Why Do Employees Require Training In Health And Safety

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Employee awareness makes a major aspect of health and safety in workplaces. Without the proper information on health and safety practices, your personnel could be the cause of accidents and other grave consequences. That is why serious business owners invest in training their employees on workplace safety.

This might come across as unnecessary until you have an incident on your premises. You risk getting into trouble with authorities if your employees do not know how to handle emergencies. Without the proper knowledge, your personnel neglect safety practices such as proper use of equipment.

The wise move for you as a business owner is to arrange for regular training. This way, you minimize risky incidents on your premises.

This came to mind because we were recently asked to help the business of a friend of a friend. His building company was growing rapidly and he had no structure in place to train new employees. We were able to help and new he feels more comfortable knowing that the right systems are in place. You can find his business here – www.localbuilderwestbridgford.co.uk

If you are not convinced, below are some reasons why your employees require training in health and safety. Check them out.

Reduce Risks

Most common workplace accidents are preventable. They also arise from human influence. Untrained employees have no problem leaving stuff lying around. They easily forego handwashing, spreading bacteria from one surface to another. 

Without proper training, your employees use machinery and equipment wrongly, increasing the risk of accidents like cuts and burns. But with training, the risk reduces to almost zero. 

You won’t have to remind them to store stuff appropriately. They will wash their hands as required and observe other healthy habits.

Protection From Lawsuits

Lawsuits arising from injury or fatality at work could run your business down or leave you in bad debt. It is also a waste of precious time to keep appearing in court for avoidable mistakes. 

Well, you are not immune from such if you haven’t efficiently trained your workers on health and safety. To be safe, train your employees on why they need to observe your set precautions at all times. This way, they become more aware of how they handle things that could harm them. It also saves you from being answerable if anyone is reckless to ignore the teachings.

Employee Satisfaction And Increased Productivity

Businesses with high employee turnover end up losing customers. This is because you need time to train new staff every time someone leaves. 

Now, employees leave workplaces due to many factors, top on the list being dissatisfaction. Other than salary disagreements, your employees’ will leave you if they feel their health is at risk. 

Teaching them to look after their work environment makes them accountable for their actions. This in turn motivates them to eliminate risks, creating a friendly workspace. 

Likewise, your staff are more productive when they are assured of constant health and safety while working for you.

Beyond these three, there are a dozen other reasons why you need to get your employees constant training on workplace health and safety. Doing this generally saves you from problems with regulatory authorities, lowers your insurance premiums, facilitates proper planning, among other benefits. Liaise with a reliable health and safety consultant to enjoy these and other advantages.

Posted in: Health and Safety

Why Proper Health And Safety Matters At Your Workplace

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More and more business owners are embracing and prioritising workplace health and safety. You may not know this but your business performance heavily relies on that.  Your workers obviously desire and wish to work in a safe, clean and organised environment. Can you boast of having provided that? If yes, congratulations! If no, now is the time to change that. 

Contrary to popular opinion, maintaining health and safety is not super costly. You only have to make sure that you are sourcing the services from the right service provider. In-house practices may not always suffice to keep your premises safe and healthy. 

There are times you will require professional input to keep your occupants safe at all times. Consider your needs and take your time to find a health and safety expert who matches them.  Below we discuss the importance of health and safety at your workplace.

Improve Productivity

A healthy workforce is a productive workforce. Nobody gets motivated by working in a dusty office, littered with overflowing waste bins. If you want a vibrant and productive workforce that is happy and ready to deliver, then you need to invest in health and safety services.

Workplace injuries and unsafe working environments interfere with employees’ morale. Employers who ensure the workplace is healthy and safe and carry out employee training on safety build a stronger relationship with employees. This is ultimately good for business.

A busy workplace needs to be deep cleaned on a daily basis. You could use your in-house team but unless they have the required expertise and resources, they may not deliver as expected. With a safe environment, employees are able to focus on their work as they do not have to constantly worry about being hurt.

Law Compliance

Having a workspace that complies with safety and health regulations cuts down the risk of prosecution, fines, and reputational damage. 

To ensure that you are leaving nothing to chance and abiding by all the health and laws of the land, it is important that you seek the services of a professional. Not having to dodge state authorities all the time due to non-compliance also improves the likelihood of positive business performance. 

While sourcing for the services of a health and safety expert, ensure you settle on one that is licensed and accredited. It is only by meeting state regulations that a company is licensed to operate. Licensing is a sign that the service providers are professional and trustworthy and you are assured that you are not dealing with quacks.

Cut Down on Sick Leave

The thought of a disease outbreak at your place of business should be a wake-up call. Any business would struggle to maintain productivity if most of the workforce is struggling with diseases or injuries sustained at the workplace. There is also the possibility of lawsuits, especially if the outbreak/accident can be traced back to an act of negligence. 

Shared areas like break rooms and training rooms are hot spots you should ensure are kept healthy and safe. Health experts have the resources and know-how to give your workplace a deep, professional clean. The result? 

A healthy and productive workforce. You can rest easy knowing that your business premises are safe and hygienic. This also gives you ample time to focus on the bigger business metrics.

The way to establish a healthy and safe workplace begins with the employer’s commitment to safety needs. As an employer, you ought to understand that a healthy workplace is not only beneficial to the employees but the business in general. Our advice is that you consult a professional health and safety expert. Learn all about their services and evaluate if they can be customised to match the specific needs of your business.

Posted in: Health and Safety

Are Regular Full Health And Safety Audits Worth It

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Full health and safety audit highlight areas of improvement before they become actual problems. In the absence of such a process, you will be sitting on a ticking time bomb. Many business owners, unfortunately, downplay the need for such an audit and as expected, they end up regretting the decision. This article highlights the reasons why you should embrace these audits. Read on to learn.

Customer Satisfaction

So many factors affect customer behaviour, top amongst them being health and safety concerns. You may have quality products and services but customers will stay away from your business if their safety and wellbeing is not guaranteed. 

For example, incidents such as food contamination or poor washroom hygiene create a bad reputation, keeping customers and prospects at bay.

You can win your customers satisfaction by maintaining higher standards of health and safety in your business. An audit will help you identify key areas of weaknesses. This allows you to make adjustments in your operations, increasing customer confidence in your business as a result.

Detect Risks On Time

Owing to the human factor in any business, accidents often lurk around workplaces. This could be from poor waste disposal, poor hand and personal hygiene, clutter and poor aeration, just to name a few. A regular audit on your premises identifies such situations, warning you early enough.

Compliance With Authorities

One of the key areas that the state checks when giving you a go-ahead to run a business is your health and safety compliance. 

Do you have enough protective gear if your staff need it? Are your premises cleaned to the maximum? Do you have poisonous gases leaking all over your business?

Basically, you will find yourself in trouble if you are found with anything that puts your clients and employees in danger. 

That is why you need to conduct full health and safety audits once in a while. They will highlight areas you need to work on to ensure full compliance. Failure to do so could lead to hefty fines or even withdrawal of your license.

Employee Awareness

Most accidents in a workplace could be avoided if your staff are well aware of the risks. Without knowledge in health and safety, the occupants of your building are oblivious. They do not worry about exposing themselves and their colleagues to potential risks.

They will easily carry germs from one surface to another if they do not understand the importance of handwashing. They also risk increasing falls when they leave objects lying around. 

A full health and safety audits solve this. After one, you can easily point out areas that your staff need training on. This way, you increase their awareness and make them accountable for their actions.

Save On Costs

Contrary to what many business owners think, regular audits by professionals save you costs. You might think setting aside a budget to do a thorough audit on your premise is expensive. But this is not the case. If anything, failure to have one ends up eating into your resources in many ways. How?

As mentioned above, audits detect health and safety issues long before they occur. With one, you can eliminate possible causes of illnesses and accidents. This ultimately saves you from doing repairs. You also do not have to worry about hospital bills from people getting hurt under your care. 

With a trusted auditor, you reduce the risks of incidents like fire that could cost you millions in lawsuits.

For Planning Purposes

Without planning, you put your business at risk of shutting down. How so? Planning documents your short term and long term goals and how to achieve them.

Proper planning also provides the direction of action, eliminating expensive impromptu decisions.

A well-conducted health and safety audit shines a light on all your operations. It shows how your activities affect the health of those involved, now and in future.

It then creates an avenue for you to do prior arrangements for things like the purchase of Protective Personal Equipment (PPE). You can identify areas of weaknesses such as employee unawareness and organize for training.

These are just some of the reasons your business needs regular full health and safety audits. You do not have to wait until you are in trouble with your local authorities or someone is injured on your premises. Seek the services of a reputable H&S auditing firm today and reap in bounds.

Posted in: Health and Safety