What is Workplace Safety?
Workplace safety is a crucial prerequisite for any organization to ensure a safe and cautious work environment for its employees.
Employees are the most worthwhile resource for any business and to stabilize the workflow process, the organization needs to maintain common workplace safety procedures.
Workplace injuries not only harm employees but also flaws the reputation of the entire organization. So, to avoid it, some common workplace safety procedures are required, like installing:
- Fire Safety Equipment
- First Aid
- Electrical Safety
- Chemical Safety
- Providing Personal Protective Equipment
- Implementing Safety Measures
- …and more.
The safety procedures vary for different organizations depending upon their type of work, demographics, location of work, number of employees, tools, and equipment used, and the product or service provided. Hence, the management of any organization should plan their safety precautionary measures accordingly.
Why it is Important to Maintain a Safe Working Environment?
A safe working environment is not only vital for the business workflow but is extremely important to ensure the safety and security of the employees associated with it.
Let us take a look at the need to implement safety measures in the workplace.
➔ Safety of Employees
The first and foremost importance of maintaining a safe workplace is ensuring the safety of every employee.
Employee safety is imperative as workplace injuries can end up your company in legal conflicts leading to defamation of brand image and reputation.
➔ The Welfare of the Organization
Business consistency is reliant on the well-being of the organization. To cultivate a healthy working environment, it is crucial for the management to ensure employees’ safety and overall welfare as it takes a huge investment to construct a workplace for business and any mishap or hazard can cost a bomb to the organization and its re-construction.
➔ Compliance
Another vital aspect of maintaining a safety shield procedure in your workplace is to comply with rules and regulations that are framed and laid out by both the Government and management.
Maintaining safety in the workplace is the most important prerequisite to the new safety rules stipulated by the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 of New Labors Law 2020, to be maintained by any organization.
➔ Employee Retention & Productivity
Employee retention in an organization tends to go on the rise due to a positive work environment which can be obtained from maintaining safe and healthy surroundings. Safety factors can be one of the major factors for employees to stick to or quit an organization.
➔ Enhance Company’s Goodwill
The reputation and branding of any company are majorly reliant on their employee’s feedback and overall productivity.
A positive impression of the company sums up the employee’s experience which gives them the pride to flaunt their work culture thereby enhancing positive word-of-mouth publicity outside the company even after their exit from the organization.
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Benefits of a Safe Work Environment
The benefits of maintaining the safety and health of your workplace are massive and hold a constitutive part of organizational policies and workflows.
Below mentioned points will give you an insight into the privilege of having safety precautionary measures in your organizations for all employees.
1. Healthy Work Environment
The greatest advantage of having safe work surrounding for all employees in an organization is that it has a huge impact on constructing an optimistic work culture that filters toxicity traits of internal conflicts and unsafety.
Employees adopt a focused and responsible psyche that contributes to their personal as well as professional growth thereby resulting in a healthy work environment.
2. Elimination of Jeopardizing
Jeopardizing employee safety over profitability will end up landing the organization in legal as well as internal conflicts.
Pursuance of safety measures in your workplace lets your company’s workflow escape from jeopardies, conflicts, and toxicity.
3. Avert Conflicts
The safety and health of the work environment are profoundly advantageous in maintaining peace and harmony in the organization by eliminating internal, governmental, and legal conflicts.
4. Productivity Enhancement
An organization that maintains a protective and healthy work surrounding is likely to have increased productivity in their business workflow as their employees have optimistic approaches towards achieving the organizational goals and vision.
Safety Tips for Employees
There are certain tips that you, as a working employee, are expected to follow to have a safe workplace which includes:
➔ Using Personal Protective Equipment
Employees whose work specifically deals with hazardous chemicals, machinery, tools, or equipment must use personal protective equipment provided by the organization or if you are not provided with the same, then should demand availability of those to management before execution of work in the company.
➔ Stay Informed
It is expected from all employees irrespective of the type of organization you are working for, to keep yourself aware of the safety policies that persist in your workplace. Every employee, irrespective of designation should have access to the safety policies statements and documents in the organization.
➔ Gain Knowledge
Gaining knowledge from workshops and training sessions organized by the company to make yourself aware of workplace safety programs and policies is vital as it gives you knowledge about the current as well as updated compliances.
➔ Report Alarming Hazards
Stay responsive to alarming hazards like gas leaks from ACs, and breakdown of machinery. Any repairs or replacement required should be reported to the management immediately, to avoid any mishap.
➔ Take Regular Breaks
Take regular breaks in-between work to avoid fatigue, stress, and a bushed day as it kills the enthusiasm to work and adversely affects the robustness of your mental health.
How to Keep Employees Safe?
If you are seeking to know the ways of how to secure your employee’s safety and health at the workplace then we have your back; here are some ways that can assist you in keeping your employees safe.
1. Implement Workplace Safety Programs
Initiate safety programs to enable employees to be aware of the safety policies to comply with the rules and also get informed about the new updated policies. It is the right of every employee as well as the need to stay updated regarding the current safety programs and norms.
2. Offer Training
Train the employees by organizing workshops, and training sessions on how to use the protective equipment provided and the tools to be utilized in case of emergency, like operating a fire extinguisher.
3. Ensure Workplace Maintenance
In order to make sure the safety of the work environment, there should be routine checks on the machinery, tools, and equipment and be aware of the expiry dates of the refilling types of equipment.
4. Define Safety Policies
Brief the safety policies of the workplace to create awareness so that there won’t be any violation that would be a threat to both employees and the organization.
5. Prioritize Employee Safety and Health
It is a significant responsibility of the management to prioritize employee safety and health over work, profit, and productivity by ensuring functionalities of safety compliances according to the specified standards.
6. Stay Open for Communication
It is important that the employee reporting alarming hazards, or any compliance from the staff that put workplace safety under threat should be addressed and unravelled with appropriate repairs, replacement, and solutions.
7. Build Trust
From a trust-building perspective, it is extremely important to address the issues that tamper with the safety of employees in the workplace. It is the right of employees to get informed of the safety programs and management should build the trust factor in order to make employees comfortable to communicate their safety issues in case of need.
8. Encourage Employees
When the work environment is fragile, specifically when dealing with hazardous environments, the management should encourage employees to come forward with their queries regarding safety rules and regulations.
9. Measure the Impact
Measure the impact of training on safety policies and regulations on the employees by assessing the same, in order to make sure workplace safety is followed without any confusion.
In a Nutshell!
Human resource is the lifeline of a business. To ensure the safety of human resources, it is essential to analyze the safety matrix of the work environment routinely.
Maintaining safety and health creates a sense of care, concern, and assurance in the perception of employees to yield loyalty and be productive in their work.
Workplace safety and caution can lead to an escalation of employee productivity as they get a safe work environment and can focus on improving their efficiency on other priority tasks.
It is extremely important on the employee’s part too to follow the workplace safety procedures and have access to open communication regarding any safety concerns.
