2016-09-16

Everyone wants to feel safe in the workplace; when you know your health and safety is taken care of, you're more likely to concentrate and do a better job. So, as an employer, how can you do your best to keep your employees safe? Here are a few top tips:

Analyse the Risks

You can't fix something if you don't know it's broken. So, run a risk assessment of your workplace and create a checklist to tick off or highlight potential risks.

There are five basic steps to a risk assessment:

• Identify any hazards.
• Discover who may be harmed by this and how.
• Evaluate the risk of this hazard and consider precautionary actions.
• Record all of your findings.
• Review and update your assessment, checking that all safety actions have been made.

For those who don't work in the business premises but in the field, teach them how to run their own mini risk assessment at the start of every job. Simple observations, such as recognising where emergency equipment or exits are, can have be hugely beneficial should an incident occur. Study Health and Safety Standards and Develop a Plan

Every business has an obligation to keep its staff and customers as safe as possible. Therefore, it is important to study health and safety standards and protocols, and to develop a written plan of action that can be referred to by all.

Do the Drill (Regularly)

Once you know what the risks are and what to do should an accident or emergency occur, it's time to run through the drill and test this plan. It may take half hour out of your working day, but this is the best way to ensure your plan is effective and to inform all employees of the procedures.

This should also be repeated every quarter or six months to ensure all staff, new and old, are aware of what to do in an emergency.

Nominate a Health and Safety Officer

If you're a busy boss running a business, you may not have the time to dedicate to enforcing health and safety protocols. The solution? Delegation. Nominate one person within every team as a health and safety officer, and this person can ensure all the correct risk assessments are made and issues are resolved in a timely and effective manner to reduce the likelihood of an incident. They'll also lead by example.

Invest in Quality Insurance

Of course, keeping your staff safe does not refer solely to preventing an incident, but also how you react to and resolve problems too. Taking out the correct cover will provide you with peace of mind that your company is protected should the worst happen. Business insurance will minimise downtime and make sure there is as little disruption to trading as possible.

Learn more about the many types of business insurance and compare quotes online for free here.