everyone at the job. In fact, both parties could lose out financially. This is why it's so essential to follow the aforementioned steps. While it may seem as if going the extra mile in the workplace will cost time and money, the financial resources saved by avoiding serious accidents will far outweigh these additional expenditures.
Lisa Coleman shares the importance of workplace safety and how to help ensure the wellness of employees. She recently researched and viewed how a group of accidental injury lawyers in New York can assist a client who has been injured on the job due to negligent measures about workplace safety.
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