5 Work Place Health and Safety Tips
Top Executives Must Visibly Support Work Place Safety
No workplace safety program will succeed if the signals about it from the top are mixed. Side-stepping even smallish safety steps can wreak havoc on lives and business.- In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico made history for causing the largest marine oil spill in history when it exploded and killed 11 employees.
- That same year, an explosion in West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch coal mine killed 29 miners.
- Absenteeism as fewer employees get sick or injured on the job
- Employee turnover: employees remain with companies that visibly demonstrate they are valued
- Costs to repair or replace machinery that gets damaged from lack of maintenance and safety inspections
- Health and safety violations and fines
Start Working on and Communicating Your Work Place Safety Plan Right Away!
Now that you have buy-in from the top, start outlining your workplace safety plan and let the people around you know about it. This underscores how seriously you take this responsibility, whether it’s a new job and you’re new to the company or you’ve been promoted into it. Follow up the executive announcement with your own communication about workplace safety and areas where there are opportunities for improvement. Go to department heads and managers and ask if you can be included in planning meetings so you can better understand what they’re up against. You’ll be most effective as a listener at these meetings. Jot down your questions to ask later. When you communicate with your fellow employees, use the method they are most familiar with. It can be an email, hardcopy memo, or a video. Whatever you do, be sure to include a photo of yourself (which you can embed on your email) and contact information.Get Employees Involved with Work Place Health
Think about creative ways to get the interest of the company’s rank-and-file as you develop training plans. Most people sigh when they have to go for safety training, but by making it clear that employees are the engines that drive the workplace, you’ll find that many support new or renewed safety efforts. No one wants to be that guy who wishes he had Aflac!
- Get advice from the experts who handle chemicals and machinery on developing safety controls and written policies.
- Are chemicals properly stored, or are there improvements they’d like to see?
- Where are logs kept?
- Is there a night or sleep setting for certain equipment, or should everything be turned off at the end of the day?
- How often should equipment be cleaned and inspected for optimal performance?
- What personal protective equipment is ideal?
- Ask people who work for executives to help coordinate and run safety drills, particularly fire drills and emergency evacuations. They can take charge and directing employees to evacuation areas to conduct headcounts.
- Everyone knows who they are!
- Their gatekeeping role usually means they have their bosses’ backs while maintaining good relationships with rank-and-file employees.